I'm confused

[Poconos]

Since you are in one of those unique situations where you need a bunch of chlorine AND calcium you may want to use Calcium Hypochlorite granules. Address two things at once. A lot easier to handle than bleach. About a year ago I got a 100 pound bucket of cal-hypo 67% for about $140 including tax. No great bargain but with the price of gas it's not worth trying to find the absolute best deal. If you have a sand filter it is especially easy to add. Just dump it in the skimmer and let it dissolve in the filter. Dissolves in a matter of minutes, not hours. Just make sure the label lists calcium hypochlorite as the active ingredient and nothing other than inert stuff. And before someone pops up and scares the wits out of everyone, if you have an in-line chlorinator be sure it is empty....no pucks.
Al

[topless]

Since my last post, I decided to use calcium hypochlorite and cya that I can purchase through a customer of mine. I decided that having to purchase a large quantity and store it is more cost effective than what I've been doing. 50lbs of cya will last a long time, but it will store in a 5 gallon pail or 2, that I have plenty of. The cal-hypo I'm getting a 100lbs, and will store it the same way.

If you think it's nasty now, you should have seen it Friday when I open it for the first time since Nov. It smelled bad too. So far, I'm having lots of fun, Friday I installed a new pump motor, this one was under warranty. This year has been cool and I have no heater. I have a lot of trees, so I will only get to use the pool this year 2 months or so. Every year I debate whether or not to just fill it in.

[Poolsean]

PLEASE be very careful with cal hypo storage. Just a spill of soda or motor oil mixing with it will ignite the cal hypo. Keep it isolated and DRY, out of any possibility if anything mixing with it.

I saw a pool distributor burn down because a guy on a forklift drove over a busted open 1 lb bag, and an oil drip ignited the cal hypo. You cannot add water to put it out!

Biolab, a more recognizable name in the pool industry, burned their GA facility down a few years ago.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...4/ai_n13797497

[topless]

That's good to know. Funny, you see it for sale as shock, everywhere, but that warning is not very obvious.
I plan on keeping it in clean dry 5 gallon buckets that have rubber lid seals. I also was going to put in some of those moisture control packets. (I bought some for another reason)
But, I did not know about the oil or soda danger.

[CarlD]

That's good to know. Funny, you see it for sale as shock, everywhere, but that warning is not very obvious.
I plan on keeping it in clean dry 5 gallon buckets that have rubber lid seals. I also was going to put in some of those moisture control packets. (I bought some for another reason)
But, I did not know about the oil or soda danger.

Yeah, that's why Wal-Mart stopped carrying the good stuff--the 68% and pushed HTH to supply them only with 48%--junk. WallyWorld had a warehouse either burn down or get badly damaged from mis-handled Cal-Hypo causing a fire.

[topless]

I've been using the bleach calculator. How do you calculate for the powder?

One more question, every spring I clean out hundreds of dead worms. I have a powered cover and use water bags to weight the open end. But, the quantity of dead worms is amazing. My guess is I could fill a quart jar with them. Some I skim off the top as floaters, the rest I have to clean out of the pump strainer after I vacuum the pool. I still can't see the bottom, so I know there are more there after I cleaned last night. I don't think I have anymore algae, but the pool is still very cloudy. Is this why?

After I fixed the valve, I vacuumed the pool to waste and added 5 gallons of bleach. This morning the test results are:

temp -72
FC -1
TC -2.5
ph - 6.8
cya - 0 because I haven't added any, I'm returning the Leslies and going to use the commercial stuff later today.

I'm going to add 7 gallons of bleach this morning and hope some will still be there this afternoon when I get home.

[Jeffski]

Someone here said applying crushed limestone in the grass around your pool will keep the worms away.

[waterbear]

Yeah, that's why Wal-Mart stopped carrying the good stuff--the 68% and pushed HTH to supply them only with 48%--junk. WallyWorld had a warehouse either burn down or get badly damaged from mis-handled Cal-Hypo causing a fire.

HTH still has the stronger stuff. It's Super Sock-it but it's only sold in pool stores (we carry it). The regular Sock-it is the 48% stuff. (We carry it also.)

[Spensar]

"Meanwhile, vacuum to waste and brush the pool once a day."

Be sure to follow up on this bit of advice, it's important to clearing up the water quicker. When you shock and kill the green algae, it is dead but still there. That's part of the cloudiness after wiping out the greenies and it's a lot of the fine residue on the bottom of your pool after the greenies are dead.

I opened to a green mess for the first time this spring and zapped the green stuff in about a day and a half with LOTS of 12% chlorine, then turned the pump off until the residue settled to the bottom and vacummed the junk to waste.