New Pool owner water chemistry

[CarlD]

If it were me, I'd drain half the water and refill. You can also drain 1/4 of the water and refill--your CYA should come to 80 then.

Aylad lives 'way down South and she finds she needs to run her CYA at 80. Otherwise the sunshine and other stuff eats her residual chlorine too fast. So by running 80ppm and her FC in the 8-10ppm range for normal swimming, she doesn't have to keep adding excessive chlorine.

OTOH, she has to test to a higher level, but that trade-off works for her. I'm in a cooler climate and the sun is less intense so I prefer to run CYA in the 30-50 range, no higher.

[sammm]

I should stop using the pucks permanently and switch to bleach.

way down South and she finds she needs to run her CYA at 80. Otherwise the sunshine and other stuff eats her residual chlorine too fast. So by running 80ppm and her FC in the 8-10ppm range for normal swimming, she doesn't have to keep adding excessive chlorine.

I'm starting to understand now. But back to one of my questions (shown above). You suggest to ditch the pucks totally (after I drain) and switch to bleach, right? Thanks again Carl!

[CarlD]

Yes. Pucks are NOT a permanent chlorination solution, despite installations of in-line chlorinators. They will ALWAYS add lots of stabilizer (I think Chem_Geek computes that for each 1ppm of FC they add .6ppm of CYA). They will ALWAYS add lots of acid, driving your pH down.

Bleach adds NOTHING and is pH-neutral. Pool store guys will tell you "Liquid Chlorine raises your TDS and that's really bad." Nonsense. Bleach adds saltwater to your pool, and after YEARS of using it your salt level will STILL be far, FAR below what is required for a salt-water chlorinator.

BTW, TDS (total dissolved solids) should ONLY be a concern when you have a water problem AND you have exhausted all the usually solutions. That almost never happens here.

[sammm]

I've finally had it with granular shock and chlorine pucks and the like. After getting some green algae growing I've decided to make the switch to the BBB method.

I have just about drained off 12" of water at this point (since my CYA and Calcium levels were high - see earlier posts). Should I refill to normal levels first before I add some bleach the kill off the algae? I'm guessing the correct thing to do is refill, test the water and act accordingly.

[GraceByDesign]

Get some bleach in there as you are refilling. Otherwise you are just going to get into a worse mess. CarlD suggested 4 or even 8 gallons (to shock) of regular bleach and it sounds like you need to shock now!
You are going to need to shock to kill the algae anyway, might as well do it as you are filling.

It sounds like you are also in need of a GOOD test kit. The Taylor K-2006 is one option, or Leslies sells their own brand with Taylor reagents. There are a couple other good ones out there, too. Take charge of your pool!

[sammm]

Get some bleach in there as you are refilling. Otherwise you are just going to get into a worse mess. CarlD suggested 4 or even 8 gallons (to shock) of regular bleach and it sounds like you need to shock now!

Should I dump in 4 gallons of bleach to the existing water while refilling? Will it hurt if I pour in the pool directly, since my water level is below my skimmers right now. A good test kit is on my immediate to-get list. I have an un-opened box of shock to return and will swap for a test kit then!

[Watermom]

In your pool, each 3 quart jug of 6% bleach is going to raise your chlorine level by 2.5 ppm. It is OK to add bleach while you are filling, but just be sure to have some way to circulate it like stirring it around with a clean broom or something. Or maybe pouring it slowly in front of your hose as you are filling. After you refill and get things circulating, we'll need an updated cya reading to better advise you.