My Chemistry Regimen - First Time Owner

[sws1]

First time pool owner (25,000 gal, in ground). I've been reading alot on here, and understand much of it now. But do have a fundamental question.

My pool was maintained by pool company for first half of the summer, and now I'm taking it over until mid-september when I close it. Their basic approach is:

- Stabilized 3" pucks in automatic chlorinator. 3-5 pucks added once per week, with knob on chlorinator turned to max.

- CalHypo - 2+ pounds per week added to skimmer, presumably to do a mini-shock.

- Algeacide - 4oz per week

- Clarifier - 4oz per week

Other things as needed (PH, Alk, etc.)

The basic questions I have are:

- If the chlorinator is keeping FC at the right level, then why am I shocking each week? Is this necessary?

- The 3 pucks dissolve in the chlorinator, which means they probably give off more chlorine on day 1 then they do on day 7. If that's true, then it's not exactly giving off a "consistent" chlorine level, right?

On a side note, my TF100 test kit arrives tomorrow, and I intend to monitor more than the once per week the pool company did. But for now, I've had trouble finding the answer to the questions above.

[dalehileman]

sws yours are really a good questions, with a 35K pool I mull these things over too

For more than a decade with apparently pretty good luck we used nothing but pucks and and a weekly supermarket algi-clari to maintain an FC of about 0.5-1.5 until about the 12th year when other problems led me to add oxidizers, shock, and other products to gain its previous appearance, whereupon my Better Half and I as well as a couple of visiting swimmers experienced skin problems whereupon we replaced 2/3 of the water before returning to our previous routine

We did however cave in to certain board recommendations and now add weekly also 1 lb of shock though with some trepidation. Replacing the water though was probably a wise move as it brought down the CYA down from 100-150 to 30-50 as closely as I can gage

Thus I'm struggling with the question whether the recommended FC level of 1.0-3.0 is always necessary. So far so good but please don't follow my lead without more expert advice. I'd suggest bouncing your questions around in several different pool boards before proceeding as I have noted some of the "experts" are pretty set in their approach and deeply resent any skepticism

As one might presume given the following link

http://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=26013

[waterbear]

sws yours are really a good questions, with a 35K pool I mull these things over too

For more than a decade with apparently pretty good luck we used nothing but pucks and and a weekly supermarket algi-chlori to maintain an FC of about 0.5-1.5 until about the 12th year when other problems led me to add oxidizers, shock, and other products to gain its previous appearance, whereupon my Better Half and I as well as a couple of visiting swimmers experienced skin problems whereupon we replaced 2/3 of the water before returning to our previous routine

We did however cave in to certain board recommendations and now add weekly also 2 lb of shock though with some trepidation. Replacing the water though was probably a wise move as it brought down the CYA down from 100-150 to 30-50 as closely as I can gage

Thus I'm struggling with the question whether the recommended FC level of 1.0-3.0 is always necessary. So far so good but please don't follow my lead without more expert advice. I'd suggest bouncing your questions around in several different pool boards before proceeding as I have noted some of the "experts" are pretty set in their approach and deeply resent any skepticism

As one might presume given the following link

http://www.poolspafo...showtopic=26013

This person is an internet troll and only posts to get attention. His advice on pools is bad and he has ignored advice on this and a few other pool forums for the past two years. He only likes to create discord. His username has ended up in the Urban Dictionary as "an irritating, repetitive message board poster." and he seems to be proud of this. the first link is to that page.

Read this. (If you wonder why keep checking out the links)

and this (thread was locked)

and this

and this

and this (This one is a must read!)

and this (This also, he got banned on this board for three days in this thread)

and this

and this

and this (thread was locked)

and this

and this

and this (this is a good example, the thread got locked. Be sure to read the second page also!!)

and this

and this (be sure to read down to the last three posts on page one and the posts at the top of page two, they say a LOT. This thread was locked also!))

There are many more examples.

do NOT feed the internet troll.

Do not feed the troll.

[sws1]

sws yours are really a good questions, with a 35K pool I mull these things over too

For more than a decade with apparently pretty good luck we used nothing but pucks and and a weekly supermarket algi-chlori to maintain an FC of about 0.5-1.5 until about the 12th year when other problems led me to add oxidizers, shock, and other products to gain its previous appearance, whereupon my Better Half and I as well as a couple of visiting swimmers experienced skin problems whereupon we replaced 2/3 of the water before returning to our previous routine

We did however cave in to certain board recommendations and now add weekly also 2 lb of shock though with some trepidation. Replacing the water though was probably a wise move as it brought down the CYA down from 100-150 to 30-50 as closely as I can gage

Thus I'm struggling with the question whether the recommended FC level of 1.0-3.0 is always necessary. So far so good but please don't follow my lead without more expert advice. I'd suggest bouncing your questions around in several different pool boards before proceeding as I have noted some of the "experts" are pretty set in their approach and deeply resent any skepticism

As one might presume given the following link

http://www.poolspafo...showtopic=26013

This person is an internet troll and only posts to get attention. His advice on pools is bad and he has ignored advice on this and a few other pool forums for the past two years. He only likes to create discord. His username has ended up in the Urban Dictionary as "an irritating, repetitive message board poster." and he seems to be proud of this. the first link is to that page.

Read this. (If you wonder why keep checking out the links)

and this (thread was locked)

and this

and this

and this (This one is a must read!)

and this (This also, he got banned on this board for three days in this thread)

and this

and this

and this (thread was locked)

and this

and this

and this (this is a good example, the thread got locked. Be sure to read the second page also!!)

and this

and this (be sure to read down to the last three posts on page one and the posts at the top of page two, they say a LOT. This thread was locked also!))

There are many more examples.

do NOT feed the internet troll.

Do not feed the troll.

Thanks. I'm aware of him. (I have been reading this board.)

So, is the weekly shock approach the best approach? I'm not in a position this year to go the liquid chlorine approach which is discussed so highly here and elsewhere. But trying to learn as much as I can. Thanks

[waterbear]

sws yours are really a good questions, with a 35K pool I mull these things over too

For more than a decade with apparently pretty good luck we used nothing but pucks and and a weekly supermarket algi-chlori to maintain an FC of about 0.5-1.5 until about the 12th year when other problems led me to add oxidizers, shock, and other products to gain its previous appearance, whereupon my Better Half and I as well as a couple of visiting swimmers experienced skin problems whereupon we replaced 2/3 of the water before returning to our previous routine

We did however cave in to certain board recommendations and now add weekly also 2 lb of shock though with some trepidation. Replacing the water though was probably a wise move as it brought down the CYA down from 100-150 to 30-50 as closely as I can gage

Thus I'm struggling with the question whether the recommended FC level of 1.0-3.0 is always necessary. So far so good but please don't follow my lead without more expert advice. I'd suggest bouncing your questions around in several different pool boards before proceeding as I have noted some of the "experts" are pretty set in their approach and deeply resent any skepticism

As one might presume given the following link

http://www.poolspafo...showtopic=26013

This person is an internet troll and only posts to get attention. His advice on pools is bad and he has ignored advice on this and a few other pool forums for the past two years. He only likes to create discord. His username has ended up in the Urban Dictionary as "an irritating, repetitive message board poster." and he seems to be proud of this. the first link is to that page.

Read this. (If you wonder why keep checking out the links)

and this (thread was locked)

and this

and this

and this (This one is a must read!)

and this (This also, he got banned on this board for three days in this thread)

and this

and this

and this (thread was locked)

and this

and this

and this (this is a good example, the thread got locked. Be sure to read the second page also!!)

and this

and this (be sure to read down to the last three posts on page one and the posts at the top of page two, they say a LOT. This thread was locked also!))

There are many more examples.

do NOT feed the internet troll.

Do not feed the troll.

Thanks. I'm aware of him. (I have been reading this board.)

So, is the weekly shock approach the best approach? I'm not in a position this year to go the liquid chlorine approach which is discussed so highly here and elsewhere. But trying to learn as much as I can. Thanks

IF there is no CC and you can maintain a high enough FC level for the level of CYA in the water (which will not be the case with the continued use of trichlor) then weekly shock is not needed, as long as the water stays clear and does not have algae growing.