alanrmeadows said:
OK...so I have a general question. After reading all of this info. further, it appears to me that Trouble Free Pool prefers the use of bleach over both trichlor tabs and granular shock. With that being the case, I'm struggling a little bit with the idea of this school of thought being truly "Trouble Free." Currently, I can maintain my chlorine level with my automatic chlorine feeder (tabs) and shock the pool as needed with 2 bags of shock. If I understand correctly, I'll have to get an accurate chlorine reading almost daily to determine how much bleach I will need to add to the pool on a daily basis (versus letting the automatic chlorine feeder do the work for me). When I get ready to shock, which I assume I'll need to do after a heavy rain, lots of swimmers, etc., I'll again have to test to get an accurate chlorine reading to determine how many jugs of bleach I'll need to put in the pool to reach shock level (versus just throwing a couple of bags of Turbo Shock in the pool). Please tell me where I'm wrong...is it a lot easier than I'm describing? Do some people use bleach to maintain chlorine on a daily basis and use granular shock to shock the pool? I appreciate the advice.
Thanks,
Alan
I'll tell you what happens. I am living with the aftermath of the previous homeowner's use. You use tablets in a floater and with every bit of Chlorine you add, you also add calcium or cyanuric acid. The chlorine goes away, the other stuff stays. If it's calcium, you get scale on the walls. Mine isn't rough, it is just discoloration on the walls. If it made a nice pattern, it wouldn't look bad. But instead it looks, under the right light, like my pool has psoriassis or something. What to do about it? Drain, sandblast or acid wash, refill, start over.
If it's the CYA, the levels just build and build and build. Pretty soon, you might read 10ppm on Chlorine and it's not doing anything. You'll be unable to use the easy color-matching test kit or even test strips, because you have to keep the numbers in the double digits and they don't read that high! And your pH test is always gonna be doubtful, on account of the necessarily high FC readings. What to do? Drain, refill, start over. Or get reverse osmosis, which is not available everywhere, and costs several hundred dollars. It's just easier and cheaper to keep on top of it.
It didn't take long to figure out that my pool loses just about 1 quart of 10% bleach per day, when it's warm and sunny. I test every 2-3 days and add enough to get me through. Were it a simple matter of grab a sample, add five drops of test reagent, and know what my FC level is, I'd probably do it daily. I generally do my tests in the morning. It's nice outside so I get a measuring cup full of water and run tests while drinking my coffee and smoking before work. I'd be on the patio or in the garage doing nothing while I smoked anyway, so there's no time lost.
Go ahead and drop your pucks in the floater. We'll still be here in two years when you come back with a green pool despite being on a first-name basis with the pool store manager.
). I had nothing but trouble pre-TFP. To make a VERY long story short, I found this website, switched to bleach and never looked back. This year I opened very early and I don't want to use the solar cover yet. Like Paul, my CYA is low so I'm using trichlor tabs until my CYA gets to 50 and then I'll switch to bleach. I'm monitoring PH and TA too to keep those in check, as the tablets will lower these levels.
who like to brag 
with a black/blue solar cover and my pool loses very little chlorine when it's not being used and can often go several days between bleach additions if the pool isn't being used.
