Hello All! Been reading the forum for a while now and you’ve convinced me! To start – thanks to everyone on the great posts and really engaging forum, educational and very funny! We purchased a home in Feb 2011 with an existing Baqua pool. My understanding it the pool has been Baqua for the last 5-7 years or so. We continued to use Baqua the first year and although I feel it went well, we still had 3 bouts of algae, 1 bout of water mold we caught very early and sometimes cloudy water. The weekly trips to the pool store and ALWAYS having something to add became very tiresome. We added up our pool chemical bill for the year and were slightly depressed. This year, after doing research on alternatives we will be using the BBB method.
We just uncovered the pool, it was getting full and we’ve been having some 80-85 degree days here and I’ve been terrified of opening up a swamp. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the water is cloudy, and the floor was dirty but no trace of algae (whew). Just used a Baqua test strip and from what I can tell (these things suck) Oxidizer is gone, Sanitizer is low (15-30PPM), PH appears to be fine (will test with better tools) and Alkalinity seems good (80-90PPM). So my game plan was:
First order of business - ordered a TF100 today, so it should come early next week so I can post accurate figures. (Wish I caught that supporters of the site get a discount!)
Second: Will be running to pick up some bleach today or tomorrow (priced it at Sams Club yesterday)
Third: Will be picking up some PH testing supplies while I’m out to tide me over until I get the TF100
I’m sure I will have a ton of questions along the way so THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! I can tell you’re an active and energetic bunch, and I appreciate the education you’ve already given me! I will try to take good photos/video along the way.
So my first questions:
1) Should I wait for my test kit to come in before I start? It’s cool enough now that I’m not fearful of a green takeover
2) Are there any estimates for how much bleach this thing will take to whip into shape? How do I estimate this? I have a feeling I’ll be getting a refrence to the pool calculator ☺)
3) I’ve seen a number of folks talking about where they get bleach. I’ll be staying away from scented, gel or “fancy†– but other than that – Clorax, house brand, discount – from what I’m reading they’re all the same as long as you’re at 6% or above. Correct?
We just uncovered the pool, it was getting full and we’ve been having some 80-85 degree days here and I’ve been terrified of opening up a swamp. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the water is cloudy, and the floor was dirty but no trace of algae (whew). Just used a Baqua test strip and from what I can tell (these things suck) Oxidizer is gone, Sanitizer is low (15-30PPM), PH appears to be fine (will test with better tools) and Alkalinity seems good (80-90PPM). So my game plan was:
First order of business - ordered a TF100 today, so it should come early next week so I can post accurate figures. (Wish I caught that supporters of the site get a discount!)
Second: Will be running to pick up some bleach today or tomorrow (priced it at Sams Club yesterday)
Third: Will be picking up some PH testing supplies while I’m out to tide me over until I get the TF100
I’m sure I will have a ton of questions along the way so THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! I can tell you’re an active and energetic bunch, and I appreciate the education you’ve already given me! I will try to take good photos/video along the way.
So my first questions:
1) Should I wait for my test kit to come in before I start? It’s cool enough now that I’m not fearful of a green takeover
2) Are there any estimates for how much bleach this thing will take to whip into shape? How do I estimate this? I have a feeling I’ll be getting a refrence to the pool calculator ☺)
3) I’ve seen a number of folks talking about where they get bleach. I’ll be staying away from scented, gel or “fancy†– but other than that – Clorax, house brand, discount – from what I’m reading they’re all the same as long as you’re at 6% or above. Correct?