Hey gang - first post here, but this forum looks great, so I figured I'd join.
About those bugs... I have both "Boatmen" and "Backswimmers" in my pool. I'm in the Central Florida area, and my wife and I are scooping/killing roughly 10 of these things per day. I believe I killed about 15 this morning, so it appears to be getting worse. A bit of history...
I have a 24' - 15k above ground pool that I've just transitioned to chlorine with. I had been using Baqua since I got it, and while this it probably a topic for a different area on this forum, I must say that I had been pleased for the last several months. However, I could never keep enough sanitizer in the pool, and spent $80-100 every month on supplies! Crazy! A friend of mine offered to give me a Floatron that would allow me to convert to chlorine, but only use trace amounts and rely on the copper/silver ions to take care of the rest...
I have a feeling that allowing the sanitizer and algistat to burn off has created an even better breading ground for these little buggers. I've kept up the oxidizer at appropriate levels and have had the Floatron unit in there to keep things clean though. My family members have been bitten more than once, and since I have one of those larger, hollow, above ground staircases, the bugs have a perfect place to hide out and multiply. I've read that adding liquid detergent works for some bugs, but that is only those bugs that rely on better surface tension, as the detergent acts as a surfectant (sp?).
Anyway - the "conversion" went off without a hitch today, as I had no sanitizer left in the pool. The water was already crystal clear (only had the pool since the beginning of the Florida summer), so I'm not seeing any noticeable difference in clarity. I'm just hoping that converting to chlorine will do the trick. It isn't like I've been plagued with algae or anything, so this recent outbreak of swimmers has me a bit perplexed though... By the opinions posted in this forum, it appears as though I should ditch the Floatron and go the BBB route. Or at least get some borates in the water! Is this correct? Already made the switch to chlorine!
Here's a shot before adding the chlorine - as you can see - crystal clear. I had to stay on top of things with the Baqua to keep it this way though. The filter is a horrendously goupy brown!
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