Testing bio-active

[alexvilper]

Hello all!

I gave in, and am trying the Bio Active product. I know there are mixed feelings on it, but I wanted to try it, at least one bag before I partial drain the pool (which I will probably have to do it, because my CH is high - but I can't see any side effects for this first year that I have own the house).

I will post results at the end of the 10 days since I don't plan on buying a bunch of bags, unless I see some significant drop in the CYA with the first one.

Here are my test results as of yesterday morning when I dropped the bag in (I actually diluted it in water, and spread on the pool's opposite side of the skimmer.

7 AM:

FC 4.5
CC 0.5
PH 7.3
TA 150
CH 500
CYA ~200 **
OCLT 0.5

6 PM:
FC 4
CYA ~230 **

** I have been using the 50/50 method for testing CYA. This afternoon I will do the 25% pool/75% tap to be more accurate.

As you can see from the results, it seems that I actually gained a little bit of CYA within the 11 hours between the tests.


Notes:
1. I live in S. Florida, so the water temp is reaching about 88 in the afternoon
2. My water is crystal clear. I have a 0.5/1 HP pump, and I run it on 1 hp (because of my baracuda g3) for about 12 hours a day now (late spring/summer time)
3. My daily (~24 hours) FC loss is about 1ppm (0.5 overnight as per my last test)


In addition to all of this, I have a few questions:

1. Is it safe to swim while the product is in the water. I didn't think of this before, and my kids and my self actually went into the pool yesterday afternoon, well over 8 hours after the product was in. Since the bag didn't say anything related to that, I thought it might be OK.

2. Based on the instructions, I waited until my FC dropped below 5ppm. Should I let it get to around 3ppm and keep it at that level? I don't want to have an algae outbreak

Thanks!

 

[SwimmingpoolAZ]

I'ts perfectly safe for swimming. Theoretically it's a microbe/enzime that eats up CYA so the lower you can keep your Cl levels, the better it should work.

We haven't had any luck with it so keep close tabs on your conditions and let us know how it goes.

 

[chem geek]

I would suggest letting your FC level get below 3 ppm to as low as you can tolerate and also keep your pH low below 7.5. These may be the best conditions for having this work. And yes, you might be risking algae starting to grow but I think that's part of the catch-22 with making this product work. You have to have the active chlorine level low enough to not kill off the bacteria or enzymes yet such conditions are also those that allow algae to grow.

Worst case if algae does start to grow, you know how to handle that (or at least we do and can help you through it). So long as you catch algae early, it's no hard to kill off but doing so would certainly end the CYA Reducer experiment.

With a low FC/CYA ratio and not having dull/cloudy water or visible algae growth, then your pool may be poor in algae nutrients (phosphates or nitrates, most likely phosphates). We don't know if this product requires some amount of phosphates to be more effective -- if it depended on bacterial growth or metabolism then some phosphates would be needed to accelerate such growth.

Keep us posted on your results.

 

[alexvilper]

Thanks guys. I appreciated the feedback.

Here are the latest numbers:

Yesterday 7 PM

FC 2.5
CC 0.5
PH 7.4
CYA 280 (25%/75%)
OCLT 1 **

** Increase by 0.5 from previous day

* Added Dry Acid to drop PH to 7.3
* Cleaned filter

Today 7 AM

FC 1.5

* Added some chlorine to raise it back to 2.5, because the sun is going to eat up some today. It will be in the 90's today.

If I see changes this afternoon, I will post them. Otherwise I will wait a couple of days and post for a few days at a time.


Question:
Since OCLT has increased, should I run my pump 24 hours to prevent algae at this point?



Thanks!

 

[JasonLion]

BioActive says their product will prevent algae while it is active, and that has been true for other people from what we have heard so far.

I don't see any reason to run the pump 24/7. If you feel like doing so, it wouldn't hurt.

 

[alexvilper]

Well, yesterday was the 10th day with the product in the water, and other than learning that I suck at testing CYA (at times it took 3 tests), I am not sure how to read this data. I think it worked, a little.



I will keep testing to see if there any more changes, but I think this will be it. I might try again next month. Let's see.