Ditching BioBuard and replacing it with some of it's ingredients

[kylemarlin]

Hello everyone. I found this forum yesterday after being consistently dismayed with BioGuard pricing. After having read wayyy too much and spending hours on here, I'm done with BioBuard and the local pool store, and plan on testing myself with a TF-100 and putting in the stuff that is in BioGuard without the BioGuard price.

I'm hopeful you all can point me in the right direction in what I should be using, and where. Here goes my first post:

For our opening, we use:

• 1 qt. BioGuard Pool Opening Complete
• 1 qt. BIO-DEX Protect-All Supreme

For our weekly chemicals, we use:

• 4 lbs. BioGuard Mineral Springs Renewal - Since this is mostly salt, I plan on just adding some borax to offset that small loss
• 3 oz. BioGuard Algae Complete
• 9 oz. BioGuard Pool Complete

For pool closing: we use:

• 3/4 qt. BioGuard Arctic Blue algae protector
• 3 lbs. BioGuard Arctic Blue shock

For general maintenance, we use:

• BioGuard Balance Pak 100 - I plan on replacing this with granular sodium bicarbonate to increase alkalinity
• BioGuard Balance Pak 200 - I plan on replacing this with sodium carbonate soda ash to increase pH
• BioGuard Balance Pak 300 - I plan on replacing this with granular calcium chloride to increase calcium hardness
• BioGuard Mineral Springs Beginnings - I plan on replacing this with whatever brand pool salt is cheapest
• (Occasionally) BioGuard Maintain Smart Shock
• (Occasionally) BioGuard Optimizer
• (Occasionally) BioGuard Optimizer Plus

I'm curious to see if anyone has recommendations of the opening, weekly, and closing chemicals and what (or if) I should be replacing those with. Also, for the substitutions I'm making, I plan on just buying low-cost, possibly non-branded chemicals in bulk from places like Doheny's, Home Depot, Lowes... where ever has the lower price. Is this a good plan, and am I on the right track here?

Appreciate all the help!

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!
Nearly all pools only need three items, Liquid Chlorine, Muriatic Acid, and Cyanuric Acid. As you have a SaltWater Chlorine Generator, you need salt to start with.

All that other stuff is fluff. And makes your pool NOT Trouble Free.
Once you get your test kit, post up your results and we can provide some guidance.

I suggest you read through Pool School - Trouble Free Pool and even look at a few of our videos TFP-TV - Trouble Free Pool

 

[PoolGate]

Most pool stores are able to sell this stuff because they scare you about chlorine and have you run too low a chlorine level. Then sell you the magic potions to mask your issues (unsanitary water). Weekly "shocking" and the regular addition of magical potions do nothing but make their wallets fat. Once you read the links above you'll realize that it really is all about maintaining a proper chlorine level. A couple other things that need only be balanced once or so a season and usually a weekly maintenance dose of acid to keep your pH proper. What could be more trouble-free than that?

 

[kylemarlin]

That's excellent news, thanks for the insight. I'll go ahead and get one of those tests kits ordered. I'm really looking forward to a simpler lifestyle. Appreciate the help, folks!