Bo BA, if your water is super hard in ch could you pre filter when you add water? My water is 18 grains worth of hard but my CH stays low because I always use the pre filter (and when my softener's working, will use softened water if possible - but unbeknownst to me, it was broken for the last 8 weeks.) now, even though my water's hard, my ch from an outdoor spigot is 350, so to you, maybe that's not high -- but my pool (vinyl) stays around 150.
A lot of your TDS will just be salt from the chlorine, so only bother measuring your ch.
You can also choose to use 12.5% chlorine instead of household bleach if you want to reduce the volume of non-chlorine liquid (eg the salt and water) you're adding to get your dose. I now use it just for the convenience of carrying less home, despite the extra expense, and next year I'm just going to switch to a refillable carboy because I hate wasting plastic environmentally. But that's just a personal choice.
I also work a lot of 12 hr days, so I find that just doing it in the morning as part of my before-work routine is the best way for me to habituate the testing. Night just isn't regular enough, because I never know when I'll end up being home.
With respect to acid/lowering ph, I found that adding borates gave a side benefit of stabilizing the ph considerably, even though I keep my jets facing upward to get debris flowing to the skimmer (which increases the ph). Others have found that adding an acid pump is a reasonable inexpensive way to control ph.
I do these things because I enjoy the resulting water quality and how it feels on the skin and to head off any imminent problems.I also like knowing that at any given time, my pool is truly sanitized and no one will be getting earaches or rashes or smelling chlorine the way they do in a pool where cya isn't monitored. That's the real issue -- not algae!
In your case, the risk of combining the tablets with bbb is that it sounds like you're in an area where water
changes are an issue and you're open year round -- so increasing your cya beyond acceptable measures
means inevitably you will have to a) constantly adjust your goal dose to reflect the current cya and b) be prepared to either change water OR use a much higher volume of chlorine to truly sanitize your pool. Both sound like moving targets and more of a hassle for a busy person.
The way I look at it is the cya thing is kind of like drugs on the market that don't get pulled until 6,000 people die...since there's no economic incentive for the industry to address the fact that at high levels disinfecting is NOT actually happening, and since the variables are too great to regulate and the outcomes not dramatic enough (eg it's hard to prove where a person picked up a pathogen), it's in the industry's fiscal interest to continue to give people the convenience they demand.
But as an individual, if you accept the research (and notable PUBLIC policy where cya levels are regulated/mandated based on this research) then you have the personal decision to ake regarding whether or not you're going to act on that information.
In essence, there's nothing irresponsible or likely to cause unintended consequences about using pucks -- IF you're willing to monitor cya through testing and monitor chlorine levels to ensure they're adequately disinfecting you pool.
It's just "easier" to my mind to treat the cya as a constant, to know my constant chlorine target, and to confirm daily that I'm meeting that target. And liquid chlorine is the simplest way to achieve that, in my case.
This is not entirely related, but I will tell you a sad story that likely influences me a great deal on this subject. Years ago, I was a reporter. A beloved couple from our community went to visit their adult kids in a southern community. Said kids had a hot tub that was, as it turned out, not properly maintained or disinfected. They both contracted legionella and died, as unbelievable and tragic as that sounds.
It was unbelievably devastating, and I simply will do everything in my power to protect anyone who puts themselves in water that I manage, knowing what I've come to know. Once you know it, you really can't unknow it
A lot of your TDS will just be salt from the chlorine, so only bother measuring your ch.
You can also choose to use 12.5% chlorine instead of household bleach if you want to reduce the volume of non-chlorine liquid (eg the salt and water) you're adding to get your dose. I now use it just for the convenience of carrying less home, despite the extra expense, and next year I'm just going to switch to a refillable carboy because I hate wasting plastic environmentally. But that's just a personal choice.
I also work a lot of 12 hr days, so I find that just doing it in the morning as part of my before-work routine is the best way for me to habituate the testing. Night just isn't regular enough, because I never know when I'll end up being home.
With respect to acid/lowering ph, I found that adding borates gave a side benefit of stabilizing the ph considerably, even though I keep my jets facing upward to get debris flowing to the skimmer (which increases the ph). Others have found that adding an acid pump is a reasonable inexpensive way to control ph.
I do these things because I enjoy the resulting water quality and how it feels on the skin and to head off any imminent problems.I also like knowing that at any given time, my pool is truly sanitized and no one will be getting earaches or rashes or smelling chlorine the way they do in a pool where cya isn't monitored. That's the real issue -- not algae!
In your case, the risk of combining the tablets with bbb is that it sounds like you're in an area where water
changes are an issue and you're open year round -- so increasing your cya beyond acceptable measures
means inevitably you will have to a) constantly adjust your goal dose to reflect the current cya and b) be prepared to either change water OR use a much higher volume of chlorine to truly sanitize your pool. Both sound like moving targets and more of a hassle for a busy person.
The way I look at it is the cya thing is kind of like drugs on the market that don't get pulled until 6,000 people die...since there's no economic incentive for the industry to address the fact that at high levels disinfecting is NOT actually happening, and since the variables are too great to regulate and the outcomes not dramatic enough (eg it's hard to prove where a person picked up a pathogen), it's in the industry's fiscal interest to continue to give people the convenience they demand.
But as an individual, if you accept the research (and notable PUBLIC policy where cya levels are regulated/mandated based on this research) then you have the personal decision to ake regarding whether or not you're going to act on that information.
In essence, there's nothing irresponsible or likely to cause unintended consequences about using pucks -- IF you're willing to monitor cya through testing and monitor chlorine levels to ensure they're adequately disinfecting you pool.
It's just "easier" to my mind to treat the cya as a constant, to know my constant chlorine target, and to confirm daily that I'm meeting that target. And liquid chlorine is the simplest way to achieve that, in my case.
This is not entirely related, but I will tell you a sad story that likely influences me a great deal on this subject. Years ago, I was a reporter. A beloved couple from our community went to visit their adult kids in a southern community. Said kids had a hot tub that was, as it turned out, not properly maintained or disinfected. They both contracted legionella and died, as unbelievable and tragic as that sounds.
It was unbelievably devastating, and I simply will do everything in my power to protect anyone who puts themselves in water that I manage, knowing what I've come to know. Once you know it, you really can't unknow it