My pool build is finished.... My water is all sparkly and clear now,.. I'm waiting on my test kit.... Anyway, if the chlorine pucks add CYA and I will lose 2-3 ppm chlorine daily in the summer.... How do I keep my chlorine up without using the pucks??? Go out and put a few cups of bleach in everyday so I dont add cya?... I'm interested in the BBB way but just want the easiest/cheapest way of keeping everything right.... And, why not just take a sample and when chlorine drops a little.... Add a gallon or 2 of bleach.... Then not worry about it for a few days.... Would that hurt anything? I don't see why.... I also have a chlorinator....

Again, I'm new to this and just asking questions...

A little bleach every day.

I used 3 inch tabs at first but then switched to bleach. The bleach is more of a chore, but I can tell you my pool never looked better after switching. I still go back to tabs when I need to leave for a extended period of time.

Bleach for now but will be back on the SWCG once the water warms a bit.

SWCG. winter 5 hour pump time, 30% on production. summer 10 hours/70%

SWGC. Winter 4 1/2 hours (could even be less) pump time at 5%; summer 6 1/2 hours at 30%. The benefits of an oversized pump and SWCG.

where are the pics?

NJ: pucks
FL: SWG

I recommend going salt. Doing bleach without an automatic feeder is like having your pump on a switch and turning it on and off every day instead of using a timer. In my opinion it is very inconvenient to have to add chlorine every day, espicially bleach. Bleach is very heavy and bulky for the available amount of chlorine it has...clorox is only 6.25%. Also be aware that the bleach will raise the ph and you will be having to add acid regularly. Adding manually like that also produces inconsistent chlorine levels even though the water may stay clear. You will definately have more consistent results going with salt, and in my opinion will avoid headaches in the long run.

12.5% chlorinating liquid from my local pool store added twice a week (I have a mostly opaque pool cover so have relatively low 1 ppm FC per day usage during the summer).


It is true that chlorinating liquid and especially bleach are less dense sources of chlorine so are heavier to carry, but that's a personal convenience decision. Though it is true that hypochlorite sources of chlorine raise the pH when they are added, the pH drops back down when the chlorine gets used up (technical details about this are in this post that shows that chlorine consumption/usage is acidic). The pH in my pool is fairly stable and I only add a small amount of acid about every 3-4 weeks in the summer. Some people don't need to add any acid at all, especially if they keep their TA level lower.

As for adding chlorine manually producing inconsistent chlorine levels, that will not generally be true if one adds it slowly over a return flow in the deep end with the pump running. The chlorine will get dispersed fairly quickly. I've added chlorine this way and measured most of the rise in all areas of the pool within 10 minutes with no additional change after around 20 minutes.

12½% sodium hypochlorite in returnable jugs from a local pool store.

But after I've gotten rainwater dilution, I use 3" trichlor pucks to bring the CYA back up.

SWG controlled by intellichem for covered 24K gallon outdoor pool, looks like 1.5hrs/day for IC60 is about the right runtime - but still tuning and waiting to see how much it increases during summer.

MN: SWG
I have helped many people here in MN with algae problems associated with the corresponding high CYA from using pucks. I would agree that if their high CYA is near the end of the season, and the pool is looking good, hold off on the drain and refill until the next problem shows up next season. However, to those I have given that advice too, I also strongly encourage them to stop the pucks. Many factors...but often, even up here, it is not if, but when will a problem show up. My two cents

Manually add bleach regularly.

The frequency you add bleach is a matter of convenience, price and predictability. In season, I add bleach daily. In front of a return while the pump is running. In the summer the usage is very steady so I test every other day but add the same amount every day. Now that is winter, usage is so low I add bleach weekly.

Certainly, you can add a lot of bleach less frequently than daily if you like. Heck, that's what many of use do in the winter. The down side is cost. Chlorine loss (to UV) is a percentage. The more you add at one time the more is used up. By adding a smaller daily amount, you keep the loss down which helps keep costs down.

I've read a few posts here where people reported they dose every couple of days and add the amount they use over that period. Its more convenient but likely uses more bleach.

All great info !!! Thanks... That pretty much answered my questions... Thanks!!

You could also go with an automatic chlorine feeder too (liquidator)!

Richard I like the idea of a few pucks occasionally. In my first year last year I was always chasing a low to non existent CYA. Although I dion't want it too high as I want effective chlorine without getting the overall number too high. I don't want to corrode my heater and void the warranty on the exchanger!

With a very very low CYA I was using anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 of a jug per day (Sams Club 182 oz Clorox) We had soooo much Rain in Cleveland last year with my pool install that I probably had to drain off a dozen times (we had 60 inches vs 38" normal and a previous all time record of around 49") The heater was a good send though with such a cool summer, especially after 5pm when the sun hid behind the treeline!

Back on topic.... Liquid chlorine did the trick, ticked off my pool store which already had their hooks in my neighbor (And will again next year by the look of the water when they covered it.
and they even said, I don't know anyone who has better water than I do. ) I can only full-heartedly recommend Liquid chlorine as your primary method. And I never experienced any problems with PH all summer, I also used acid to prep for my borax treatment. I found that the borax kept the water very soft with liquid chlorine. If I had to say one thing against liquid chlorine it can dry your skin (Borax took care of it) 2-3 months to go can't wait!

I use chlorine bleach primarily. I typically use a lot of Muriatic Acid also to control pH. That is 80 to 90% of the year.

In storage I keep both cal-hypo and trichlor pucks for the automatic chlorinator. Winter rains will typically drive down CH and CYA so in spring I can choose to raise CH with cal-hypo or raise CYA with pucks. I switch back and forth between these as I am able but I try to get into vacation season with a low CYA so I can use the trichlor pucks and not bother the pool sitter too much with the work of bleach additions.

I just did a full test of the pool water. I hadn't been testing at all for a month but had on occasion added a jug of bleach when the pool looked less than sparkly. Full test says TA is at 60, CH is not yet low, but CYA is at 25-ish. So, no cal-hypo but I can use pucks soon. That is pretty near the minimum for CYA. No vacations in the near term so, heck, maybe I need to plan one!

Note that using pucks will drive the TA even lower and 60 is already a bit too low and so I will have to boost that if I go to pucks. Normally just adding tap water drives the TA up since my tap water is 340 TA, so I'll hold off and see what happens. If it stops raining that TA will jump pretty fast with normal water additions.

Bleach... PRN