Newish Doughboy Owner - Switching to TFPC Method

[JensPool13]

Hi,

We had a Doughboy installed in May. Up until now, I have just used the chlorine and chemicals our pool store advised. I keep our pool very clean, so do not have any issues (with the exception of dirt behind the stairs that I can never get out!).

However, I want to switch over to the Bleach, Borax and Baking Soda method, and now that we are not using the pool anymore, I thought this might be a good time to make the switch. I live in North California, so plan to not close our pool, since our winters are mild. So I was planning to run the circulation for an hour or two every day and skim the pool and just add chlorine (well, bleach) as needed.

Every time I start reading about the BBB method, it seems simple but then I get confused (or interrupted by my little ones).

I wonder if someone can give me a quick start on how I can initially make the switch. I have run out of chlorined, but have my BBB supplies. My pool is 5,600 gallons. When my chlorine gets low next, how much bleach should I start adding to pick up where I left off with the chlorine?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Jennifer

 

[LFrankow]

Re: Newish Doughboy Owner - Switching to TFPC Method

I wonder if someone can give me a quick start on how I can initially make the switch. I have run out of chlorined, but have my BBB supplies. My pool is 5,600 gallons. When my chlorine gets low next, how much bleach should I start adding to pick up where I left off with the chlorine?

A good first step would be finding out the concentration of chlorine in the bleach/chlorine you are switching to.
Assuming you already know your preferred FC (chlorine) level, once it drops below the desired level, go to the pool math link at the top of the page. Enter pool size, desired FC level under target, present FC level under now, adjust the % to what you are using hit calculate.

This will get you by in the near time.

A couple of things I would recommend.

TF100 with xl option, TFP/BBB is based on being able to accurately test your own pool, and adjust according to the Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart using Pool School - Recommended Levels.

A hand written log book, just simply noting day, pool temp, air temp and anything you added to your pool. A simple little book that turns I think I did into I know I did.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Jennifer- we have moved on to improve the outdated BBB method because folks got confused thinking they were actually going to need *all* those three items (bleach, borax and baking soda). The TFPC method is about ONLY using that which your actual pool requires based on your own trusted testing. So you might not ever need Borax or Baking Soda, y'know?

.....but everyone needs bleach/liquid chlorine though! :bowdown:

Having your own reliable test kit makes pool care easy. You test your water, and if changes need to be made or you *think* they might, you can input your numbers in to the PoolMath App (found above) and it will help guide you by telling you how much of something to add and what the results would be if you wanted to add x amount or y amount. You can put your test results against suggested test levels and tweak things.

Welcome to TFP!

Maddie

 

[JensPool13]

Re:  Newish Doughboy Owner - Switching to TFPC Method

A good first step would be finding out the concentration of chlorine in the bleach/chlorine you are switching to.
Assuming you already know your preferred FC (chlorine) level, once it drops below the desired level, go to the pool math link at the top of the page. Enter pool size, desired FC level under target, present FC level under now, adjust the % to what you are using hit calculate.

This will get you by in the near time.

A couple of things I would recommend.

TF100 with xl option, TFP/BBB is based on being able to accurately test your own pool, and adjust according to the Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart using Pool School - Recommended Levels.

A hand written log book, just simply noting day, pool temp, air temp and anything you added to your pool. A simple little book that turns I think I did into I know I did.

Thank you, Lou!

- - - Updated - - -

Okay. Thank you, Maddie!

- - - Updated - - -

Jennifer- we have moved on to improve the outdated BBB method because folks got confused thinking they were actually going to need *all* those three items (bleach, borax and baking soda). The TFPC method is about ONLY using that which your actual pool requires based on your own trusted testing. So you might not ever need Borax or Baking Soda, y'know?

.....but everyone needs bleach/liquid chlorine though! :bowdown:

Having your own reliable test kit makes pool care easy. You test your water, and if changes need to be made or you *think* they might, you can input your numbers in to the PoolMath App (found above) and it will help guide you by telling you how much of something to add and what the results would be if you wanted to add x amount or y amount. You can put your test results against suggested test levels and tweak things.

Welcome to TFP!

Maddie

Okay. Thank you, Maddie!

 

[kimkats]

Jen I am going to share a set of links I put together for pool owners. You might have already seen some of them but don't want to take a chance you missing one.

Print these out:
Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule

Pool School - Recommended Levels

Bookmark these:

Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

PoolMath

Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Make sure to ask any and all questions you might have no matter how small! We have all been where you are at one point.

There is a learning curve with Pool Math. Play around with it at first and ask any questions you might have. I was when I first saw it. Once I started playing with it it was easy. One tip is go down towards the bottom and click on the drop down arrow and change it to TFP to make sure it used our recommended levels.

So your steps..........what have you tried to use to get back there? Have you used a soft bottle brush? You can zip tie it to a broom handle so you don't have to go under the water to try to clean back there.

Kim

 

[JensPool13]

Jen I am going to share a set of links I put together for pool owners. You might have already seen some of them but don't want to take a chance you missing one.

Print these out:
Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule

Pool School - Recommended Levels

Bookmark these:

Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

PoolMath

Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Make sure to ask any and all questions you might have no matter how small! We have all been where you are at one point.

There is a learning curve with Pool Math. Play around with it at first and ask any questions you might have. I was when I first saw it. Once I started playing with it it was easy. One tip is go down towards the bottom and click on the drop down arrow and change it to TFP to make sure it used our recommended levels.

So your steps..........what have you tried to use to get back there? Have you used a soft bottle brush? You can zip tie it to a broom handle so you don't have to go under the water to try to clean back there.

Kim

Thank you so much, Kim!

I have the Stairwaves entry system, so it's a bit complicated. I LOVE the stairs (for my kids, and just how steady and big it is). But I equally hate it because it's very difficult to reach anything at all in there, and I can't even see in there because it's so dark. Plus, during winter months, I won't be able to swim down and try to reach back there, of course. All kinds of leaves and dirt pile up back there and just stay there, which gives backswimmers a nice cozy place to breed. I was running into a backswimmer cycle about every 30 days or so, and would have to spend 1-2 days fishing them all out. Now I am using Algaecide and it seems to be addressing the problem. But I still want the leaves and dirt out of there! I keep the rest of my pool immaculate and I am just trying to figure out how to keep that party clean, too.

Thanks again for the tips!
Jennifer

 

[kimkats]

Those are some nice steps but can where they could be dirt/stuff traps I guess there is NO shifting them at all either.........hummmmmm I will think on this and see what my brain comes up with.....some of my crazy ideas actually work much to my husbands surprise! LOL

Kim

 

[JensPool13]

Those are some nice steps but can where they could be dirt/stuff traps I guess there is NO shifting them at all either.........hummmmmm I will think on this and see what my brain comes up with.....some of my crazy ideas actually work much to my husbands surprise! LOL
to
Kim

So I am fiddling with it today... I do have a couple of questions.

1) It seems like I have to add an awful lot of bleach... I am at 3ppm Free Chlorine, trying to get it to 5ppm. Pool Math tells me to add 23 oz. So, if I am usually going to be adding this much, that means one 121 oz bleach jug will include about 5 treatments. It just seems to me like I'll be buying bleach all the time, or will have to invest in a large area to store a lot of bleach. (With regular chlorine, I was just buying one bucket and it would last me a month or two.) Does it sound like I am calculating/doing something wrong?)

2) I saw a good sale at Ace today, so I caved in and bought some liquid chlorine, just in case I find this TFP method too hard to figure out. Can I switch back and forth between methods until I figure out which I prefer? I can't see why not, but thought I'd ask...

Thanks, Kim!

 

[AftonJeeper]

23oz is correct if you are buying plain 6% bleach. Home Depot has 8.25% HTX brand bleach, that would bring you down to 17oz. In my pool it takes 1 gallon to go up 2 ppm with 8.25% bleach.

Liquid chlorine is the same thing as bleach, normally a higher concentration.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Pool Math has a way to change the percentage of the liquid chlorine you're using so you get the updated amount. If you go thru a gallon a week, well, do you go to the store at least once a week too? One handy thing to file away in your memory banks is that 1 cup of 6% bleach will raise your FC by 1.3ppm. So any time you want to raise the FC a couple of points you know to add x cups of bleach. Handy dandy and quick!

Which way costs more in the end? Which method also adds unwanted CYA/calcium to your pool that you'll later have to deal with or causes problems that will be a headache?

These are just some of the reasons folks choose to use our method for pool care.

Maddie