I know this will go again the purists who say "all you need is Chlorine". Posting this just as my experience because it has been really life changing. First note my pool is not white but a mottled blue gray plaster and I don't care about appearance too much.
I researched Copper sulfate 1.5 years ago. EPA considers small concentrations allowable for drinking water. I took my chances bought some on amazon for $20, and some Cu testing strips. I think you want to shoot for about 0.5-1ppm.
A buddy of mine said I might kill my salt cell, because of electrolysis, but I had already done it.
1.5 years later I'm happy to say:
1) no stains I can see (but remember my pool is darker and mottled) - I think the secret here is don't keep adding the stuff - get it right and stop. It doesn't evaporate to my knowledge.
2) no problem with the salt cell - in fact funtionning better than ever because my CYA is really under control because I have not had to shock the pool during that whole time except once (see item 3)
3) No algae problems at all except once. I leave my pool unattended for weeks at time, I come back, everything is fine. The only time I had an issue was after the first spring, I had dumped a lot of rain water and not adjusted my CuSO4 back up. One algae bloom in a year and half. Got my Copper sulfate back up and no problem since then.
So may not be for everyone, but for me, it has been absolute heaven and truly trouble free. I have not added Chlorine except for that one algae bloom. Usually with a salt cell, you don't need to, but realistically its hard to get it exactly right. I have had my Chlorine go very low and I was not punished for it, no algae.
Again, just sharing in case this can help some people. Use at your own risk, don't go to high, read the posts about staining. You can do everything with Chlorine, but I found this much more forgiving.
I researched Copper sulfate 1.5 years ago. EPA considers small concentrations allowable for drinking water. I took my chances bought some on amazon for $20, and some Cu testing strips. I think you want to shoot for about 0.5-1ppm.
A buddy of mine said I might kill my salt cell, because of electrolysis, but I had already done it.
1.5 years later I'm happy to say:
1) no stains I can see (but remember my pool is darker and mottled) - I think the secret here is don't keep adding the stuff - get it right and stop. It doesn't evaporate to my knowledge.
2) no problem with the salt cell - in fact funtionning better than ever because my CYA is really under control because I have not had to shock the pool during that whole time except once (see item 3)
3) No algae problems at all except once. I leave my pool unattended for weeks at time, I come back, everything is fine. The only time I had an issue was after the first spring, I had dumped a lot of rain water and not adjusted my CuSO4 back up. One algae bloom in a year and half. Got my Copper sulfate back up and no problem since then.
So may not be for everyone, but for me, it has been absolute heaven and truly trouble free. I have not added Chlorine except for that one algae bloom. Usually with a salt cell, you don't need to, but realistically its hard to get it exactly right. I have had my Chlorine go very low and I was not punished for it, no algae.
Again, just sharing in case this can help some people. Use at your own risk, don't go to high, read the posts about staining. You can do everything with Chlorine, but I found this much more forgiving.