I'd like to try the BioActive product

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Noorm

Noorm

LifeTime Supporter
Apr 10, 2015
57
San Jose, CA
I've been fighting algae with shock treatment, but because my CYA is in the 120 range, it takes a lot of CL. I'd like to try the BioActive product, but I see this warning " It is important to note, that your chlorine will attack the active ingredient in Bio-Active, so make sure your chlorine is at normal levels, around 2 - 6 PPM. " So now I must first get my FC down and I'm not sure how to do this. Seems to be a vicious circle. HIgh CYA requires huge FC to kill algae, but CYA reduction requires low FC.
Anyone have experience with Jack's Magic chlorine reducer? Just based on cost it looks better than the chlorine neutralizer sold by Leslie's
 
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Re: Bio-ACtive CYA Reducer Fine Print

Noorm said:
I've been fighting algae with shock treatment, but because my CYA is in the 120 range, it takes a lot of CL. I'd like to try the BioActive product, but I see this warning " It is important to note, that your chlorine will attack the active ingredient in Bio-Active, so make sure your chlorine is at normal levels, around 2 - 6 PPM. " So now I must first get my FC down and I'm not sure how to do this. Seems to be a vicious circle. HIgh CYA requires huge FC to kill algae, but CYA reduction requires low FC.
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Cheaper and easier to replace water usually. The FC will drop if you stop adding any chlorine due to the sun.
 
Re: Bio-ACtive CYA Reducer Fine Print

jblizzle said:
Cheaper and easier to replace water usually. The FC will drop if you stop adding any chlorine due to the sun.
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I agree, but I am subject to water usage constraints due to CA drought, so I have to look at alternatives. Also the FC with my 120 CYA is dropping very slowly.

I think I'm between a rock and hard place: If I reduce FC, then use CYA reducer, the algae's gonna go crazy during the time it takes the CYA reducer's little bacteria to devour my CYA.
 
Divin Dave said:
Hi Noorm,
as far as TFP is concerned, the jury is still out on the CYA reducer. There have been a coiuple or 3 TFPers give it a try with mixed results. ... So, just a message to let you know that it may, or not, work.
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Thanks Dave. I'm probably gonna gise it a try, but I have to deal with my high FC first.

Anyone have experience with Jack's Magic chlorine reducer? Just based on cost it looks better than the chlorine neutralizer sold by Leslie's
 
Why not just wait a week or 2 (don't add any chlorine during this time) you would then be
very close to the recommended chlorine level to run it. In the instructions you're not supposed
to add any stuff to your pool 7 days prior to the treatment any how.

None of the other people trying this reducer out had Algae blooms pretty sure.


It took about 1 1/2 weeks from the time i ordered the cya reducer to when it arrived.

Waiting for my water to get up to 65 degrees, then applying this reducer. I'm at 120ppm cya as well.
 
Both Jack's Magic After Shock and Thiosulfate at Leslie's are effective. The main thing to watch for is that the required dosage can be a little variable. If you overshoot FC will go down to zero, and stay at zero until you add enough chlorine to use up all of the excess chlorine reducer.

As borjis said, there shouldn't be any algae issues as long as you start the CYA reducer right after reducing the FC level.

We don't know enough about the CYA reducer product to either recommend for or against it. Early reports have it working about 2/3rds of the time. That is promising, but not exactly trouble free just yet.
 
Just for comparison, watering 1/2 acre of grass with 1" of water (a common weekly amount, for better or worse) is 20000sf *1/12 = 1666cf * 7.48gal/cf = ~12,500gal, or around half of the water in your pool. I'm not advocating wasting water, but unless you're explicitly banned from filling pools at all (which must not include regular top-offs?) I submit that a one-time drain/refill to get CYA under control is a, well, drop in the bucket, and IMO better than adding more chemicals that may or may not have side effects. Once you get things in balance, you shouldn't need to keep draining/refilling.
 
jmastron said:
Just for comparison, watering 1/2 acre of grass with 1" of water (a common weekly amount, for better or worse) is 20000sf *1/12 = 1666cf * 7.48gal/cf = ~12,500gal, or around half of the water in your pool. I'm not advocating wasting water, but unless you're explicitly banned from filling pools at all (which must not include regular top-offs?) I submit that a one-time drain/refill to get CYA under control is a, well, drop in the bucket, and IMO better than adding more chemicals that may or may not have side effects. Once you get things in balance, you shouldn't need to keep draining/refilling.
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Remember that a 1/2 acre lot, is not 1/2 of grass typically. By the time you take away the area for a driveway, sidewalks, landscaping, etc, you have far less area than 20,000sf.
 
Thanks to all for your comments and suggestions. I'll give it a week to see if FC drops substantially, but so far in about 4 days, it's come down very little.
As to the water restrictions, topping off is allowed, but filling is prohibited. As to the lawn water comparison, I agree, but my lawn is very small and while the pool partial drain and refill is indeed a drop in the big picture bucket, it will result in a 75-100% increase in my monthly usage which I think will be noticed.

I have had no problems with water clarity, but the algae grows on the sides of the pool and on the steps. Is this considered "bloom"? Even with my FC at 35ppm, there is still some new stuff that I can brush off, but the walls do not come clean. Still have motley, splotchy stains.
 

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jblizzle said:
It is not linear ... usually the FC loss is a % that is based on your CYA level. So, in fact you should loose less as the FC level gets lower.
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Well, since I've stopped adding CL, I'm seeing the algae re-assert itself, so if I wait for the FC to drop by itself, I'm afraid it will be pretty bad before the BioActive has done it's work and I can slam the pool. I believe I need to get the CL reducer and get things moving.
 
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