Opening with pollen/algae and no bleach

[Griswald]

I have been to every pool store, grocery store and home improvement store and could only find 4 gallons of bleach. It's 10% from Leslie's and I was limited to one case of 4 gallons.

Have tons of pollen and possibly algae due to low chlorine and high CCs. (0.5 and 2.0)

How can I slam without? CYA is around 30 due to just opening. SWG is now functioning with 3000 ppm salt and over 70 degree water.
pH is 7.0

 

[mknauss]

What is your CH?

 

[Griswald]

25 with a vinyl liner, I never paid attention to it.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Did you check the pool section of Walmart? Folks looking for "bleach" often don't realize that liquid chlorine in the pool section is the same thing, only stronger. Our secret... don't spill the beans to non-pool owners.

Maddie

 

[aeh0603]

You can use Cal hypo, it adds CH along with the FC, but you have quite a bit of room to add CH without causing problems, just keep an eye on it. You can probably also make a few return trips to the pool store where you found the liquid chlorine and just buy 4 gallons at a time.

When your SLAM is over, if your water is too cold for the SWG you can use dichlor or trichlor to add CYA and FC together until your CYA is at the desired level.

 

[Griswald]

Did you check the pool section of Walmart? Folks looking for "bleach" often don't realize that liquid chlorine in the pool section is the same thing, only stronger. Our secret... don't spill the beans to non-pool owners.

Maddie

Yes I did. None in stock.

 

[Griswald]

You can use Cal hypo, it adds CH along with the FC, but you have quite a bit of room to add CH without causing problems, just keep an eye on it. You can probably also make a few return trips to the pool store where you found the liquid chlorine and just buy 4 gallons at a time.

When your SLAM is over, if your water is too cold for the SWG you can use dichlor or trichlor to add CYA and FC together until your CYA is at the desired level.

They had one partial pallet, no more coming in after that is gone. Cal hypo sounds like the ticket!

 

[Saturn94]

You can use Cal hypo, it adds CH along with the FC, but you have quite a bit of room to add CH without causing problems, just keep an eye on it. You can probably also make a few return trips to the pool store where you found the liquid chlorine and just buy 4 gallons at a time.

When your SLAM is over, if your water is too cold for the SWG you can use dichlor or trichlor to add CYA and FC together until your CYA is at the desired level.

+1

I used cal hypo this year for my opening SLAM instead of the usual bleach/liquid chlorine. With the low CH in our vinyl lined pool the added calcium wasn’t an issue. Worked great.?

 

[kevreh]

I have 1# bags of cal hypo for startup and closing. Since I use a swcg the rest of the season I don’t mind paying a little more vs liquid to have them sitting around. When I need them.

Since you have a swcg your cya levels can be higher, so powder dichlor is an option too. Costco has a box of chlorox blue brand 1# bags.

 

[Saturn94]

I have 1# bags of cal hypo for startup and closing. Since I use a swcg the rest of the season I don’t mind paying a little more vs liquid to have them sitting around. When I need them.

Since you have a swcg your cya levels can be higher, so powder dichlor is an option too. Costco has a box of chlorox blue brand 1# bags.

Avoid anything that says “Blue“. It usually means there’s copper in it.

 

[Griswald]

I'm finally done!
4 gallons of 10% bleach
4 bags of regular shock
6 bags of dichlor

Never had visible algae, just excessive pollen. The pool was clear, just wouldn't hold chlorine. All the other chemicals are fine. Yesterday, the SWG finally accounted for some chlorine and today the level actually increased. No OCL and no CCs!