Thanks for the replies.
I'm learning that there seem to be many different ways to get to the end goal. And also that people seem to pick a route and almost evangelise that it's the only route to enlightenment! Who knew pool chemistry could become a religion!
On methodology; not sure I can turn back time for this seasons opening now. Are you saying your experience, knowledge and advice would only work on the 'tfp route'?
Haha, this is definitely true. There are certainly different options, but what I like about the TFP method is that it’s based on science, it’s been proven to get results and it’s easily repeatable for everyone to use.
Like you said, everyone has their methods and everyone can say, hey, this worked for me and also my cousin bob. And frankly, in the end a lot of the methods are really very similar processes in the end.
For those of us with chlorine pools, we all use chlorine to sanitize our pools. And when there is an algae problem we all use chlorine at a higher level to shock the pool. But where the TFP method is different is that we know that there is a strong relationship between chlorine and CYA. And people have done the research to figure out how much chlorine is necessary to get rid of algae based on the CYA level. So with the TFP method we can say, based on your CYA level we know that you need to put exactly this much chlorine in the pool to kill the algae. By using a good test kit you can put in that much chlorine, no more, no less, and know that it will kill your algae in the safest way possible. We also know that the high chlorine level needs to be maintained for a certain amount of time to make sure that all the algae is really gone.
A lot of the other methods say something like this... “hey, if you have algae, then use 1 gallon of shock for 5000 gallons of pool water”. And that will work for a lot of people because it will get the chlorine up above the level that’s necessary to kill algae. It might even get the chlorine up way too high for some people. Which will still work, but can be hard on the pool and the equipment. And for some people with a high CYA level it might not get the chlorine level up high enough and it won’t work. And even if the shock does work it’s possible that there’s still some hidden algae that wasn’t killed that will come back a week or two later and you’ll need to shock again, and it just becomes one big expensive frustrating cycle. A lot of these methods are just kind of black magic... Well, if you have this problem you use this chemical at this rate... and there’s no good explanation for why you should be using it or exactly what it does, or even any effort to dose it based on your existing pool chemistry. Those things might work for a lot of people, but they won’t work for everyone. And if it doesn’t work for you then you don’t know why, but you just move on and try something else. If you knew the science behind it and how and why it worked then you would probably know ahead of time that it wouldn’t work in your case and you wouldn’t have had to buy that expensive chemical.
And as far as day to day operations, again TFP is based on science. It has been determined that based on your CYA level you need a certain minimum amount of chlorine in the pool to prevent algae from growing. And if you maintain that minimum level then you know that your pool will remain algae free. Other methods will say “maintain 1-3ppm of free chlorine” with no regard to the CYA level. Again, this will work for some people, but for other people with high CYA levels then it’s not enough chlorine and these people will constantly be battling algae with no idea why.
By using chlorine this way we know that you don’t need to buy or use other chemicals like algaecides or floc, which can be expensive and also cause other problems.
Like you said, it sounds like a religion and maybe it kind of is
We would like to convert you because we know that this has worked for us to keep our pools clean and algae free and is also much less expensive than buying tons of pool chemicals, but if you want to follow other methods then you can stay here and we promise not to shun you
. We’re not crazy enough to say that our way is the only way, but we do believe that it’s the best way and we have the science to show how our way works.
However, all that said, whatever you do, pick one method and stick with it. If you try to take some advice from TFP and some advice from your pool store and some advice from your cousin bob then you’ll wind up with all kinds of conflicting information which will be frustrating and confusing and won’t work at all to fix your pool issues.
