Question:
We went today and had our "chemical orientation." Okay, so there's
>stuff we have to do now, throw in all this stuff at different times,
>whatever. Then they say to maintain it, we follow this 3-step process. We
>put a chlorine stick in the basket, add the step 2 stuff, then add the step
>3 stuff. I suppose I could go up and get the bottles to explain better,
>sorry. Well they said we should do this weekly. Now, a bottle of the one
>stuff is $10, a bottle of the other stuff is $20, then the chlorine sticks.
>Is this normal? Should you do this chemical treatment once a week? Or are
>they just trying to sell us tons of chemicals? What's a good schedule to
>follow? They gave us tester strips too, so we can test the water ourselves.
Answer:
In my opinion, all a pool needs is to maintain the chlorine at 1-3ppm a
weekly dose of algecide and a shock 1X per week during use. However you
get the chlorine in the pool is irrelevant. It sounds like you have a
chlorine feeder, which is good. You just need to keep it full of chlorine
and it probably doesn't have to be "their" brand of stick, any tabs will
work. Anyway, pool chemicals are not cheap and you should buy in bulk if
you can. I buy shock in 100lb buckets for about $120 each. This will last
a long time and is much cheaper than even buying 1lb bags at Walmart, which
will run you $2.74 a pound.
You can get a test kit anywhere. All you need to do is keep your chlorine
between 1-3ppm, your ph around 7.2 and your total alkilinity around 100.
You can do this with acid, soda ash and chlorine.
