In a normal pool, does anything *mix* the water to aid the filter?

[Danny D.]

Hmmmm.... I, and others swim with open eyes, and none of that has ever happened in my pool to my knowledge, to people.

As for the equipment ... who knows ... maybe.

When I had looked it up, I couldn't find any real evidence of problems, but, again, that was a while ago.

[Kurt Ullman]

You're right. I lost that part in the meandering of the thread. To quote Emily Lutella: "Never mind".

[hrhofmann]

You guys make me glad I do NOT have a pool!!!!!

[Danny D.]

I found this on the web, which did a cost comparison of the store-bought phosphate removers ...

"The PR-10000 can be purchased for $31 per quart or $98 per gallon where one quart will remove 10,000 ppb phosphates in 10,000 gallons. Compare this to 3 liters of PhosFree for $25 (7-13% lanthanum chloride) or commercial strength for $40 (15-40% lanthanum chloride) where the latter removes 3000 ppb from 20,000 gallons so 6000 ppb from 10,000 gallons. In 10,000 gallons, the PR-10000 by the quart is $3.10 per

1000 ppb phosphate, by the gallon it's $2.45, while the PhosFree Commercial Strength is $6.67 per 1000 ppb phosphate. Also compare this to SeaKlear phosphate remover here at $20 per quart so for 10,000 gallons that's $3.33 per 1000 ppb so closer to the Orenda PR-10000 product."

I'm still working on the calculations for the cost comparison to just putting the right amount of chemical-grade Lanthanum Chloride into the pool though ...

[Danny D.]

Hi Oren, It was hard to see in my picture as the camera was above water, but the side wall unused vacuum port isn't plugged at all. It's got a nice female thread, about 1.5 inches or maybe 2 inches in diameter (probably whatever the standard size is).

It's unseen, but, the plumbing, almost certainly, goes from that side wall female fitting to the unused vertical pipe at the pool equipment. It's really hard to see in my picture, but, that 3'foot vertical pipe has an inline Jandy valve, and then the top is simply plugged with a cap:

So, all I'd need to do (I think) is cut off the cap, and plumb into the 1.65HP (net) filterpump.

You can see in that picture above that I already have three Jandy valves on the filter pump inlet side, so I'm guessing I don't even need to add an additional Jandy valve to the four that would exist on the inlet side of the filter pump were I to connect the vacuum to the filter pump (via a "T"?).

If the 1.65 HP motor is too much for a vacuum, I guess I could adjust the Jandy valves so that, say, half the water is coming from the main drain & spa, while the other half is coming from the vacuum port (or whatever ratio makes sense).

I'm kicking myself for not having added a "T" fitting into the filter pump setup - but I could still add that as I think I only need PVC plumbing and nothing else.

[Danny D.]

I couldn't make out the chemical ingredients from the picture but NMP seems to be a 41.4% (by wt?) Sodium Bromide algaecide.

They deprecate the stuff here:

By saying: "Sodium bromide added to a chlorine pool will use up some chlorine as the bromide is converted to bromine. They say this ... when they say "No Mor Problems affects the test for chlorine initially and causes a lower reading than is actually occurring." This is most effective as an algaecide in high CYA pools because bromine does not combine with CYA so is at "full strength". An initial treatment of 3 fluid ounces per 5000 gallons, assuming a density of the product close to water, would be 88.7 ml * 1 g/ml * 0.414 = 36.7 grams in 18,927 liters or 36.7 * 1000 / 18927 = 1.9 mg/L sodium bromide which is 1.5 ppm bromine (and would consume about 0.8 ppm chlorine). Remember that our shock levels are roughly equivalent to having 0.6 ppm chlorine (at pH 7.5) with no CYA. Though it would appear that the bromine is at a much higher level than chlorine, it is also a weaker oxidizer than chlorine so the net effect is that this product is basically no better than maintaining appropriate chlorine levels. If someone has high CYA in their pool, then as you know, they need to maintain higher FC levels to prevent algae growth. As an alternative, at extra cost, this product can be used so then you don't need to maintain a higher FC level."

Most of that description above went over my head, but, it doesn't seem like they're as big a fan of the stuff as your friend is. I think they concluded it only works when the chlorine isn't working because of high conditioner levels. The cheapest solution, one would think, would be to simply reduce the conditioner levels (by draining a bit & refilling).

Interestingly, I had used (in the past), a copper algaecide, which had the side effect (other than draining my wallet) of turning my dark gray pool which has a heavy coating of whitish calcium deposits, into a a pretty blue green color that other people pay a lot for!

So, as with all chemicals, the side effects are something the pool stores don't tell you about. :)

[ChairMan]

They will sell you all kinds of algaecides, but until you eliminate the phosphates, you'll continue to have algae problems I've ben using a phosphate remover for 3-4 yrs now and have never had a problem with algae since using it YMMV

[gonjah]

Well...you know what bleach can do right?

At levels that high I get skin irritation and I'm not that sensitive. I use eye protection but the kids eyes get red. I try to get them to wear goggles, but you know kids.

3ppm is adequate and anything over that isn't effective anyway. But, it's America and you can use more if it makes you happy. I'm just glad you don't backwash into a field like I do.

[gonjah]

Yeah. Same here unless my chlorine and PH wander off.

PR-10000 has made my life much simpler at a fraction of the cost of Phos Free.