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  Bruce Hudson February 26, 2010 at 7:38am

  Quite right Richard. At its very most basic, all that is required for clean clear water is chlorine and a filter. With the exception of balancing chemicals, everything else should be considered an "accessory" chemical. Useful, but not necessary.
  
  Metal based algaecide is good insurance however against blooms, especially in the sunbelt where water temps can get ridiculously high making maintaining a Cl residual a challenge....to say the least. Overuse of metal algaecide should be avoided to prevent staining, and come to think of it, it seems every pool I've been aware of that has been on a regular dose of metal algaecide eventually gets plated (though it may take years).
  
  It would be interesting to know the result of long term effluent discharge and resultant effects on waterways.
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  Richard A. Falk February 26, 2010 at 12:53am

  As described in their FAQ here, PoolRx is basically a metal ion system using silver, copper and zinc plus a metal sequestrant. Has anyone used this in plaster pools? Have there been any problems with staining? The main concern with metal ion systems, either from directly adding copper sulfate or from using an ionizer (with or without a metal sequestrant or chelating agent) is that staining can occur if the concentrations get too high or if the pH rises. Plaster pools tend to be more susceptible due to surface chemistry of the plaster that can be higher in pH near the surface (particularly if the plaster is still curing).
  
  The FAQ has several statements that are wrong, including the following: "What takes chlorine 15 minutes to eliminate, like ecoli bacteria, PoolRx can kill these same bacteria in 15 seconds. PoolRx is over 1000 times more effective in killing bacteria than chlorine." This is completely wrong. Most bacteria, including Ecoli, get killed by chlorine VERY quickly. How quickly depends on the FC/CYA ratio, but in pools with an FC that is around 10% of the CYA level it's less than 30 seconds for a 99% kill. Copper takes around 20 minutes for an equivalent kill and silver around 10 minutes. It's just a lie when they claim that these ions kill bacteria faster than chlorine. Of course, it's mostly a moot point in residential pools since the risk of person-to-person transmission is so low.
  
  The PAN Pesticide registration information for this product is here where you can see that the primary active ingredient is copper sulfate (pentahydrate) and that it is registered as an algaecide for killing algae in pool use. It is NOT a disinfectant and did not pass EPA DIS/TSS-12 (only chlorine, bromine and Baqua/biguanide/PHMB have passed this for pools and spas and Nature2 plus non-chlorine shock MPS has also passed this for hot water spas).
  
  Copper is a very effective algicide -- probably the most effective one at killing and preventing algae. The main problem with it is its potential for staining and the fact that it persists in the environment (i.e. still kills algae and can harm fish if backwashed or overflowed pool water gets to waterways).
  
  Of course, it is unnecessary to use such a product if you maintain an appropriate FC/CYA ratio, but that means either using unstabilized chlorine to prevent the CYA from climbing too much, or diluting the water, or maintaining a proportionately higher FC level as the CYA climbs from continued use of stabilized chlorine. My pool here and here is maintained with 12.5% chlorinating liquid alone (and a fixed amount of CYA in the water) and does not get algae in spite of 2000-3000 ppb phosphates in the water. There are thousands of pool owners using a similar technique (many using bleach). However, this approach does require frequent chlorine addition compared to Trichlor which is much more convenient.
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  brian thomas February 24, 2010 at 3:26pm

  I LOVE IT.
  It is one of the best products for algae control in my opinion. I have it in every pool i service, and i even got to the point that even my customer does want to pay for it i will, just to use it. I had pools that were activley green due to lots of rain and plant matter being that people box there pools in down here, that cleared up in one to two days. I even had one guy decide he didnt want to run his pump but once a month because his electric bill was to high and his pool stay blue aas well.
  
  I do not work for and i am not affiliated with pool rx i just wanted to tell you it really does work and you will not have any problems what so ever although i suggest starting on a brand new filter cartridge or servicing your d.e. filter first for best results and not wasting your time and money .
  
  Thanks b
  
  Key West, Fl
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  Jennifer Dorn February 24, 2010 at 2:33pm

  I have a couple customers that SWEAR by it and replace/recharge it once a year. I haven't used it myself though. I was getting a lot of requests for it, so we decided to stock it. It was not available in CA for about a year due to EPA reasons, but we got it back last summer.