New Pool Owner

[HMSpool]

Hi I, like many others here I'm sure, am a brand new pool owner. I have an EasySet Intex pool that is 16 ft across and 42 inches deep. I am having a terrible time with Chlorine. I did do some research before putting things together but it didn't seem to help as I am as confused as when I started. I have both granules as well as the 1" tablets. Both are HTH brand. I put the tablets into a floating dispenser but learned quickly they didn't dissolve at all basically. So I moved on and bought the granules thinking if I got the level to the 1-3 ppm that it needed, that I could use the tablets after the fact to maintain that level. That has not appeared to be the case either. All other levels such as pH and the alkalinity seem to be fine. There is no algae in the pool and we did swim once and had no lasting effects as I was able to get the chlorine to the right level using the granules over the weekend. I now sit here both confused and frustrated over the whole situation. Everything I have read about the tablets says they are wonderful and the best method to use. But I am achieving nothing but headache from them as they simply won't dissolve. The same tablets have been in there for a week now.
Sorry for the longwindedness but I wanted to be sure I gave enough info to be able save my sanity as I am certain you will be able to get me up and running and keep me there. Thank you in advance for your help.

[aylad]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!!

The first thing we really need to know is--how are you testing your water? An when you say "seem to be fine", what are the exact numbers? Do you have any stabilizer in the water? (It's something you would have needed to add). Also, what is the ingredient of the granules--cal-hypo, or sodium dichloro? When you put the tabs in the floater, do you have the floater opened up so that there is some water flow into the floater? It will take several days for them to dissolve--they aren't meant to dissolve quickly, and depending on how many you have in the floater and how wide you have it opened up, it can take several days for them to dissolve. If you don't have any algae, then you're getting chlorine in some form into the water--you'll just need to keep it from 1-3 ppm for now until we can see a set of test results taken with a drop-based kit (no strips!)

[HMSpool]

I have used the HTH test strips. The pH level has always been at 7.5, total alkalinity at 180-240 which I know is a bit high. (I was working on one crisis at a time) and the FAC at 0 on the tabs alone. I realize in re-reading my post it looks like I was saying the granules didn't work either which isn't the case. They brought the FAC up to 4 ppm and the other numbers were still the same as before. It didn't stay that way by the next afternoon but I knew that would be the case as the granules have no stabilizer in them. At that point it was a matter of wanting to be able to get the pool to at least a point where we could say we had at least tried the pool. I went back out this afternoon and had a look in the floater and the tablets are all but gone now. Yes I have the floater as open as it will go. My bottle of tabs says they are stabalized themselves so I didn't think I needed stabalizer. Also my pool has a cover that is on it all the time unless we are using it so I figured that would help keep the sunlight from getting to the water too.

I had also wondered if just putting half a dozen or so of the tabs would do the trick.

[aylad]

You are right in not being concerned about the TA--it's not going to be an issue for you in this pool unless you have a high calcium reading.

The tabs are stabilized, but I still am not sure about the granules--dichlor granules ARE stabilized, cal-hypo granules are not. Either way, you'll need to watch your stabilizer level (and I'm sorry to tell you , but strips are not going to be accurate enough to depend on) and raise your chlorine level as your CYA level rises (see the "best guess chlorine chart in my sig above for more explanation). Sounds like you just have something, maybe an algae bloom trying to happen, eating up the chlorine. I would shock the pool by bringing your chlorine up to 12-15 ppm and holding it there until you can test at night and again in the morning and not lose any chlorine in the meantime. Once you do that, you should be able to maintain some chlorine in your pool.

[HMSpool]

Glad I can disregard one issue for now. lol

I am pretty sure my granules aren't stabilized. I really had, and hopefully have, no intention on using them permanently as they are a bit of a pain in the behind to either be sure they dissolve or to make sure they don't touch the bottom of the pool. Too much hassle for a mom of 4 who works too.

I do have some shock treatment stuff and had wondered if I should use it but wasn't sure as the pool had only been used once and we've only had it up a week and a half. So for the shock stuff, put it in in the evening, test the level, and then test again in the am to see how much I lost over night. And if I'm still off the chart with too much chlorine so to speak that's a good thing. Then wait till the level comes back down to the 1-3 ppm and in theory my tabs will keep me there going forward.

And I will need to look at investing in a better testing method too.

[Watermom]

You need to give ingredients of the granules and also the 'shock treatment stuff' so we can better advise you.