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going to switch to liquid chlorine going forth. heard enough bad about the tabs. 33k gal I know it will trial and error but any suggestions what I should look to do --daily?/everyother? what do people do when they go away for few days, just shock right before and let it roll until they return? appreciate all tips.
We'll need a bit more info about your pool to be able to advise you. What kind of pool is it -- gunite, vinyl, etc. What type of filter and what size of pump? Can you post some current water testing readings taken with a drops-based kit for us to look at? Do you have a good test kit? If not, click on the Amazon link in my signature. There you will find the kits we recommend -- the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C. What we can advise you to do when on vacation depends on your situation. Please repost with the requested info and somebody here will be glad to help. Welcome to the forum!
Once it is in the pool water, Chlorine is chlorine, it just comes in different forms.
Tablets erode, so they deliver a constant flow of new chlorine into the water. This is good because it's easier to keep levels up.
Bleach/Liquid chlorine goes in instantly and is there. There are feeders but the success with them is, at best iffy (I tried one...didn't work).
Tablets are very, very acid. If you struggle with rising or high pH, such as from curing new concrete pools, or SWCG systems, this is a good thing. If you don't, your pH can easily drop to damaging levels. This is a bad thing.
Bleach/LC is pH neutral. It doesn't change your pH.
Tablets dump a lot of stabilizer (CYA) into your water, about 6ppm for every 10ppm of chlorine. If you have no CYA in your water, this is a great and convenient way to add it. (that's how I did it this year) But if you have enough stabilizer (30-50ppm, or 70-80ppm for SWCG systems), you'll end up with too much stabilizer leading to the need to maintain high residual levels of chlorine (mis-named "Chlorine Lock" by pool companies). This is not a good thing.
Bleach/LC add no stabilizer.
You put tablets in a floater, an in-line chlorinator (which I don't have) or in the skimmer. You pour bleach into the return stream, into the skimmer, or walk around the pool dribbling it in (if the pump is off or broken).
NEVER pour bleach/LC over tablets! Very dangerous.
The trick is to take a couple of minutes every day to test your water's chlorine and pH, and adjust as needed. Once a week do a full suite of tests with the Taylor K-2006 or equivalent FAS-DPD service test kit (DPD and FAS-DPD are NOT the same--don't be confused).
Carl
thanks for getting back --
I am using the lamotte 0-200 ppm chlorine test, the walmart special for the rest of the tests.
vinyl liner 20 x 40 5.5 at deepest
have the auto tab chlorinator, but I think it may have contributed to keeping the cya too high and giving me a recent bout of "chlorine lock". After about three days of keeping ppm at around 25 and really nice clear h20, I think I'm ready to gear that back.
funny the point about mixing chemicals -- I was diluting some of last years shock with another brand of this year's purchase at start up. you are so right about danger, chemcial reaction that occurred sounded like double barrel shot-gun going off, whoa!
so do people generally just pour in a quart/gallon daily, if everything else is in balance?
Again, we need a suite of test results: FC, CC, TC, pH, TA, CH, and CYA. That's chlorine, pH, Total Alkalinity, Calcium, and Cyanuric Acid or stabilizer.
Carl
You pour in however much it takes to get you back into the necessary chlorine range based on your CYA level. See the link in my signature called "Best Guess Chart" which is not a guess by the way. Also, FYI --- 'chlorine lock' is another one of those myths that pool stores like to tell you about.