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I have a 27 ft above ground pool and I have drained it to clean in and refilled recently. I want to make sure I get started out right. I have had my water tested and I have tested myself and so far this is what I got. PH around 7.2 to 7.4. Total Alk is 60. No Stabilizer. My question is whats best to use to raise the stabilizer? Thanks
You can either add straight stabilizer (sold as balancer, conditioner, but the ingredient on the label is cyanuric or isocyanuric acid), or you can use trichlor tabs (which will raise chlorine, lower pH, and add stabilizer) or use dichlor powder (which will raise chlorine, lower pH, and add stabilizer faster than trichlor will). Just depends on what you have on hand and what you prefer.
Welcome to the group!!
Since you have none, I'd go with either dichlor or just adding CYA outright. Waiting for the trichlor pucks to dissolve will add the stabilizer more slowly and in the meantime, you'll have to be adding chlorine really often which will be a big pain in the rear. Just my $0.2. Welcome!
Thanks I did buy some conditioner. It was a small container and I added half of it but didnt seem to make the stabilizer rise any. It said dilute in warm water then poor in skimmer. It came in a crystal form and I put it in a bucket of warm water and stirred it up but it didnt dilute much. I added it to the skimmer any how. It also said it may take up to 72 hours for it to dissolve. Does this sound about right. Should I wait till I add the second half of the container. I beleive it was a one pound bucket of conditioner. Thanks and I have really enjoyed reading all the posts and great information.
Yes, it can take 72 hours--or longer. We usually don't recommend that people re-test for CYA, or add more, until at least 4-5 days when adding CYA. If you have a sand filter, you also need to not backwash it until the CYA has fully dissolved. If you backwash, you'll just wash out the undissolved CYA on the filter and have to start over again.
There is a liquid form of stabilizer available, pricey, but if you're in a hurry it might be the thing for you.
My ballpark guess is you'll need 3-5 pounds of CYA to get a decent stabilizer level. You CAN use the tri-chlor pucks. They do have one advantage in that they can help keep a fairly consistent level of chlorine in the pool while slowly adding the CYA. For every 1 ppm of FC added, .6 ppm of CYA is added.
Ok thanks im going to add the half of the crystal form of conditioner I have left and recheck cya in a week or so then start with the pucks till the cya level is right. Thanks for the help.