Order of adding chemicals - question

[rannrich]

Order of adding chemicals - is the only reason to add chlorine before the stabilizer the concern of having to use more chlorine if you are having a possible problem?

If someone added stabilizer and then a little later the ph down but didn't realize that they should have added the chlorine first, can they go ahead and add the chlorine after that - since the pool needs chlorine?

Appreciate any thoughts on this so I can go put chlorine in the pool...

Thanks
Renee

[Watermom]

Your post is a little confusing to me. You can always add chlorine. But, it doesn't always have to be first. I'm not sure I understand your question. Are you talking about a freshly filled pool and needing to get chlorine in there quickly before it turns green or ?? Please clarify for me.

[rannrich]

Thanks for the response Watermom, let me try again.

When the pool needs multiple chemicals I was wondering if there was a preferred order. What I found when I did a search on the forum was that if you need stabilizer and chlorine that the chlorine should go in first and then the stabilizer. I needed stabilizer, chlorine and Ph down and was wondering what order they should have been added.

[aylad]

I would take the pH down first, if you're planning to shock, because high levels of chlorine give falsely high pH readings. If you're not shocking, then you can work on chlorine and pH at the same time. You can goahead and add stabilizer as soon as the green is cleaned up-- the sooner the better.

[rannrich]

Thank you Aylad!

[rannrich]

one more question, if the pool had been green and stabilizer was added first what problems might have occurred?

Luckily I have been adding lots of bleach but it was disappearing quickly so I added stabilizer last night.

Thanks Again,
Renee

[Watermom]

No problems. Having added stabilizer just means that your needed chlorine levels will be higher since there is a correlation between the two. (You can read about it in the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in my signature below.)

[rannrich]

Thanks watermom. I have done just that and all my numbers are fine but I was wondering why the pool turned cloudy - pretty sure I found the answer in another thread, pollen. I put the sock on and with in an hour I had to rinse it off. Getting ready to head out again, hopefully this will clear up soon.

[Watermom]

That very well could be. Those skimmer socks will catch a lot of the small stuff.