Chlorine Question from New User

[MrTodd]

Greetings All ! I am trying to find the best route to go for chlorine supplies. I totally understand the bleach concept, and am in total agreement. However, I have been using granular shock from my local Sam's Club, which is PoolBrand. It is about $58 per case, and there is 24 bags of 1 lb. bags in each case. The ingredients are Sodium Dichloro-s-Triazininetrione Hydrated 99%, Other Ingredients 1%. It says Available Chlorine 55.5%. The bleach I have just bought to try is Great Value brand, which has Sodium Hypochlorite 6%, and Other Ingredients 94%. Yields 5.7% Available Chlorine. It was $3 for a 1.4 gal. jug. My question is, I am going to need to buy some more Chlorine in the next day or so, and is this a good bleach to use, or is the granular shock a better route to go? It looks to me like the shock is a shade cheaper, but I am basing this solely on volume and know nothing about chemistry. Is one better to use than the other, or am I even on the right path here at all? My apologies for the long post, but your help would be greatly appreciated.

[Watermom]

Either one is fine to use. But, whether or not you can use the dichlor powder depends on what your CYA level is. Dichlor has CYA in it and you don't want it too high. So, before we can really advise you, we would need to know that reading.

[MrTodd]

Thank you so much for your quick response. I have a K-2006 kit on the way, but for now have to rely on strips and the pool store testing, which I will do tomorrow. Looks like I will use the bleach for now until the kit arrives. Also, I have tablets in the skimmer. Should I take them out and add the bleach through the skimmer, or leave them in and add to the deep end?

[Watermom]

You can leave the tabs in the skimmer and just pour the bleach in front of a return jet. Those tabs are acidic so you should not turn your pump off for more than 8 hours with them in the skimmer. Plus, you need to keep an eye on your pH since the acidic tabs drive pH downward. Once you know your CYA level, we can help you make a decision about whether or not to keep using the tabs or not as they also, like the dichlor, have CYA in them.