Totally Lost

[Coolflee22]

I thought I understood the concepts here but after reading some of the recent posts Im just as lost as ever. This may have been covered already and Im sorry to be asking again but need the hammer to fall on my head. Went to Walmart and bought a bucket of chlorine tabs(trichlor..something.something), bleach,Borax, Baking Soda and Polyquat. Second year with a above ground pool.

Is this the correct process- put the chlorine tabs in my inline feeder(Hayward), check the chlorine level and increase the dial if needed plus toss in some bleach for a quick pickme up if needed. When its time to shock throw some bleach in to the pool. Use the other chemicals as needed. Is this correct? The chlorine tabs I got are stablized so I will not need an additional stablizer, will I still need to do the CYA test?

Sorry for the post but better safe than sorry.
R.

[CarlD]

R.

Take a deep breath! We CAN help (I hope!)

Go to the Testing...Forum and read the beginner's guide there. It should help.

You need generally to test for 4 things: Chlorine, pH, Total Alkalinity (T/A), and CYA (Stabilizer). Since you have vinyl pool, you rarely need to test for calcium--maybe once or twice a summer just to make sure it isn't too high.
Chlorine can be tested as one test for Total Chlorine (TC-most test kits) or in 2 tests, Free Chlorine (FC) and Combined Chloramines (CC). The more sophisticated test kits, like the one PoolDoc sells on PoolSolutions.com test for those. They tell you more....
And TC = FC + CC. Always and forever.

Chlorine sanitizes your pool and pH is the measure of how acid or alkaline it is--neutral is what we want. T/A helps keep pH stable. CYA helps keep chlorine from breaking down too fast.

I like to test for these 4 things weekly, and chlorine and pH daily or every other day.

When you use pucks you MUST monitor CYA and pH very carefully as they drive CYA up and pH down. Sometimes that's good (new concrete pools need CYA and the concrete curing raises pH). Sometimes it's really, really bad. But you can simply use bleach and skip the pucks if you like. Both add chlorine. But pucks add CYA and affect pH as well.

[ScottS]

One thing to keep in mind regarding the HTH Trichlor tabs from Wal-Mart is that they contain copper. Copper is generally a substance that you want to keep out of your pool.

If it's not too late try finding tablets that do not contain copper then bring the others back to Wmart. My local Kmart sells Aquachem tablets. They do not contain copper.

[Coolflee22]

Thanks to all who helped, Im opening the pool this weekend and will post some numbers. Just need to clarify something here - the chlorine tabs have the stablizer in them(CYA) so as long as it does not get too high Im ok. If it gets hight I need to stop using the tavlets and go with straight bleach. If the CYA get way overboard I will need to drain some water and refill to get the level down. Am I correct? What level of CYA is too high? Is it the high end of Ben's CYA chart?
Thanks for all the help
R

[JohnT]

What level of CYA is too high? Is it the high end of Ben's CYA chart?
Thanks for all the help
R

That's the $64,000 question. I creep up until the chlorine hangs around all day. I'm around 20 right now, but I have a 2 week vacation coming up, so I'll be using the feeder with trichlor pucks while I'm gone. If I was adding CYA, I wouldn't shoot for anything over 30 or 40. Some folks claim that anything over 10 is bad, but I don't know the chemistry well enough to make an educated comment on that. I've just found that at 30 I can put bleach in at night and still have 1.5 or 2ppm the next evening when I test before adding more. Pool is clear, kids are happy.

[faithfulfrank]

As just said, that is the $64,000 question.
I believe it is generally thought that 30-40 ppm is fine.
There are those here who keep it higher. Way higher.

If you do, you just have to know that the higher your CYA is, the higher your Free chlorine needs to be to do the job, because more chlorine is held in reserve.

Watermom posted a sticky with a chart that will help. I would not freak if your CYA is high, just adjust accordingly. It does go down eventually as water gets splashed out, etc, backwashing, and as rain, etc, replaces it.

Frank D.

[aylad]

Thanks to all who helped, Im opening the pool this weekend and will post some numbers. Just need to clarify something here - the chlorine tabs have the stablizer in them(CYA) so as long as it does not get too high Im ok. If it gets hight I need to stop using the tavlets and go with straight bleach. If the CYA get way overboard I will need to drain some water and refill to get the level down. Am I correct? What level of CYA is too high? Is it the high end of Ben's CYA chart?
Thanks for all the help
R

You've got a good understanding of it. The "normal" range for CYA depends on you and certain characteristics of your pool. As pointed out already, just know that if you raise your CYA to high levels, then you need to keep higher maintenance levels of chlorine to compensate. Most people around this forum tend to stick with 20-40 ppm, and add a small amount of bleach daily. I, on the other hand, live in a very hot climate with full sun on my pool and a heavy swimmer load, so I tend to keep my CYA around the 80-90 ppm mark and only add bleach a couple of times a week. Many people around this forum shudder at the idea, but it works for me!

Janet