using liquid chlorine and dichlor tabs together in summer months

[davidwest]

Hi, I am new to the forum and would like advice on my local pool stores recommendation to use both liquid chlorine and tabs in my off line feeder together during the hot summer months here in southern California. They are telling me I will have trouble keeping up with just liquid chlorine.
I would prefer to use the TFPC method and avoid the tabs.

Thanks ,Dave

 

[JVTrain]

I'm no Los Angelean (is that the right term?) but in the summer months, I can easily meet chlorine demand by dosing with bleach/liquid chlorine once every evening. If you have your CYA at a proper level for your region, it's easy. I'd recommend at least 50 ppm CYA, probably 60 for your area and you could do the same. I usually run at 40 ppm.

Keep in mind that trichlor tabs also add CYA to your pool so they may help continually add FC throughout the day, but your CYA will also rise as a result. If your CYA is at 50 or less, you could certainly use the trichlor tabs during the hottest part of the summer, with the knowledge that your CYA will also increase. As long as you know the consequences and keep up with your testing, why not? But it's certainly false that you couldn't keep up with just liquid chlorine, with the proper CYA level, testing and dosing.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

The simple answer is they are dead wrong. Thousands of our members manage just fine with only bleach as their source of chlorine. If you read around the site you will see we don't put any stock in pool store "advice". They are wrong more often than they are right. We stress self-reliance and self testing. If you want to commit to the TFPC Method of pool care then you absolutely need one of the Recommended Test Kits. Test your own water, post your results and folks around here will flood you with helpful advice.

Welcome to TFP

Matt

 

[pooldv]

Well, you've probably been here long enough to know what we think of most pool store advice. The only reason I can think of for that is advice to be able to sell you more tabs.

 

[davidwest]

thanks, my CYA is at 40, can I let rise using the tabs and then stop using them when CYA reaches 60?

 

[chiefwej]

Yes, but I would reserve that option as an "ace in the hole" for a vacation.

 

[JVTrain]

You certainly could if you have tablets on hand. Use Pool Math to figure out how much each tab will add in CYA to your pool. The "Effects of Adding Chemicals" section at the bottom of the Pool Math page is great for that. Just make sure you put in your pool volume at the top first. Most tablets are between 6 and 8 ounces. Check the weight on yours.

Also... if they happen to be tabs that have metals in them, I wouldn't use them. These are usually branded as Blue, Extra or other fancy sounding name and if you look at the ingredients there will be copper compounds listed.

 

[davidwest]

Thanks everyone, I am planning a vacation in June for a couple of weeks and I will use that time to let the tabs raise my CYA level. I will also check that my tabs don't have any metals