I'm using BBB now but would like to use the tabs for when we are away. Does anyone make just chlorine tabs that aren't di or tri chlore? I don't want to raise my CYA anymore but the tabs can be verrry handy!
3 Inch Tablets
- Thread starter like2lean
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Hello,
I have only one season using the BBB method and have a thought. How long are you going to be away? If you have your CYA at the correct level already, couldn't you just raise your FC in the pool right before you leave and cover the pool to minimize the FC loss while your gone?
I have only one season using the BBB method and have a thought. How long are you going to be away? If you have your CYA at the correct level already, couldn't you just raise your FC in the pool right before you leave and cover the pool to minimize the FC loss while your gone?
crookm11 said:
That's what I do...a 10ppm increase (or boost) will last at least 5 days in a well balanced pool with a solar cover over it.
Yep, Cal-Hypo tabs are out there. They aren't used in residential applications all that much. Sometimes you can find some HTH tabs @ Walmart. Just make sure you don't mix them up tri-chlor tabs or put them in the same feeder where tri-chlor tabs once sat.
Cal-hypo tablets tend to dissolve way too quickly. I've seen various approaches to trying to control that, but nothing simpler than a specialized cal-hypo tablet feeder for use at the equipment pad seems to work reliably. The various cal-hypo floaters, and cal-hypo containers designed to be put in a skimmer all seem to be too inconsistent for practical use.
like2lean said:
I use trichlor tabs in an auto-feeder when we're away. Our vacations are usually for 6 weeks in Aug/Sept, a very long time to leave a pool unattended. I plan for it from the beginning of the season by keeping the CYA at or slightly below 50 so that I have room for an increase when using the trichlor tabs. We live in a climate where CYA disappears over winter so a higher level at the end of the season doesn't concern me.
During the swim season I use liquid chlorine and add granular CYA only at the beginning to get to about 50.
AnnaK said:
Wow I didn't know CYA would drop over the winter, I've heard a drain was in order for highter level correction...
So are the Cal-hypo tabs straight chlorine with no stabilizer? Do they raise calcuim levels?
Cal-hypo raises CH levels.
CYA only sometimes drops over the winter, and usually only when you get algae over the winter. It would be very very nice if there was a way to get the CYA drop to happen on demand, but there isn't (yet).
CYA only sometimes drops over the winter, and usually only when you get algae over the winter. It would be very very nice if there was a way to get the CYA drop to happen on demand, but there isn't (yet).
Not to put too fine a point on it but we don't get algae over winter. Our pool freezes into a solid block. We end the season with chlorine at shock level and CYA around 60 and we open in mid-April to clean clear water at around 45 F, no FC, no CYA. And NO algae.
The process by which CYA goes away is difficult to predict, it can happen without algae, it is much more likely to happen with algae. It can happen every year for some pool, and never happen to apparently identical pool next door. You are lucky that you can rely on it, most people can't.JasonLion said:
Hope I'm not hijacking this thread, but my question seems to fall right in line with the OP. So, are there non-stabilized (as in no CYA) Trichlor 3" tabs? I am now considering something like the Liquidator so I don't add too much CYA, but seems to be this whole process would be SO much simpler if I could just use non-CYA tabs in my feeder! We get so much precipitation over winter that my CYA has dropped from 60-30 due to numerous partial drains, but that's now just about right for the CYA level.
There's really no alternative tablets....only tri-chlor (that add CYA pretty quickly) The Cal-hypo tabs are, as Jason said above, really unreliable and simply not very practical for pools. (FWIW, they are frequently used in septic systems where a sanitizer is required)
