I went to the pool store and ask if they sell liquid chlorine. The sales person said she doesn't recommend liquid chlorine for regular use since it increases TDS. Is this true? I am thinking of using liquid chlorine instead of powder Calcium hypochloride shock .
Liquid Chlorine increases TDS?
- Thread starter gx22
- Start date
Welcome to TFP!!!Technically that is true. The liquid chlorine adds some salt to the water, but never enough to be a concern and generally it is much less than is required in a SWG pool. You have to realize that ALL forms of chlorine add salt. And the solid forms of chlorine add other things that are bad if they get too high. In fact, Cal-hypo adds calcium which raises TDS even more!!!
Ditch the pool store and learn our methods. You can find everything you need to know in Pool School.
We at TFP do not care about TDS ... we care about the separate things that get lumped into the term ... like Calcium Hardness (CH) and Stabilzer (CYA).
Here are some links to get you started:
ABCs of Water Chemistry
Recommended Pool Chemicals
How to Chlorinate Your Pool
Welcome to TFP !!
You can use liquid chlorine ( bleach ) with no problems. The only thing left behind will be salt and water. No problems with that.
All I use is bleach.
Hope you enjoy the forum !!
You can use liquid chlorine ( bleach ) with no problems. The only thing left behind will be salt and water. No problems with that.
All I use is bleach.
Hope you enjoy the forum !!
Welcome to the forum!
Any form of Chlorine you can get will increase TDS to some degree. All powder and liquid forms add some level of salts. As for a reason to not use bleach it is completely bogus.
The reason they don't sell it is because they can't make much money on it. Using Bleach is a fantastic alternative with very little side effect. The products they sell have more impact in terms of side effects by adding CYA or calcium. Both can be very problematic.
Read around here and you'll find thousands of success stories from people switching too and using bleach exclusively for a Chlorine source.
Any form of Chlorine you can get will increase TDS to some degree. All powder and liquid forms add some level of salts. As for a reason to not use bleach it is completely bogus.
The reason they don't sell it is because they can't make much money on it. Using Bleach is a fantastic alternative with very little side effect. The products they sell have more impact in terms of side effects by adding CYA or calcium. Both can be very problematic.
Read around here and you'll find thousands of success stories from people switching too and using bleach exclusively for a Chlorine source.
I've only been here five minutes and I'm a bleach convert. 
You will find a lot of things that the pool stores tell you are half truths, this is just one common example
Another time where the store's info is correct......but to a point.
Liquid Chlorine DOES increase the TDS. The three major parts that make up the "TDS" are Salt, Calcium, and Cyanuric Acid. Cyanuric Acid and Calcium both start to develop issues at low levels while Salt can run well into the thousands without any issues.
Adding around 2FC of chlorine per day in a 10K gallon pool over a 30 day time......
Using 10% Liquid Chlorine will increase the Salt level 186ppm and adds nothing more. Often SWG's REQUIRE the salt levels to be up around 3000ppm to work at all.....and run into zero issues with water cloudiness what-so-ever.
Using Cal-Hypo over a 30 day time......
This will raise the Calcium level 42ppm as well as raise the Salt level up 60ppm. Calcium levels in a pool can start to lead to issues around 400ppm in plaster pools. Often the Calcium level out of the ground is higher than this level without adding any extra chemicals. High levels of Calcium can lead to scaling and if levels get very high, cloudy water.
Using Trichlor (pucks) over a 30 day time.......
Will raise the CYA level 36ppm and the salt level 51ppm. Issues with high CYA start around a 80ppm level. If your pool developed any algae you will have major issues clearing it up, and often water changes are needed.
As you can see.....all three forms add Salt at various levels. Using pure liquid however adds nothing else to the water. Salt levels can run well into the thousands without any side effects or other issues, while the other forms of chlorine adds extra's that cause issues for the pool.
Liquid Chlorine DOES increase the TDS. The three major parts that make up the "TDS" are Salt, Calcium, and Cyanuric Acid. Cyanuric Acid and Calcium both start to develop issues at low levels while Salt can run well into the thousands without any issues.
Adding around 2FC of chlorine per day in a 10K gallon pool over a 30 day time......
Using 10% Liquid Chlorine will increase the Salt level 186ppm and adds nothing more. Often SWG's REQUIRE the salt levels to be up around 3000ppm to work at all.....and run into zero issues with water cloudiness what-so-ever.
Using Cal-Hypo over a 30 day time......
This will raise the Calcium level 42ppm as well as raise the Salt level up 60ppm. Calcium levels in a pool can start to lead to issues around 400ppm in plaster pools. Often the Calcium level out of the ground is higher than this level without adding any extra chemicals. High levels of Calcium can lead to scaling and if levels get very high, cloudy water.
Using Trichlor (pucks) over a 30 day time.......
Will raise the CYA level 36ppm and the salt level 51ppm. Issues with high CYA start around a 80ppm level. If your pool developed any algae you will have major issues clearing it up, and often water changes are needed.
As you can see.....all three forms add Salt at various levels. Using pure liquid however adds nothing else to the water. Salt levels can run well into the thousands without any side effects or other issues, while the other forms of chlorine adds extra's that cause issues for the pool.
Summing up, TDS is not relevant to good pool management. All kinds of things add to TDS but it just doesn't matter in 99.99% of the all pools.
We don't suggest even testing for it.
We don't suggest even testing for it.
Thanks for the suggestions. I am new to pool maintenance and there is much to learn. I see liquid Chlorine have less side effects than the powder shock. The only drawback is less convenient to buy and use. Pool calculator says I need 3 jugs of Chlorine to shock 10 ppm.
When I shock the pool with liquid Chlorine, do I need to raise Chlorine level by 10 ppm?
Do I shock weekly in summer, bi-weekly in winter?
When I shock the pool with liquid Chlorine, do I need to raise Chlorine level by 10 ppm?
Do I shock weekly in summer, bi-weekly in winter?
In a properly maintained pool, you never need to "shock," though around here we call it SLAMing the pool.
Have you gotten a chance to read the pool school articles yet?
Have you gotten a chance to read the pool school articles yet?
gx22 said:
Don't worry about being new...none of were born knowing this stuff. :lol:
One of the other pool store myths is that you have to shock every so often. Smykowski is right, if you do things correctly, there isn't actually a need. Let things get out of control and start growing, then you'll need to shock, or SLAM as we call it. How much chlorine needed to shock also depends on your Cya level, and some powders and most tablets contain Cya. More of it equals more chlorine needed to SLAM.
There is a lot in Pool School, so don't let that dissuade you. Chew on the ABC's for a while and work it from there.
Like others have said we don't teach random "preventative" shocking, instead we teach testing and dosing as needed
To sum things up, our method is to test the water regularly (multiple times per week on the major items, probably even daily on FC, CC and pH until you get a feel for your pool, and every week or two on the more stable things like TA and CH), then only add the chemicals that are needed by the pool as a result of testing.
The pool store method tends to be, let them test the water in detail every couple of weeks so they can sell you more stuff to put in the water that you don't really need, then have you do rough imprecise testing for chlorine and pH between visits, keeping Chlorine in a broad range (mostly at levels we consider dangerously low), then once per week blindly boost chlorine level to "shock" level to hopefully make up for anything that may have started growing due to the low and imprecisely track chlorine levels with no testing to confirm that shocking was held high enough or long enough to finish the job.
This is win - win for the pool stores, this process causes you to use more chemicals, often have a less than perfect looking pool at various points on this roller coaster ride, giving them a chance to sell that expensive magic in a bottle (phosphate remover, algaecide, etc.), and hey if it all comes tumbling down when something did start to grow and the weekly "shock" was not long enough to kill it off, they get to sell you another arm load of chemicals to "fix" the problem.
Ike
To sum things up, our method is to test the water regularly (multiple times per week on the major items, probably even daily on FC, CC and pH until you get a feel for your pool, and every week or two on the more stable things like TA and CH), then only add the chemicals that are needed by the pool as a result of testing.
The pool store method tends to be, let them test the water in detail every couple of weeks so they can sell you more stuff to put in the water that you don't really need, then have you do rough imprecise testing for chlorine and pH between visits, keeping Chlorine in a broad range (mostly at levels we consider dangerously low), then once per week blindly boost chlorine level to "shock" level to hopefully make up for anything that may have started growing due to the low and imprecisely track chlorine levels with no testing to confirm that shocking was held high enough or long enough to finish the job.
This is win - win for the pool stores, this process causes you to use more chemicals, often have a less than perfect looking pool at various points on this roller coaster ride, giving them a chance to sell that expensive magic in a bottle (phosphate remover, algaecide, etc.), and hey if it all comes tumbling down when something did start to grow and the weekly "shock" was not long enough to kill it off, they get to sell you another arm load of chemicals to "fix" the problem.
Ike