Switching to Tabs for the short term - advice needed

wjo3

New member
Jun 21, 2022
1
Bristol, RI
We have a salt water pool with an (older) Hayward AquaLogic and saltcell. Sadly the board has died and supply chain issues are making it look like its going to take some time to get a new board or (even better) the newer OmniGL Retrofit. So it looks like in order to keep the pool usable I'll need to use another method of chlorination, even just for the short term.
I was thinking I'd just buy a floater and use the 3" tabs - but is there anything I should be concerned about? Should I use straight, basic 3" tabs - or the "All in one" tabs - like a Silkguard complete. Any advice?
 
Hi, welcome to TFP! Your biggest concern with tablets is CYA build up, followed by calcium build up. There are two types of stabilized chlorine tablets, dichlore/trichlor which contain CYA and calcium hypochlorite which contain calcium. CYA and calcium are both problematic because they accumulate over time and do not evaporate out when water evaporates. Instead they become more concentrated in the remaining water. Too much CYA will bind up your free chlorine to the point where you have to keep adding more and more chlorine only for it to become less and less effective.
Too much calcium will cause calcium deposits on the surfaces of the pool. These deposits can be very rough and tear skin and swimwear and they leave unattractive stains on pool surfaces. The only way to rid your pool of excess CYA and calcium is to drain and replace water. Depending on water use regulations in your area this may not be an option. As you can see neither is a great choice for long term use.

Your best bet is to use liquid chlorine, either the 10% concentration from the pool and big box stores or 6-8% plain, unscented household bleach. You can also use a combination of tabs and liquid chlorine, but you will need to keep a close eye on the chemical levels with an FAS/DPD based test kit. This type of pool kit is more precise and measures CYA where the average test kit does not. Once you get about 70ppm of CYA you will need to switch to another form of chlorine to avoid over stabilizing the pool. Calcium levels need to stay under 450 ppm.
 
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