Adding large quantities - tips and tricks?

[ChristiK]

After a series of unfortunate events, I'm bringing a whole pool of fresh city water back into balance. This is obviously requiring LARGE quantities of certain things like salt. The water is currently hovering around 55 degrees and things are not dissolving well. Does anyone have tips or tricks to get these mixed in without leaving piles of chems sitting on the bottom of my pool?

I already have the CYA in an old tube sock in the skimmer but what about things like the bags and bags of salt? Or is that OK to sit on the bottom? What about the CH - that can NOT sit or it will stain, correct? I spent WAY too long brushing not enough in yesterday. There must be a better way.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[wogster]

Things dissolve better in warm water, so make sure pieces are as small as possible, powder is preferred, dissolve in hot water from the tap, stirring as you go, when no more will dissolve, pour the liquid into the pool, refill the bucket, and repeat until everything is dissolved.

 

[Texas Splash]

Christi, since I'm assuming your water is too cold for your SWG, so you could always wait on the salt. You may be treating your pool as a non-salt pool for the next 3 months or so anyways. As for calcium, typically it is spread across the surface of the deep end of the pool. Some people will pre-dissolve it in a 5-gal bucket. If you chose to do that, keep in mind it can get fairly warm from the chemical exchange process. Baking soda, if needed, should break-up fairly easily when spread or brushed. Sounds like you already have a handle on the stabilizer, so I think that's about it right?

 

[ChristiK]

I missed that the SWG didn’t operate at these temps ? it was throwing a “low salt” error so I thought it needed to be addressed. I ended up pouring the salt in a 5 gallon bucket and then putting the tail of the robot cleaner in it. This way I wasn’t introducing new water to the pool but only dissolved salt will float to the surface and overflow into the pool. It actually worked really well. I poured the salt in the bucket and walked away. About 20 minutes later it was clear that it was dissolved out. There didn’t seem to be much pressure on the tail so I don’t think I risked damaging the robot at all.

The stabilizer in the old sock in the basket does not seem to dissolved out at all. If it’s still like that when I come home tonight I might take it out, pour it in some warm water and dissolve it that way.

The warnings on the calcium increaser are so direct about not dissolving it first that I’m glad to hear I can dissolve it in a 5 gallon bucket first as long as I’m aware of the heat that is generated.

I think my bases are covered now thank you