Limited resources, using trichlor to SLAM?

[infernix]

Hi,

I am in Azerbaijan for a few weeks and am trying to get a pool sorted. There's very limited supply of anything here. The only testkit I could find is a 5 way kit. Results on a pool with some algae and mostly fresh water:

• Total Chlorine 0
• Ph 8.2+, needed 2-3 drops to get to 7.4 or about 1.8-2kg dry acid.
• Total Alkalinity 100
• Water Hardness (CH?) 300ppm
  

Getting a real testkit here is insanely expensive and infeasible in the short term (i checked - > $500 with MyUS).

To add to this, I managed to get a hold of 200gr 90% Trichlor tablets. By what I calculated (CYA probably 0), I need to get 1kg Trichlor in to get PPM to 10. So that's 5 pucks.

I figured since those pucks lower PH already, I didn't lower it with the dry acid yet. So I've put 5 pucks in a net and hung it in front of the return on the deep end. They are dissolving really slowly however.

So two questions:

- should I bring PH down already with the dry acid?
- Can I dissolve the tabs in a bucket of hot water (one by one) to speed this up? Is it safe to do that (even up to boiling temperatures)?

I wish I could get more data, but this is all I can work with. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks![/COLOR]

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum! :handshake:

If you are going to use the trichlor, do not use the dry acid. BUT - trichlor is very slow. You cannot SLAM with it. Do not boil it! The chlorine will flash off and it could be harmful to your health!

Can you not get bleach? If you can, use the trichlor to raise the CYA (I assume you know it is 0 right now?) until you have added enough to get to 30 ppm CYA, use PoolMath. Unless you can test FC to above 10 ppm, then a SLAM Process will be pure guess work. You could dilute your sample with distilled water and then test FC. Your error will be large.

I suggest you read Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry and consider reviewing the entire Trouble Free Pool School book.

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

Welcome to TFP infernix

Bleach would be way more effective to try and clear up the algae. If the tablets are all you have right now you can always try to carefully crush them with a hammer or something to have more surface area to make them dissolve faster but even then the chlorine would get used up so fast you'd still be way ahead using bleach. As stated above it's going to be a guessing game trying to figure out how much to add with only the kit you have for testing.
Whatever you do, don't boil those tablets. :thumbdown:

.

 

[infernix]

Thanks for the advice gentlemen. I read the book several time - it's what made me try this at all in the first place. But it's hard if I can't get all the right parts needed.

I have only found chlorine with additives (fragrances mainly) in stores, no pure liquid chlorine. I'll keep looking - SLAMming is really needed, even if I can't measure above 5ppm. Dilution is not a bad idea though! Better than nothing.

The 5 200gr tabs that I have in there will only raise CYA to 6.2. I would need to add 5kg trichlor to get to CYA of 31 but that raises FC to 51 - way too high as I understand it. It also lowers pH by 2.7 so then I have to add dry acid to bring that back up. But at this rate, I doubt I can dissolve them in time. I am here for just a few weeks - after that, the pool will probably get drained and will be unmanaged (sadly).

Next time I'm stateside I'll try to bring a TF-100 XL or K-2006C with me. How long do those kits stay usable?

 

[mknauss]

The FC from the trichlor will disappear but the CYA stays.

Dry acid lowers pH, you would need borax to raise pH.

The kits, if stored in climate controlled conditions, should last two seasons. Some reagents are more stable than others. Refills each year are what is recommended as most people need FAS-DPD, TA, and CYA reagent refills then. The CH test reagents last the least amount of time.