New skimmer tabs with no CYA!

[302harrison]

I was just at Wal Mart heaving six bottle of chlorine into my cart when I noticed these Blue Sparkle Skimmer Tabs. The package says “does not contain CYA. Does not contribute to the buildup of stabilizer that makes chlorine less effective.” Has anyone tried these? Can I use these instead of the liquid bleach? If so, how many should I put in at once to keep my chlorine level from 3-7?

 

[ajw22]

HTH Blue Sparkle Skimmer Tabs contain Cal-Hypo which has calcium. Eventually your CH will get high enough, may cause scale, and eventually need to be drained out from the pool.

Stay with liquid chlorine.

 

[IceShadow]

SDS Sheet: http://media.lifeandhome.com/media/downloads/23471/MSDSpdf.pdf

Chemical name CAS-No. Concentration (%)
Calcium hypochlorite 7778-54-3 40.00 - 55.00
Magnesium sulfate heptahydrate 10034-99-8 22.00 - 32.00
Calcium dihydroxide 1305-62-0 10.00 - 16.00
Calcium chlorate 10137-74-3 0.00 - 5.00
Calcium chloride 10043-52-4 0.00 - 5.00
Calcium carbonate 471-34-1 0.00 - 4.00
Sodium chloride 7647-14-5 0.00 - 3.00
Water 7732-18-5 19.00 - 24.00

Looks like they're cal hypo so will add calcium.

 

[IceShadow]

If someone has low calcium and high CYA, could this be a better option than trichlor tabs when on vacation?

 

[Donldson]

It's compressed cal-hypo, but something's not right. The SDS doesn't list copper but the picture shows blue spots on the puck which is almost always indicative of copper. I wouldn't trust that.

Anyway, I think the Poolife NST tablets would be a better choice, but regardless, regular use of any solid form of chlorine is going to lead to something building up. If it's not CYA it will be calcium hardness.

 

[Tracey R]

I was just at Wal Mart heaving six bottle of chlorine into my cart when I noticed these Blue Sparkle Skimmer Tabs. The package says “does not contain CYA. Does not contribute to the buildup of stabilizer that makes chlorine less effective.” Has anyone tried these? Can I use these instead of the liquid bleach? If so, how many should I put in at once to keep my chlorine level from 3-7?

Oh I hope these are good to use! This would help while we're away for the weekends. My CYA is FINALLY perfect (after a long battle) Following

 

[302harrison]

Update on the blue sparkle skimmer Tabs: I tried them in my skimmer this week because we are going on vacation next week, but they were awful. Didn’t dissolve and just got mushy. Didn’t bring the FC up at all. Should have checked the Amazon reviews on them, because other people had that same problem. Guess the CYA serves an important function for chlorine tabs.

 

[Tracey R]

Thanks for the update! Sorry they didn't work :/

 

[ship of fools]

If someone has low calcium and high CYA, could this be a better option than trichlor tabs when on vacation?

Absolutely - maybe not this brand based on the feedback here but cal hypo tabs are fine. So are CYA based tabs as long as you understand the impact that additional stabilizer will have. For example if you're at 30 and use enough tabs to go to 40 you just need to bump your minimum chlorine level up. I had a leak and added a lot of water along with rain and my CYA level dropped from 40 to under 30 and I didn't want to buy another 4 lb jug of stabilizer so I bought a small container of tabs to bump my CYA up a bit.

 

[red-beard]

Try the poolife NST tablets. They are NOT cheap (44 lbs = $189 on Amazon). In my pool, they take about 4 days to dissolve. Each one is 8 oz, so this is a 2 oz addition per tablet per day. My pool needs about 12 oz per day. They are Cal-Hypo so they affect the pH as well as the chlorine. If I need to go away, I will be dropping these in my skimmer. For day to day use, I'm using liquid chlorine.

 

[mknauss]

They are Cal-Hypo so they affect the pH

Not really. They raise the CH of your pool water. No effect on pH.

 

[red-beard]

Not really. They raise the CH of your pool water. No effect on pH.

Really? I saw a rise in pH while using them.

 

[mknauss]

Then it was the natural rise of your pH. If you are comparing to using trichlor, remember that trichlor is acidic. Like adding acid every day.

 

[duraleigh]

Those Poolife NST tabs SHOULD NOT be placed in a regular chlorinator. They will react with any residual tri-chlor.

They are for use in skimmers only and TFP has never really liked the idea of adding chlorine through the skimmer