Background: We have a 24 foot above ground pool. We have an in-line chloronator that we have been using chlorine pucks in for the last 2 summers since we got the pool. Never had any big water issues. This year we opened our pool, used a start up chemical kit, added pucks to our chlorinator as usual. Shortly after I went to the local pool store to have my water tested. I dont have a fancy test kit, we had been just using test strips and the Chlorine level was showing high. After having it tested it turns out we had a big stabilizer issue (it was around 110ppm) but the Free Chlorine level was also high (10.3ppm) At this point we had no water issues, the water was clear. PH was also low. We were advised the only solution to reduce the stabilizer was to drain and refill water. So we emptied about 1/3 to 1/2 of the pool and refilled. We then retested the water and the stabilizer level had come down but is still above what it should be (75ppm). Free Chlorine was low at 1ppm because at this point we had turned off the chlorinator once I learned that Chlorine pucks cause this stabilizer issue. I dont believe we had this issue in the past though. So now my dilemma is what kind of Chlorine to use going forward because I don't want to increase the stabilizer level anymore. I thought we would need to use liquid Chlorine but found out granules are unstabilized so we got some. It's a bit of a pain though because it needs to be diluted in water and added every night. But would this be my best bet? Would continuing to use our chlorinator end up causing the need to drain and refill constantly?
Also, our phosphorous level is high. Originally it was 3200 and the pool store sold me something super pricey which only reduced it to about 2500 and then we needed to drain the pool so that was a waste. It's now around 2000. I've read many things saying it doesn't matter much but I want to make sure it's not going to cause a big issue.
Also, our phosphorous level is high. Originally it was 3200 and the pool store sold me something super pricey which only reduced it to about 2500 and then we needed to drain the pool so that was a waste. It's now around 2000. I've read many things saying it doesn't matter much but I want to make sure it's not going to cause a big issue.
