Wrong tabs?

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survivalcar

0
Jun 9, 2018
58
Northampton, MA
Hey guys - I posted a couple weeks ago here about the difficulty in getting LC where I live and unfortunately using chlorine tabs instead until things get back to normal.

I don't want to do it but it's been fine so far until I just ran out of the first barrel of tabs and opened up the second barrel which I ordered this year. The tablets are smaller (1 inch instead of 1.5 inch) and I did a little math accounting for both the different size and % chlorine.

Then I put them in the skimmer around noon today and now (around 5) none of those smaller tabs have dissolved. I'm on the phone with a rep from intheswim.com and he literally has no idea what I'm even asking - that is, why is it dissolving slower, how long will it take to fully dissolve and how much the chlorine in the pool will be elevated over that time. In The Swim's website uses terms like "slow-dissolving" but I asked the guy what slow meant and he didn't know. A full day? I've been running my pump only during the day but tonight I'll have to leave it on.

He literally knows nothing about this. Can anyone explain to me where I can get the tabs like the ones I used to have? Or if not, how to differently treat the pool with these tabs? They are 1 inch wide and around 95% chlorine but they haven't dissolved at all in 5 hours. With the old tabs, I would put in 7 tabs around noon and they would be gone by 4pm, keeping my chlorine around 7.5.

Thanks!
 
Measure Trichlor by weight. A standard Trichlor tablet is 8 oz. 8 oz will raise your FC by 1.8, cya by 1.1, lower pH by 0.1, and raise 1.5 ppm of salt.
 
They are putting them in the skimmer. Every day, so they are all cal hypo. They dissolve much quicker than the trichlor.
 
Thank you for answering me! The new smaller ones are Trichloro-S-trazinetrione (picture attached). trichlor_bucket.jpg
The ones I had been using (~7/day) were the same ingredient, but listed as 63% Trichlor instead of 98.6% (the new ones). The guy at intheswim.com had not been trained but he talked to his supervisor who said I should put 25 of these tablets for every 10,000 gallons of water - so 75 of these tablets (30,000 gallons pool)? - and I said how often and he said "a week" but that sounds so wrong. If I put 75 tablets in my two skimmers there will barely be room for water to get around them. He seemed so puzzled when I said I want to add it daily so I have some control over it.

Anyway, I'm attaching another photo of these little discs that have been in there for 8.5 hours now and haven't dissolved at all.

in_skimmer.jpg

How do I ensure that I get tabs that will do their work within a day and not repeat this same mistake? I'm perfectly open to using granules if that's a better solution but I just read a horror story about the CYA skyrocketing from the granules.

In fact I'm happy to do anything as long as I can have it delivered to my house. Thank you all for you help.

By the way I do have some powdered cal-hypo which I should be able to use until I solve this problem, yes?

C
 
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I would dose them by weight. 60 oz a week would give your 2 ppm a day of chlorine.

Trichlor is made to dissolve in 5-7 days. I would put 60 oz of them in your skimmer and see how long it takes to dissolve.

What is your pump runtime?

What is your current CYA?
 
My bad -- You should not be using those tablets. Not only because they continually raise your CYA, but leaving them in the skimmer is slowly destroying your skimmer and equipment.
 
You have an Ocean State Job Lots store within 12 miles of you. They carry liquid chlorine at very good prices.

I would suggest you look into switching back to liquid chlorine, soon.
 

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I know all the arguments for using LC over tabs and I don't need any convincing about that. Thanks to this site I'm a full convert about LC.

My local pool guy is in his 80s and hasn't taken any precautions about the virus and I don't want to be the reason he gets sick. They don't even take credit cards and it's a tiny place where people are packed in without protection and that's unwise. I've been trying to find a place where they can load out stuff to a pick-up area and I can pre-pay without having to go inside. I would go to Walmart but last I heard there is lax enforcement there against people making a political point of not wearing masks.

My oldest friend in the world died from this disease and if the worst thing that happens to me is that I have to use tabs until things get back to normal, I'd say that's not such an enormous sacrifice. Do you know if Ocean State Job Lots has an outdoor pickup area?

And in the short-term, I have two jobs that make it hard for me to get anywhere during business hours. It would be ideal to find a solution where I can get something shipped to my house - which I can do with Amazon if I don't order the wrong stuff again!

And @ajw22 My CYA is around 50 thus maintaining FC around 6.5-7.5. I had been putting 7 or 8 tabs in around noon each day, which would dissolve by 4 or so. I only yesterday starting using the pump's timer to turn it off from 9pm to 8am. Today I took the timer out of the loop after these tabs didn't dissolve, so now it's back to 24/7
 
survivalcar said:
And @ajw22 My CYA is around 50 thus maintaining FC around 6.5-7.5. I had been putting 7 or 8 tabs in around noon each day, which would dissolve by 4 or so. I only yesterday starting using the pump's timer to turn it off from 9pm to 8am. Today I took the timer out of the loop after these tabs didn't dissolve, so now it's back to 24/7
Click to expand...

You have it under control with the tabs in your skimmer as long as you run your pump 24/7.

At CYA 50 you are ok. But you will be adding around 7 - 10 ppm of CYA in a week. So in 4 weeks you will be pushing CYA 80 and by the end of July CYA 100.

Figure out how long you will maintain tablet use or plan to do a water exchange every month or two to keep your CYA under control.
 
survivalcar said:
I know all the arguments for using LC over tabs and I don't need any convincing about that. Thanks to this site I'm a full convert about LC.

My local pool guy is in his 80s and hasn't taken any precautions about the virus and I don't want to be the reason he gets sick. They don't even take credit cards and it's a tiny place where people are packed in without protection and that's unwise. I've been trying to find a place where they can load out stuff to a pick-up area and I can pre-pay without having to go inside. I would go to Walmart but last I heard there is lax enforcement there against people making a political point of not wearing masks.

My oldest friend in the world died from this disease and if the worst thing that happens to me is that I have to use tabs until things get back to normal, I'd say that's not such an enormous sacrifice. Do you know if Ocean State Job Lots has an outdoor pickup area?

And in the short-term, I have two jobs that make it hard for me to get anywhere during business hours. It would be ideal to find a solution where I can get something shipped to my house - which I can do with Amazon if I don't order the wrong stuff again!

And @ajw22 My CYA is around 50 thus maintaining FC around 6.5-7.5. I had been putting 7 or 8 tabs in around noon each day, which would dissolve by 4 or so. I only yesterday starting using the pump's timer to turn it off from 9pm to 8am. Today I took the timer out of the loop after these tabs didn't dissolve, so now it's back to 24/7
Click to expand...
Have a Home Depot close by, they deliver for $8 but if you but several 3 packs it’s not bad
 
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