Using chlorine tablets in a floater until closing with a CYA of 30

[ba67]

I recently sprained my ankle and don’t feel comfortable getting near the pool to add liquid chlorine and muriatic acid since I’m on crutches and wearing a boot. Since CYA is only 30 and our pool will only be open for another month and a half, I was thinking about switching to chlorine tablets for the remainder of the season, or until my ankle heals. Before I do this, I have a few questions:

1. If we don’t have a tablet feeder, could we get by with using tablets in a floater in a pool my size or would we likely need to supplement with liquid chlorine as well occasionally?
2. How do I figure out how many chlorine tablets I would need to keep in a floater to keep FC above target level?
3. At what CYA level should we stop using tablets? CYA always goes down over the winter because of our mesh cover so I’d like to increase the CYA so we don’t open up to zero CYA 6 months later. A few years ago, we closed with a CYA of 40 and opened up to algae, so I'd like to increase the CYA higher so this doesn't happen again. We normally have to drain water out of our pool 3-4 times each winter to keep water below the tiles all winter and this causes the CYA to go down.
4. How do I keep the floater moving throughout the pool to distribute the chlorine and prevent it from getting stuck in the skimmer mouth, on a step in the shallow end, by the ladder, or in the corner of the pool? Is there a particular type of floater that tends to get stuck less in those areas? I tried tying a floater to the ladder once and it always got stuck along the wall by the ladder.
5. Since floaters tend to get stuck on a step in the shallow end when the pump turns off, should we take the floater out of the pool at night and put it back into the pool in the morning so we won’t experience any chlorine staining from the floater getting stuck in one place for 12 hours while the pump is off?

 

[Mdragger88]

I recently sprained my ankle and don’t feel comfortable getting near the pool to add liquid chlorine and muriatic acid since I’m on crutches and wearing a boot. Since CYA is only 30 and our pool will only be open for another month and a half, I was thinking about switching to chlorine tablets for the remainder of the season, or until my ankle heals. Before I do this, I have a few questions:

1. If we don’t have a tablet feeder, could we get by with using tablets in a floater in a pool my size or would we likely need to supplement with liquid chlorine as well occasionally?

This depends on how quickly they dissolve- they often don’t add enough chlorine to keep up the pace with the cya they add. It’s hard to know how much fc they will add each day. You will just need to test frequently to ensure you have enough fc.

2. How do I figure out how many chlorine tablets I would need to keep in a floater to keep FC above target level?

Here’s what each dissolved 8oz tab will do to your water- as mentioned there’s really no way to know how quickly they will dissolve.

3. At what CYA level should we stop using tablets?

In a manually chlorinated pool it gets unmanageable quickly at cya levels greater than 60

CYA always goes down over the winter because of our mesh cover so I’d like to increase the CYA so we don’t open up to zero CYA 6 months later. A few years ago, we closed with a CYA of 40 and opened up to algae, so I'd like to increase the CYA higher so this doesn't happen again. We normally have to drain water out of our pool 3-4 times each winter to keep water below the tiles all winter and this causes the CYA to go down.

I think you’re misunderstanding what occurred- algae happened because fc was too low not because your cya was low.
There is also a cya eating bacteria that can happen when fc goes to zero.
The solution is to check fc during the winter & add more as needed. Some people also choose to tether a floater under their cover.

4. How do I keep the floater moving throughout the pool to distribute the chlorine

If the water is moving in the pool it will ditribute the chlorine

and prevent it from getting stuck in the skimmer mouth, on a step in the shallow end, by the ladder, or in the corner of the pool? Is there a particular type of floater that tends to get stuck less in those areas? I tried tying a floater to the ladder once and it always got stuck along the wall by the ladder.

You can tether it in two places (i do this for vacation with fishing line) or use something that protudes out like a plastic ruler (or a pole thats weighed down) then tether it to that.

5. Since floaters tend to get stuck on a step in the shallow end when the pump turns off, should we take the floater out of the pool at night and put it back into the pool in the morning so we won’t experience any chlorine staining from the floater getting stuck in one place for 12 hours while the pump is off?

You can do this also - if the tethering doesn’t work
But it sounds like this is all going to be more trouble than it’s worth considering you’ll be having to go out there anyway.
P.s. in a couple days/ a week you’ll be flying in that boot with no crutches.
Go raise fc to a bit above high target or even to slam level & put a few pucks in the floater to get you through the week.

 

[Rocket J Squirrel]

Got a pool net on a pole? You could put the tablet floater in your net, put the net in the middle of the pool, and secure the end of the pole to something on deck.