Liquid chlorine and granular shock have the same active chemical that sanitizes your pool, what changes is the strength and the way you use it. Liquid chlorine is less costly, unstabilized and comes in liquid form. Granular shock is stabilized and comes in a solid form that dissolves in your pool.
The 2 types of stabilized chlorine are sodium dichlor and trichlor. Sodium dichlor is known for its near-neutral pH level of 6.5. This makes pH level fluctuations in the water less likely. It's sometimes used as a shock treatment, and is very effective at killing black algae.
What is Unstabilized Chlorine? Cyanuric acid stabilizes chlorine, making it last longer in the pool. Without it, chlorine is quickly burned off by the sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays. Unstabilized chlorine is simply chlorine that has not had cyanuric acid added to it.
Is HTH® Granular Chlorine stabilized? No, this is a NON stabilised product and will therefore not increase CYA levels in the pool. It's quick dissolve, fast acting and can be used on its own or in addition to other pool products.
Pool stabilizer is also sometimes called pool conditioner, chlorine stabilizer, or cyanuric acid (CYA). Its purpose is to stabilize the chlorine in your pool water, so the sanitizer lasts longer.
If the stabilizer level is too high in a pool, it will lock the chlorine molecules, rendering them ineffective as a sanitizer. This usually happens as a result of using chlorine tablets that contain cyanuric acid.
The addition of a cyanuric acid stabilizer to pool waters treated with chlorine is necessary to protect the active life of chlorine and its derivatives in the waters from the damaging effects of the sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays. When exposed to UV rays, chlorine evaporates rapidly.
How to Test Pool Stabilizer Levels? To test pool stabilizer levels, buy some test strips or a quality liquid test kit and apply them to the water once a week. Usually, you can dip a test strip in the water, wait for it to react to the chemicals in your pool, and check if the colors match the color chart on the box.
Use your test strips to monitor the chlorine stabilizer amounts. If the number falls below 40 ppm, add stabilizer. This level, unless it's extremely warm outside, will rarely decrease if you maintain your pool's chemicals regularly.
Clorox® Pool&Spa™ XtraBlue® Chlorinating Tablets go the extra mile to help maintain healthy pool water. These multi-functional tablets work hard to keep your water clear from both bacteria and unsightly algae. Each tablet dissolves slowly and contains stabilizer for a long lasting clean.
Over the course of 9 hours, unstabilized chlorine will go from 100% available chlorine to almost 0%. This means that if unstabilized chlorine is used in your outdoor pool when there is no stabilizer present in the water, your chlorine levels could be back to 0 by the end of the day.
Just make sure that you wait at least 20 minutes after adding chlorine stabilizer (and that it's completely dissolved into the water) before you go swimming. The same rule applies to all other swimming pool water chemicals including adding alkalinity increaser, chlorine, algaecide, and more.
I recommend always dissolving it in a bucket of water since it is an acid that can cause skin irritation or pool liner damage. Just pour the product into your bucket and pour the mixture around the edges of your pool. Never pour chemicals directly into your skimmer.
Baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate is naturally alkaline, with a pH of 8. When you add baking soda to your pool water, you will raise both the pH and the alkalinity, improving stability and clarity. Many commercial pool products for raising alkalinity utilize baking soda as their main active ingredient.
Correct levels of chlorine stabilizer (Cyanuric Acid or CYA) will protect chlorine from the sun, and will slow the natural degradation of chlorine.
There are two methods you can use to dissolve stabilizer into your pool water. You can either add the stabilizer to a pool skimmer box sock and hang the sock in front of the return jet or place it in the skimmer box. Or you can simply mix it in a bucket of water first and dump it into the skimmer box.
Pool stabilizer is made from cyanuric acid (CYA). CYA slows down how quickly chlorine evaporates so that chlorine will stay in the water longer. CYA works by binding to chlorite ions in chlorine and protecting them from UV ray damage.
Liquid chlorine and granular shock have the same active chemical that sanitizes your pool, what changes is the strength and the way you use it. Liquid chlorine is less costly, unstabilized and comes in liquid form. Granular shock is stabilized and comes in a solid form that dissolves in your pool.
A chlorine tab has two side effects that most pool owners don't realize: It has a pH of 2.9 but more importantly, it lowers Total Alkalinity (TA). It is 52% cyanuric acid (aka conditioner or stabilizer) by weight and each one increases the cyanuric acid level (CYA) in your pool water.