Many factors determine the amount of chlorine tablets you add to your pool, like temperature, climate, and the level of free and available chlorine in the water.
Let us assume you had a big pool party or your pets were allowed to swim in the pool. You would have to use more chlorine than when you did not really make use of the pool.
For a play pool, which can contain about 10 to 15 thousand gallons of water and is not really deep, you can use 3 to 4 tablets of the 3 inch chlorine tablets per week when it is summer and the sun is scorching. If it is just a normal winter season, you can use 1 to 2 tablets every month.
Are chlorine tablets necessary?
There are three major forms in which chlorine is processed; they are liquid, granular, and tablets. Liquid and granular easily evaporate and wear off. But the tablets of chlorine can stay very long in the pool when you use the tablet floater.
Chlorine tablets are very necessary, especially if you want to sanitize the pool, although the major element that gives chlorine its sanitizing power is trichlor.
Chlorine tablets have proven to be the most effective among the other types of chlorine used.
How much chlorine is too much?
Chlorine gets too much when you do not use it in measured quantities according to the size of your pool and recent activities done in the pool.
For this explanation, we’ll use two types of pools, mainly: the play pool and the diving pool.
Although they all require different amounts of chlorine tablets, for the play pool during summer, it requires about 3 to 4 tablets every week. And 1 to 3 tablets only every month when it is the winter season.
While for the diving pool, which is normally very deep, it requires about 5 to 8 tablets every week for the summer period and just 2 to 4 tablets every month during the winter.
Now the way to know if you are using too much chlorine is to test with a test strip or liquid tester. You should study your pool because what works for my pool might not be efficient for your pool. The reason being that pool maintenance by different owners varies.
How often do you use chlorine tablets in a pool?
This is kind of tricky because the rate at which you use your pool and how I use mine might be very different, so there is actually no science or precise explanation for how often you should use the chlorine tablets.
However, you should observe your pool and know what works well and what works better. How frequently you use the pool can determine how often you use the chlorine tablets.
Let us assume no activity went on in the pool for a month and there was no direct sunlight or high temperatures affecting the chlorine level.
Then it means the rate at which you apply chlorine will be different from someone who had a big pool party several times in that same month or a pool that has been affected by UV rays from the sun.
How much chlorine does a pool need per month?
For a frequently used diving pool that contains about 15,000 to 25,000 gallons of water and has a very deep bottom, you can use about 5 to 9 tablets of chlorine per month during the cold seasons and even more during the summer and hot seasons.
Nevertheless, for a less frequently used pool, 2 to 3 tablets of chlorine per month should be very effective. Although, when you use the pool commercially, you should always test the pool weekly or at intervals of 2 days to know when your chlorine level has dropped.
How quickly do chlorine tablets work?
When you add chlorine tablets or many of the chemicals you use in your pool, if you know your pool is used for commercial purposes, it is best to use them at night so you don’t get impatient and swim in it, which may lead to one skin reaction or the other.
For a 3 inch tablet, it takes about 5 to 7 hours to be fully activated in the pool. When using chlorine tablets, your goal is to raise the pool chlorine level to 1.0 to 3.0 parts per million.
If you only need to raise the chlorine level by 1 ppm, it will take less time because you will not have to use as many tablets.
In all you do, make sure you always test the water after you feel like the chlorine level has been raised to your desired level before swimming.
How do you know if your pool has too much chlorine?
The chlorine level of a pool should range between 1.0 and 3.0 parts per million. If you doubt that the chlorine level in the pool is neutral, the best option is to get the chlorine test strip or a liquid test to know how high it is.
Moreover, you can also know that your pool’s chlorine level is high by the smell of the pool environment; this technique is, however, for people that have a very sharp sense of smell.
When you also start to see your water cloudy, you should suspect that the chlorine level is higher than it should be.
How long after putting chlorine in the pool can you swim?
When you shock or add chemicals to the pool, it should be at dusk, evening, or night. When you add the chemicals during that time of the day, you get to be more patient because the pool is probably not going to be ready for use.
If you are using chlorine tablets, you should wait at least 7 hours for the tablets to fully dissolve in the pool before you swim. If you choose to use the liquid or granular, 3 hours should be okay for the chlorine to disperse in the pool and for you to get the pool ready.
How do I know if my pool is safe to swim in?
Indicators like algae bloom, green or cloudy water color, particles, debris, and other insects or leaves in the water show that the water is very unsafe to swim in. Nobody needs to teach this because they are very unappealing to the eye.
If your water is at its required level or quantity and crystal clear, does not have some kind of unwanted plants, animals, or microbes blooming, it is physically considered safe to swim in.
Now the other part to knowing when the water is safe is after testing the pH, temperature, chlorine, phosphates, alkaline and other important water chemistry, making sure they are neutral and not too high or low, then your water is very safe and you can enjoy it 99 percent without having worries.
Can too much chlorine make a pool green?
It is well known that the green coloration of a pool mainly indicates the presence of algal bloom. Another reason your pool might have turned green is because you did not turn the filter system on.
Metals like copper and iron are mainly found in wells and rainwater. If that was the source of your water, you just successfully introduced them into the pool.
So when you added the chlorine to sanitize the water, these metals oxidized and reacted with the chlorine to produce a green color in the pool.
But the main color change too much chlorine gives to water is to turn it from crystal clear to having a cloudy color. The green color indicates the presence of other elements that must have reacted with the chlorine.
Are chlorine tablets better than liquid?
Among the three major forms of pool chlorine chemicals, the most effective form is the tablet. However, it had its own disadvantages, like bleaching the liners and skimmer. But it is the most preferred of the other forms.
This is because the liquid chlorine does not last as long as the tablet chlorine does. It easily and quickly evaporates with little temperature.
Is it better to use chlorine tablets or granules?
Granules are measured and poured only where your hands can reach, so what about the places that the chlorine did not get to?
But when you use a tablet floater with the chlorine tablets, it circulates the chlorine around the pool. So yes, it is better to use the chlorine tablets than the granules.
Where do I put chlorine tablets?
Many pool owners recommend putting the chlorine tablets in the skimmer baskets because this is where the water circulates more, but with time, it slowly makes the skimmer basket break and get weak.
But it is advised that you get a chlorine tablet floater that suits the size of your pool and leave it in the pool to float around the pool and spread the dissolved chlorine.
