Chlorine and General Pool Water Quality Maintenance

[satio]

It hit over 100 degrees on Sunday last week and as luck would have it, I finished the install and fill on 12x20 Doughboy.

It has been a long hard 6 weeks of getting this thing up namely in being so meticulous in getting the ground level with the hard clay soil we have. The wife and kids are happy now so I can get on to all my other household projects.

I did my initial testing and chemical startup.....have PH appearing stable at 7.2 and initial Chlorine at about 2.0

What is recommended regarding maintaining chlorine level?

I understand I can add granular chlorine each day but would prefer if I can use 1" or 3" tabs slow dissolving tabs.

My pool is about 10,000 gallons based on its size and depth.

Also, I seem to find mixed answers on shocking pool. Product manufacturers suggest shocking weekly. I purchased some HTH pool shock but have not used it yet.

At what point should I shock first and then how frequently?

Thanks in advance for all helpful advice to this new pool owner.

 

[svenpup]

Welcome You have come to the right place to get you pool under control.

Pool School (button on the top right of the page) will be your best friend. I recommend doing a lot of reading, BBB for Beginners, How to Chlorinate my pool, How to Shock, CYA/Chlorine Chart, etc.

Both granular (dichlor) and tablet (trichlor) forms of chlorine add Cyanuric Acid (CYA) which is also called stabilizer. CYA is necessary to protect chlorine from sunlight, but it renders chlorine less effective. You have to increase the amount of free chlorine (FC) in proportion to the amount of CYA to get effective sanatization. Too much CYA and it becomes very difficult to get FC level high enough to shock.

So the short answer is you can use granular or tablets for a while, but ultimately you want to switch to liquid chlorine (aka bleach).

Read temporary_pool_guide for a good example of how to start with dichlor and switch to liquid.

If a pool is properly maintained, with the FC never falling below the minimum for the CYA level, you should rarely (if ever) have to shock. It is worth noting that "shock" is a process, not a product. Adding a product called "shock" one time to your pool does not mean you have shocked.

 

[woodyp]

Go to control panel and give us the specs on your pool, pump, liner, etc. Add a sig line basically so it appears every time you post. Then post up some numbers like you see in other posts for your pool chemistry levels so folks can help.

Welcome aboard.