Shock

[jmoffatt]

Iv'e been reading alot the last couple of days and learned alot. I just did a drain clean and refill on my 5 year old pool and this site answered almost every question I had without me even posting. I got my water right in there where it needs to be according to the fancy computer tester from my local dealer who installed the pool.
My question is really quiet simple , I've been using the shock bags from walmart once a week for years, after reading and learning here I find I can use plain bleech( I did not know that) question: 6000 gallon pool how much bleech each week to shock? Thanks, Joe. :-D

 

[crookm11]

Welcome to TFP!

I would suggest you read pool school. The link is in my signature or you can find it on the upper right corner of this site. Once you have all the chemicals correct in you pool you should not have to shock your pool every week. You should shock your pool only if you need to not just to keep the FC up. Please post a complete set of numbers so we can see if the numbers are up to par. Yes, liquid bleach is a great source of chlorine.

 

[Richard320]

Iv'e been reading alot the last couple of days and learned alot. I just did a drain clean and refill on my 5 year old pool and this site answered almost every question I had without me even posting. I got my water right in there where it needs to be according to the fancy computer tester from my local dealer who installed the pool.
My question is really quiet simple , I've been using the shock bags from walmart once a week for years, after reading and learning here I find I can use plain bleech( I did not know that) question: 6000 gallon pool how much bleech each week to shock? Thanks, Joe. :-D

If you keep enough bleach in the pool all the time, how about NONE. That's right, you may never need to shock.

Typically, you'll use up about 2 ppm/day; that's about 3 cups of 6% Clorox/day for a pool your size. Might be less if you're lucky, might be more if there's a lot of use, especially by children, or it's really hot and full sun all day. The only way to know is by testing it. Often and accurately. Which is why you really need a good test kit. More than what form it takes, you need to now what and how much to add.

Head on over to Pool School and read up on test kits. Or just break out the plastic and head straight to http://tftestkits.net and get a TF100 and a speedstir. You can thank me later for the tip.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Welcome to TFP Joe!
If you'll get a good test kit (see my sig) and keep the levels in the range recommended here in Pool School you won't have to worry about shocking your pool. You just add maintenance doses of bleach each day or every other day and you'll be clean and clear with no weekly shocking.

With 6000 gallons you're looking at less than a quart a day of bleach.

 

[Isaac-1]

Like others have said, if you maintain your water balance correctly you will seldom if ever need to shock it, the weekly shock is an easy to do, but hard on the wallet pool store created approach to pool maintenance that allows pools that are somewhat out of balance to continue to be functional for a time before the balance gets off so far that weekly shocking does not fix it. I am personally not one of those people that are against shocking at all cost, it has its place, but should be a rare occurance, maybe once or twice during a typical pool season.

Ike

 

[jmoffatt]

Here's where it's at now as per the water sample tested at pool store,
Free available chlorine , 3.5
Total chlorine, 3.5
combined chlorine, 0
total alkalinity, 110
ph level, 7.3
calcium hardness, 102
cyanuric acid, 28
copper, 0
iron, 0
total disolved solids, 0
saturated index, 0.1
well, thats what I got.

 

[jmoffatt]

What about after a hard Louisiana thunderstorm, or my 5 grandkids playing / peeing in the pool all day?
It was my installer that led me to believe it needed a shock once a week during swimming season.
See thats why I already like this place a vast wealth of HONOST information, wish I would have found it sooner.

 

[Bama Rambler]

There are ways to handle even youngsters without having to shock every week. You just raise the FC a bit before they swim and check it after they're done (another reason to have your own test kit).

 

[lborne]

What about after a hard Louisiana thunderstorm, or my 5 grandkids playing / peeing in the pool all day?
It was my installer that led me to believe it needed a shock once a week during swimming season.
See thats why I already like this place a vast wealth of HONOST information, wish I would have found it sooner.

You may need to add a bit more bleach after the kids are out of the pool, or after a hard rain, but that is where a good test kit comes in. You can test and know exactly how much bleach to add, without shocking.

Not all builders or Pool store clerks are being disnonost, they just are not as well informed as most people on this site.

 

[jmoffatt]

I really didn't mean to insinuate they were being dishonost, I don't think that's the case , but I do believe that sometimes it is about product sales, and I'll never knock a man for trying to make a living and feed his family.

 

[Isaac-1]

Your numbers look fairly good, other than CYA being low, I along with several other people here would strongly suggest you invest in your own quality test kit like the TF-100 from tftestkits.net (they are not only the sponsor for this site, but have the best value on test kits), alternatively the Taylor K-2006 is another good slightly cheaper kit, but it also gives you a lot less of the most used testing reagents (all reagents are in the same size bottles in the Taylor kits not acocunting for what you use more or less of).

Simply put you will care more about the quality of your test results than some teenager doing 50 pool tests per day, also don't do anything to boost your CYA based on one test alone as it is one of the harder tests to get right, and the only practical way to lower CYA is to drain and replace water.