Pool guy just shocked the pool...now what?

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Shpigford

Shpigford

0
Apr 19, 2011
50
Birmingham, AL
We had the guys who installed our liner do a month of pool maintenance, and due to various circumstances our pool had to be shocked (it was a nice thick green). No clue what they used to shock...I did see them pouring in a liquid around the whole pool, so I assume it was some sort of liquid chlorine.

At any rate, that also happened to be their last visit...meaning it's now up to me to take care of things.

I've been reading Pool School and have the Taylor K-2006 test kit, so I'm not too overwhelmed as far as overall maintenance goes.

But my question here, is how long do I let the "shock" settle before I attempt to balance chlorine/pH/etc?

They did the shock Monday afternoon (it's now Tuesday evening). The pool is no longer green, but just really cloudy (can't see the bottom yet). So do I just wait till that settles? Or do I start doing anything in the meantime?

My test results Tuesday evening were as follows (first time I've ever used the kit...so hoping I did it correctly):

FC - 0.6ppm
CC - 0.8ppm
pH - 8.0
TA - 60ppm
CH - 140ppm
CYA - Couldn't get a reading for this...the solution would never get cloudy
 
Welocme to TFP...hate to say this, but you should fire the maint guys. They may have added some liquid chlorine, but shocking is not a one and done type of thing, it's a process. Sounds like they did not add any stabilizer (CYA) to you water either. You'll want to raise that to 30ppm and continue the shocking process.

You have the kit, so you are armed and ready, but will need much more of that liquid chlorine

Edit...I see Richard beat me to a reply...you may also want to read this and check out pool school (button on upper right of the page)
 
On the forum, "shock" is not a product but a process. Your process is not complete quite yet.

Here's a laundry list....

Lower your pH down into the low 7's like 7.2-7.4

All your chlorine has been consumed. You will need to add more (tomorrow) and then re-add as chlorine is a consumable item.

You have no CYA. You need to get some in your pool or your chlorine will be constantly consumed by the sun.

Back to Pool School and Read "How to shock your Pool" and then post back questions.

You're off to a good start but it will take a few days to finish the process. :lol:
 
I got beat to the punch, but ^^^^what they said.

Like Richard is saying, your CYA is basically 0. You'll want to raise that to at least 20 or 30 to help protect the chlorine from the sun. I think your biggest problem right now is your pH, that's really high. You need to add some muratic acid to get that lowered to the 7.2 - 7.5 range. You should look at poolcalculator.com, you'll see that your FC level should never be below 2 with a CYA reading of 0, but since you have more than .5 ppm CC, you need to be shocking.

You need to get your pool to 10 or 11 ppm FC and keep it there. Check it no less than twice a day until it starts to hold up. Keeping it at shock level will not just get rid of the green (which it sounds like you did), but will make it sparkling clear.

See the link in Richards post and read through Pool School.

-- Pete
 
So sounds like my biggest issue is CYA (or complete lack of). And seems from reading the Pool School articles, there's no quick way of raising it.

So does that basically just mean I'll have to add a lot more chlorine a lot more frequently until the CYA levels get brought up?
 
Won't adding CYA lower the PH pretty significantly? Going to do a big buy of various chemicals today to get this under control and trying to figure out what all I'll need.

According to the Pool Calculator, if I add ~120oz of stabilizer to help get my CYA to ~40, then that will lower my pH by about .75, which would be on target (meaning I wouldn't need to add any dry acid). Is that correct?
 
Won't adding CYA lower the PH pretty significantly?
Click to expand...
Some, but the effect is longer term than you need. Get muriatic and lower it right away. DO NOT overlook the importance of chlorine. It's your single biggest issue.

If you want to clear your pool, you need chlorine.
 
Thanks Dave.

Jason mentioned adding 10-12ppm of chlorine...how do I calculate how much "10-12ppm" of chlorine that would actually be? The Pool Calculator says I need to add around 2 gallons of 12% liquid chlorine to get my FC up to 12, but not sure how what the Pool Calculator is saying plays into the "10-12ppm in the evening".
 

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While CYA is near zero you lose essentially all of your chlorine to sunlight each day. That makes it most effective to add chlorine in the evening, since it at least gets the night to work before sunlight uses it all up.

In more detail, what I meant was, measure your FC level, put that in the Now column for FC in the Pool Calculator. Put either 10 or 11 or 12 in the Goal column and have it calculate how much bleach you need to add, then add that much.
 
One gallon of 12% bleach will raise the FC by 12ppm in a 10,000 gal pool. So two gallons in a 22,000 gal pool makes sense. The reason Jason suggested the evening until you get CYA in the pool, is that it will give the chlorine a chance to do it's job overnight vs being burned up by sunlight during the day. CYA sheilds chlorine from UV/sunlight exposure.

Edit...Jason types way faster than me...we're saying the same thing :goodjob:
 
Gotcha. So as far as what I should do today...

This morning I should go get the necessary chemicals to work on raising CYA and lowering my pH, then this evening, do a test and add the appropriate amount of chlorine. Then tomorrow, repeat, etc etc. Correct?
 
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