Pool Opened - 7 Bags of Shock and No Chlorine

[Pool School Novice]

Hi, I hope someone can give me advice and I apologize as I'm sure it's been answered a lot but I just can't seem to find it on here.

We opened our 16x32 inground pool on Friday and were given 3 bags of shock to start. Shock was added and NO reading yesterday. I brought the water to be tested and was told to purchase an additional 4 bags of shock. Shock was put in yesterday afternoon and today there's still no reading. PH is a little off but still in normal range and everything else is LOW.

After 7 bags of shock in 24 hours I would expect to at least have some reading. The pool is cloudy, cleared for a few hours yesterday and now back to cloudy, I can no longer see the drain in the deep end which is my barometer for a clear pool.

I'm doing some reading on the BBB method and I'm absolutely not opposed to it, I just never heard of it before because our pool store has always been more than helpful. This weekend, not so much.

Any advice given would be appreciated.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

HI PSN
In some inground pools - your CYA/stabilizer can be converted to ammonia over the winter. This causes a HUGE chlorine demand upon opening. 3 pools I've opened in two weeks have had ammonia.

Now, shock is something you do to the pool - not something you buy. can you tell me the active ingredient in your bags of granular chlorine?

Now would be a good time to add a signature. Go to User Control Panel, then Profile, then Edit Signature.

Regardless of what is consuming the chlorine, the answer is more of it. And the answer is probably you should be using liquid.

If you could post a full set of test results, and how they were obtained, we can advise you better.

Welcome to TFP

 

[Richard320]

A full set of test results would be really helpful.

Ideally, those readings would come from your own test kit.

Most likely, the cloudiness is bleached-out algae. That's normally the stage between green sludge and sparkling, clear water. So, check out this thread, and follow the directions there. You're just starting out where most people would be after 3 days is all. Everything else applies. And if you don't get it cleared soon, you will have a green pool when it starts warming up.

 

[anonapersona]

There are basically two sorts of powdered "shock products". One is cal-hypo, the other is dichlor (label is really long you can figure it out). One adds stabilizer to the pool with the chlorine, the other adds calcium with the chlorine. Or you can get bleach and just add chlorine without the other stuff.

Now, you MAY need that other stuff. OTOH, you may already have way too much of either or both and more could be a real problem. You really need to test to know.

 

[Pool School Novice]

Thank you everyone for your answers. I waited on replying as I wanted to have the water tested professionally to get the correct numbers. I'm at a total of 14 bags of shock now and still no chlorine. Any suggestions would be helpful as I don't want to keep throwing money at the problem. There must be a better solution! Should I just use bleach?

The test reads as follows:
Free Available Chlorine - 0
Total Available Chlorine - .5
Water PH 7.0
Total Alkalinity - 80
Calcium hardness - 400
Cyanuric Acid - 40
Total Dissolved Solids - 750
Copper/Iron - 0
Phosphates - 2500

 

[Pool School Novice]

Also, the pool is now PERFECTLY CLEAR. The cloudiness went away.

 

[JasonLion]

This isn't related to your main issue, but you should raise the PH to around 7.2 to 7.5 soon. Other than that you numbers look reasonable. CH is a tiny bit high, but not a big deal.

It sounds like you have ammonia in the water. A fairly small amount of ammonia requires a lot of chlorine to remove. The only thing to do is to keep adding chlorine. You can get an idea of just how much chlorine you are going to need by either doing an ammonia test, or by doing an extreme chlorine demand test.

 

[Butterfly]

Should I just use bleach?

Yes! or liquid chlorine from the pool store. Same stuff as bleach (sodium hypochlorite), only stronger.

Richard gave you a link in his post to directions on shocking your pool.

Welcome to TFP

ETA: You also need one of the recommended test kits. That will put you in charge of your pool. TF100 link in my sig. You will not regret it.