cost/benefit shocking pool

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Thank you. I plan to! I just read it has to be the "unstablized" kind, and that the one they sell at Walmart says not to mix with chlorine. What should I look for on the label?

Just for my information (not that the answer will determine whether I let it stay in the 8's) why is it necessary to keep pH out of the 8's, potential irritation (humans) or potential harm to equipment?
 
If your pH get's into the 8's, it will cause you to try out for American Idol in a polyester leisure suit....whether you can sing or not. If you want that on your conscience go ahead. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

You need to spend some time up in Pool School or out getting that acid.

1. There is no such thing as stabilized or unstabilized muriatic acid.

2. Do not mix it with chlorine...mix it with your pool water.
 
duraleigh said:
If your pH get's into the 8's, it will cause you to try out for American Idol in a polyester leisure suit....whether you can sing or not. If you want that on your conscience go ahead. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

You need to spend some time up in Pool School or out getting that acid.

1. There is no such thing as stabilized or unstabilized muriatic acid.

2. Do not mix it with chlorine...mix it with your pool water.
Click to expand...


I think his point is the answer is in pool school :)

it is definitely worth reading and not that long.
 
Perhaps I should start a new post for sharing blunders! I made a slight miscalculation on the acid addition. Let's just say 6 boxes of borax later, all is well ... for now. I know I'll need to lower TA perhaps even more than originally now, but at least everyone is enjoying the pool with pH = 7.5 last time I checked!
 
I'm just now getting to where I'm ready to start determining how long I need to run my pump. It's so old and rusty that I can't even read any technical information on the pump, so I'll be doing the "sparkle check" trial and error method. In general, is it better to go with just 2 long on/off intervals or more on/off intervals that are shorter?
 
I think it is pretty much up to you. Many people just have 1 on period. I have read recommendations for having at least 2 on periods to keep the surface clear.

I do not know what is "best" or if having your pump turn on/off multiple times a day is harmful in any way.
 
Here's a hypothesis (perhaps over-analyzed, as I tend to do) that could be a factor not so much in how long as in when I run my pump once I figure out how long it should run. Does anyone know whether the sun's UV rays penetrate a placid surface more easily than a moving one, thereby "zapping" more FC if the water is still? (Basis of hypothesis is that a sunbather gets less sunburn by changing positions frequently.) It might sound silly, but if this hypothesis is true, it would make sense to make sure the pump is running during peak UV hours to save chlorine $.
 

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Whatever difference running or not running your pump makes to chlorine consumption, it is too small of a difference to measure. There are a number of effects of running the pump, and UV penetration is hardly the most important one, but they all more or less cancel out.
 
Running at the worst sun would at least ensure that the FC in the upper part of the pool did not get too low.

Another thought is that running at night ensures that the available FC is able to work on everything in the pool without the sun zapping some of it.

Although Jason kind of debunked this as I typed :)
 
For quite a while, it had seemed obvious to me that the most significant daily expense to keep my pool in good shape was bleach; hence all the previous discussion about all things relevant to FC usage. It was only yesterday when I realized that electricity to run my pump was a viable competitor with bleach in terms of cost; hence my recent questions about maximum run-time efficiency, including the question involving pump run time and FC loss! Well here's another "UV vs FC" question:

Assuming all other variables (UV intensity, organic presence in the pool, CYA, ...) are constant, is the rate of of FC consumption (by sun's UV) proportional to the amount of FC present? Forgive the calculus teacher in me, but I cannot resist the temptation to ask the question as follows: Does d(FC)/dt = k(FC)? In case the only thing you got out of that differential equation was a craving for fried chicken, here's an example:

Would UV deplete FC from 15 to 13 faster (more "easily") than it would from 8 to 6, if all other variables equal?
 
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