ordering kit tonight, should i wait to shock?

[mutex]

I bought a house with a 24' above ground pool, that was looking pretty gross. I added some shock and got it from brown to green. I recently realized that the people at the pool store were basically guessing at how to fix my problem. They told me to add liquid shock per instructions till it cleared, but after reading up and finding this site ive realized ive been going about it all wrong and I need to superchlorinate it.

However, I dont have a good test kit. I just ordered the TF100 right now, but it'll take a few days to get here so I dont know what my CYA is right now. Ive been adding 1/2 gals of the liquid shock (blue shield shock treatment) every other day for the last week, and we added 1 chlorine tablet a few days ago in desperation.

I was going to chlorinate the pool with the "blue shield shock treatment" since it appears its just 12% bleach and the local pool place has it for around $3.

So....should I wait till my test kit is here so I know what my CYA is, or just try to superchlorinate it "blind" and adjust as needed when my test kit gets here?

 

[linen]

Welcome to tfp, mutex

I just ordered the TF100 right now

Ive been adding 1/2 gals of the liquid shock (blue shield shock treatment) every other day for the last week

You could keep doing that until your kit arrives, though you will likely need a lot more. Do you happen to have a drop based OTO chlorine test? If you do, you could measure with that, then dose up to 10 ppm FC (per poolcalculator.com), then when level drops down to where you can read it (OTO measures up to 5 ppm), then redose from there.

I was going to chlorinate the pool with the "blue shield shock treatment" since it appears its just 12% bleach and the local pool place has it for around $3.

That looks like good stuff...probably 12.5% Sodium Hypochlorite.

 

[BoDarville]

So....should I wait till my test kit is here so I know what my CYA is, or just try to superchlorinate it "blind" and adjust as needed when my test kit gets here?

Since we are talking a few days, I would wait until your TF100 arrives. Mine arrived 3 days after ordering. In order to properly shock, you need to know your CYA level as that will determine the shock FC target.

From your post, I'm assuming you currently have a test kit of some sort. If so, use that kit to measure your chlorine level and (as linen suggested) use the Pool Calculator to dose up to 10 ppm FC. This will prevent things from getting worse before your TF100 arrives. Other steps you can take in the meantime include keeping the pool clear of as much debris as possible by removing leaves, bugs, vacuuming, etc. Might also make sure you have some muriatic acid or dry acid on hand in case you need to lower pH (see below).

When your TF100 arrives, perform the following tests (at a minimum): FAS-DPD chlorine (record both FC and CC), CYA, and pH. Before you shock, lower the pH to around 7.2 as chlorine is more aggressive as a sanitizer at a lower pH (but do not go below 7.0 pH). By running the above tests, you will have the information you need to properly shock. BTW, once you begin the shock process, leave your pH alone - in fact, don't bother testing pH until the shock process is complete. It will tend to spike up during the shock process which is normal. Once FC drops below shock level, then test pH and adjust if necessary.