what does shock mean

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michellecox75

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May 22, 2008
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What exactly are you doing when you shock? Does chlorine levels have to be at a certain amount before shocking? My water is cloudy and FC is 0. I just added CYA in the skimmer basket. How long do I have to wait before adding the round disk sanitizer? And does shocking it bring the FC up?
 
Shocking means adding enough chlorine (in any form) to rasie the chlorine levels high enough to kill algae blooms, destroy combined chlorine (the 'bad' chlorine) and burn off organics from bathers in your water. It is not a special product and can be done with any form of unstablized chlorine.
The 'round disk sanitizer is stabilized chlorine. It is called trichlor and most of us on here do not use it. We use bleach instead for our chloirne source since you won't end up with an overstabilized pool lke you can with the tablets. There is a link to the stickies in my signature. Take some time and read through them. I am sure that you will have a lot of questions after reading them so just post them and we will answer.
 
My confusion on shocking a pool is that in August when ours was complete the installer said to run the SWG at 100% for 24 hours once a week to shock the pool. As I read the info about the BBB method it seems more that once you have chemicals in balance, and you keep them in balance, that there is no need to shock the pool. Is this correct? Basically, I'll do the same thing all summer and only consider shocking if there's a dang good reason for it.
 
Yes, that's correct....once my water was balanced - June of last year, I didn't have to shock the rest of the Season, which for me was until early Septembr. Then I shocked it to "close" it, and put the cover on. Opened to crystal blue water and it still had a FC reading of 2!

Trust the advice given here on BBB and you'll be fine. I too was told years ago, "shock once every 2 weeks, once a week during hot weather or after rain". Ludicrous.
 
dayhiker,
Also, if you end up needing to shock at some point due to algae or cloudiness, etc., I suggest not doing it by running your SWG at 100%. Do it manually with liquid chlorine (bleach), as running your SWG at 100% will cause unnecessary wear on your cell.
 
I think the reason shocking the pool is recommended by stores and others is they don't expect the home owner to be able or willing to test on a regular basis. They also don't expect the owner to be diligent in maintaining a proper FC level.

So if you have a good test kit and maintain the pool properly regular shocking isn't needed. If it is needed you will know it because it will show on your testing.
 
ktdave said:
dayhiker,
Also, if you end up needing to shock at some point due to algae or cloudiness, etc., I suggest not doing it by running your SWG at 100%. Do it manually with liquid chlorine (bleach), as running your SWG at 100% will cause unnecessary wear on your cell.
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Good to know, thanks. It's less than a year old, so I'm catching that tidbit early in the process.
 
How do you know if you need to shock? Which chemical levels would tell you this? And if using liquid bleach, what level of - is it FC or TC - if CYA is 30-50 would I need to shock it? The water does look cloudy but no color. All of the info seems so vague and I might know what they were talking about if I had something like "Pools for Dummies" :)) FC was at 2 today.
 

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In Waterbear's and Joyce's signatures are links to "The Sticky's" which will give you much info.

It also gives you the Best Guess CYA chart and the Pool Calculater, which will help you determine your routine chlorine levels and your shock clorine levels.

I know what you mean, about the pools for dummies, in a couple of days this will all "click" and you won't feel so overwhelmed. Just keep reading the information on here.

Is your water clear? How are you testing it? Strips, a test kit, the pool store?
 
Without knowing your pool size - gallons of water - it's hard to give you complete info. So check the link for the pool calculater.

Your FC is on the low end of the minimum, for a CYA of 30.

If a water sample that is clear, shows no sign of algea (green or cloudy, etc.) if your test results showed higher than .5 of CC, then you would need to shock.

If you post a complete list of test results (see "What to test for") preferably not with test strips if possible, then we can help you more if you still have questions.

POP - Pool Owner Patience, the third most important thing to have on hand :)
 
What does Shock mean?
Insufficient chlorination of ammonaceous or ammoniacal waters leads to the formation of a mix of chloramines (monochloramine, dichloramine, and even nitrogen trichloride) which irritate the skin and eyes and impart an unpleasant odor to the water.

At sufficiently high concentrations of active chlorine (hypochlorite, hypochlorous acid, and molecular chlorine), a phenomenon known as breakpoint chlorination occurs. In breakpoint chlorination, ammonaceous and ammoniacal materials are completely oxidized to dinitrogen and the active chlorine is simultaneously reduced to chloride. In order to accomplish breakpoint chlorination, swimming pools are shock-treated. Over the winter, a large amount of organic matter has accumulated in most swimming pools. At the beginning of the swimming pool season, the chlorine demand is too high for normal amounts of chlorine to completely destroy all the organic matter. Consequently, significant concentrations of chloramines and other partial oxidation products are present. In shock-treatment, a large amount of active chlorine is added so as to completely oxidize all of these products.
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Read slowly, even this redneck could understand most of this (move over, chem geek :lol: :lol: )....not only what it means to shock but why we do it
 
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