What does exceeding shock level do?

[JodieM]

Friend went to her LPS with green pool water. 0 FC and 0 CYA. They told her to add 6 gallons of liquid chlorine all at once. She has a 12k gal AG pool. I think I calculated that brings her FC up to 60ppm. Does the extra chlorine do anything beyond waste money? Is there an old school theory of extreme shocking to kill everything with one mega dose of chlorine? Very curious, I only follow the TFP method and don’t really know what pool stores are recommending to clear a green pool these days.

 

[PoolStored]

Friend went to her LPS with green pool water. 0 FC and 0 CYA. They told her to add 6 gallons of liquid chlorine all at once. She has a 12k gal AG pool. I think I calculated that brings her FC up to 60ppm. Does the extra chlorine do anything beyond waste money?

It can bleach the liner, be unsafe for swimming and damage equipment. If it is a one time event, damage is minimal.

Is there an old school theory of extreme shocking to kill everything with one mega dose of chlorine?

It is about duration, not level. Raising FC above SLAM level FC will not solve the problem in one shot.

Very curious, I only follow the TFP method and don’t really know what pool stores are recommending to clear a green pool these days.

Stay out of the pool store.

Sincerely,
PoolStored.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Hi Jodie...nice to see your name again . I hope you're doing well.

Tell your friend to stay out of LPS.... they do evil things like tell people to put too much chlorine in the water.

Maddie

 

[Donldson]

If she had a lot of ammonia then maybe it worked (never have I seen a pool store test for that though), otherwise 60 ppm FC with zero CYA is very unwise.

 

[JodieM]

Hi Jodie...nice to see your name again . I hope you're doing well.

Tell your friend to stay out of LPS.... they do evil things like tell people to put too much chlorine in the water.

Maddie

Hi Maddie! Just spent the wknd with my son from Augusta. He flew up for Memorial wknd.
I’m afraid I’m guilty of being a fair weather TFP member. Always helping friends in the summer with their pools and on TFP to do research and help when I can! I’m planning a trip to Augusta this summer. I’ll have to let you know when I’ll be in town!

 

[MITBeta]

Is there an old school theory of extreme shocking to kill everything with one mega dose of chlorine?

I found TFP in the first place by googling "breakpoint chlorination", which was a concept discussed in the manual that came with my Taylor K-2006C. The concept says that when CC is present to eliminate them one should "hyperchlorinate" to 10x the CC level.

It wouldn't surprise me if this is what they had your friend do.

 

[MITBeta]

I found an article just now by googling "breakpoint chlorination" again that states:

Continual “shocking” but not reaching breakpoint will result in the pool reaching a point of no return. Partial or complete draining of the pool water and refilling with fresh water may be the only remedy at this point.

We all know this is nonsense since this is exactly what the
SLAM Process does and has worked for thousands of happy pool owners.

Edit to add: I'm guessing what's left unsaid in the statement is letting FC level fall to nothing again between "shocks". Even still, SLAM will still work eventually.