Chemical Type to input for shock

Jump to latest Follow Reply
SuburbanMom

SuburbanMom

Active member
Jun 17, 2024
27
Ohio
Pool Size
9000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Hi everyone! New here, first post, please be kind haha.

After 1.5 arduous weeks of trying to get my pool filter up and running without flooding the entire block, I have finally attempted the impossible and this Frankenstein is alive! (I got 75% of a Bestway power steel 24x12 with sand filter for free from someone on marketplace, but have had to retrofit and piece together parts I was missing. It’s been an adventure to say the VERY least.)

ANYWAYS, I was freaking out as I have had about 9k gallons of unfiltered water just basking in the summer sun and heat. I could almost hear the little algae molecules starting to throw a kegger in there. As soon as Frankenpump whirred to life, I ran up to the store and grabbed Clorox 6 in 1 shock and tossed it in. (Yes, I now realize I have committed a cardinal pool chemistry sin by doing so, and I solemnly vow to never let such blue rubbish enter my watery haven ever again. Give me a break. I was freaking out and still had to get dinner going!) This morning I tested the water and EUREKA! The chlorine has stayed and is at my goal level. Finally. (I’ve been adding liquid chlorine each day but it’s just dissolved into oblivion within 8 hours.) PH was a little low so I tossed in some upper, about to test that again in 2 hours.

So really long story short (sorry) or uh…

TLDR: I want to input my addition of the 6-in-1 shock into my Trouble Free Pool Math app but I don’t know what to put it under. Please help!

(Thanks for reading! Love this forum.)
 
Welcome to TFP.
Shock is probably CAL-Hypo - it should say on the bag what it is. Some dichlor can be in a bag as well.
Post a full set of test results.
PH in the 7's is fine - no reason to increase pH as it will increase on its own.
Liquid Chlorine (LC) is the best because it is fast acting. Once chemicals are in the water - chlorine is chlorine whether it came from LC or Cal-Hypo or etc.

Unfortunately, Clorox has some unwanted chemicals in it so try not to use that again.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SuburbanMom
HermanTX said:
Welcome to TFP.
Shock is probably CAL-Hypo - it should say on the bag what it is. Some dichlor can be in a bag as well.
Post a full set of test results.
PH in the 7's is fine - no reason to increase pH as it will increase on its own.
Liquid Chlorine (LC) is the best because it is fast acting. Once chemicals are in the water - chlorine is chlorine whether it came from LC or Cal-Hypo or etc.

Unfortunately, Clorox has some unwanted chemicals in it so try not to use that again.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the warm welcome and your response Herman! I appreciate it. I’m about 15 mins out from my next test so I will post here. Luckily since we filled with city water we had a pretty clean slate to begin with, my concern is just the algae… I also own a small 2 person hot tub and I’ve had that get out of hand when I was out of chlorine for a while and couldn’t find it anywhere (oh the many struggles of covid times). I had to do a total water change in order to feel good about getting in it again. Much easier to do with a 500 gal hottub vs a 9k gal pool, but I still wouldn’t enjoy having to do that again. I hope that once I get chlorine levels stable that it will take care of any algae, I did notice when I entered the water yesterday to adjust my filter outlet that the bottom felt slippery. Do you think it would be a good idea to add an algecide as a preventative measure? Or will stable chlorine and a good vacuuming do the trick?
 
  • Like
Reactions: SuburbanMom
SJPoe said:
NO!

YES !

View attachment 597251
If its this one, avoid it as it has Copper in it (which will cause you longer term problems)
Click to expand...
Thank you! Yes, I am ashamed of my impulsive addition of this stuff. Especially as someone who would prefer to keep their highlights and daughter’s hair blond vs green lol. Won’t be adding it again for sure.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Newdude
If you haven't already done so, check out a couple of the Pool School articles :

www.troublefreepool.com

ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry

There are several items things every pool owner should know about swimming pool water. We share details on the basics of Pool Water Chemistry.
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

And

www.troublefreepool.com

The Free Chlorine and Cyanuric Acid Relationship

Managing your cyanuric acid and Free Chlorine levels is key to stabilizing your pool. Learn how these two items affect each other.
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mdragger88, Newdude and SuburbanMom
So these are my current test results… Herman, I think you were correct about not jumping the gun with PH raising. Probably should have just calmed my crazy butt down for a hot minute, but that’s not my MO unfortunately. I think I need to add some kind of chlorine stabilizer. What was perfect just mere hours ago is now dust in the… uh… sand filter (?) 😂, and I’m back to about 1ppm.

Here’s where I’m at:
------------------------------------------
Build Type: Vinyl
Volume: 9264 gallons
Chemistry: Liquid Chlorine
------------------------------------------
Latest Test Result Summary:
FC: 1.0 (7 minutes ago)
pH: 7.8 (7 minutes ago)
TA: 100 (7 minutes ago)
CH: 120 (7 minutes ago)
CYA: 0 (7 minutes ago)
TEMPERATURE: 77° (7 minutes ago)
==========================================
------------------------------------------
Test Results 07-18-2024 @ 02:56 PM
------------------------------------------
Free Chlorine: 1.0
pH: 7.8
Total Alkalinity: 100
Calcium Hardness: 120
CYA: 0
Temperature: 77°F

------------------------------------------
Test Results 07-18-2024 @ 02:12 PM
------------------------------------------
CYA: 0

------------------------------------------
Test Results 07-18-2024 @ 01:52 PM
------------------------------------------
Total Alkalinity: 110

------------------------------------------
Chemical Addition 07-18-2024 @ 12:51 PM
------------------------------------------
+ 6 Ounces of SodaAsh

------------------------------------------
Test Results 07-18-2024 @ 12:39 PM
------------------------------------------
Free Chlorine: 3.0
pH: 7.5

------------------------------------------
Chemical Addition 07-17-2024 @ 07:30 PM
------------------------------------------
+ 1 Pounds of CalHypo53
 
The CYA of zero is a guess… but when I added reagent to my sample it was completely clear. I have a fear of adding too much cya to the water as I’ve read a bit in pool school and I’ve heard a bit about the dreaded chlorine lock. It’s taken so long to get this bad boy up, the last thing I want to do is render it unswimmable for what little time we have left in NE Ohio’s swim season.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Depending on what CYA you have, with 9000 gallons, you'll need about a pound for every 10ppm - so if you have 0 now, a 4lb bag is going to get you to about 40. Don't worry too much about Chlorine Lock - thats a pool-store thing...in reality, your stabilizer gets too high and your FC effectiveness isn't enough to keep things sanitary - you'd need to be adding about 15 pounds of stabilizer to get anywhere near that point ;)

If you're still cleaning up (i.e. Slamming) you don't want more than 30ppm if you can help it - that's enough to protect your chlorine from the sun, but not overly bind up the chlorine so you have to add a ton more.

Remember, you can always add MORE stabilizer, but it's very difficult to remove it...so best to add a little at a time and measure before adding more.

If you have any other granular chlorine, you may be able to add FC and CYA at the same time, post a picture of the label and we can advise ;)
 
Cool! I’m just going to start by adding about 2.5 lbs stabilizer. Perhaps my anxiety will serve me well in this scenario, which is rare! Adding a small amount at a time sounds like the best plan for sure. I don’t mind frequently testing. I actually find it fun, reminds me of my young teen years when I used to manage the chemicals in our family pool. I’d rather test it more often and add a little chlorine and stabilizer here and there versus having to shell out lots a mullah for tons of chlorine. I like the idea of using the lowest amount of chemicals in the water as well. It’s not a very big pool by comparison to what some people have!
 
Do not use the second one in your pool. Do not use the ACTIVATE..

8 ounces of the chlorinating granules will add 3.7FC and 3CYA.

It is ok to use, but I'd get the recommended amount of CYA in the pool. Buy Dry Granular Chlorine Stabilizer. Add it using the sock method.

Do you have pool math? Link-->PoolMath
 
  • Like
Reactions: SJPoe
PoolStored said:
Do not use the second one in your pool. Do not use the ACTIVATE..

8 ounces of the chlorinating granules will add 3.7FC and 3CYA.

It is ok to use, but I'd get the recommended amount of CYA in the pool. Buy Dry Granular Chlorine Stabilizer. Add it using the sock method.

Do you have pool math? Link-->PoolMath
Click to expand...
That’s what I was thinking too. Using the calculator it seems that the amount of these granules I would need to add in order to reach target CYA would increase the chlorine wayyyy too much, and also this Crud is expensive lol! I need it for the hottub. So far I’ve just been keeping all my chemicals and tests separate for the two. May change in the future, but they are so different from one another I think it’s best. Thanks for your reply!
 
SuburbanMom said:
That’s what I was thinking too. Using the calculator it seems that the amount of these granules I would need to add in order to reach target CYA would increase the chlorine wayyyy too much, and also this Crud is expensive lol! I need it for the hottub. So far I’ve just been keeping all my chemicals and tests separate for the two. May change in the future, but they are so different from one another I think it’s best. Thanks for your reply!
Click to expand...
The key with Dichlor/Trichlor is that the CYA persists. It's a convenient, shelf stable form of chlorine, but as you use it, you're adding CYA every time. The FC will decay/get used up so you add more, which adds more CYA among with the FC... But the CYA doesn't decay...

If you dosed 3ppm FC with DiChlor every day, then each day you'd have 3ppm FC, but 3,6,9,12,15,18 etc ppm CYA.

This is what gets people to the point where the FC is no longer effective... Not because there is no FC, but the CYA is so high that the FC is essentially bottled up and unable to do its thing. Pool stores call this Chlorine Lock... and it's caused by their own method. They get you to shock (over load with FC) which temporarily works until that excess FC is used up, then you're back to square one again...
 
  • Like
Reactions: HermanTX and SuburbanMom
SuburbanMom said:
Cool! I’m just going to start by adding about 2.5 lbs stabilizer. Perhaps my anxiety will serve me well in this scenario, which is rare! Adding a small amount at a time sounds like the best plan for sure. I don’t mind frequently testing. I actually find it fun, reminds me of my young teen years when I used to manage the chemicals in our family pool. I’d rather test it more often and add a little chlorine and stabilizer here and there versus having to shell out lots a mullah for tons of chlorine. I like the idea of using the lowest amount of chemicals in the water as well. It’s not a very big pool by comparison to what some people have!
Click to expand...
Testing daily helps you get in a routine and helps you better to understand the pool.
As a minimum, you should add sufficient chlorine in ppm to equal the daily loss of your pool. So if you lose 2ppm per day due to UV and bather load, then add 2ppm of liquid chlorine daily to maintain your FC at the target level.
Over time you will gain better understanding of chlorine loss as well as pH changes, etc.
However, always follow the FC/CYA relationship which allows a safe and properly sanitized pool for your enjoyment.
FC/CYA Levels
 
SJPoe said:
The key with Dichlor/Trichlor is that the CYA persists. It's a convenient, shelf stable form of chlorine, but as you use it, you're adding CYA every time. The FC will decay/get used up so you add more, which adds more CYA among with the FC... But the CYA doesn't decay...

If you dosed 3ppm FC with DiChlor every day, then each day you'd have 3ppm FC, but 3,6,9,12,15,18 etc ppm CYA.

This is what gets people to the point where the FC is no longer effective... Not because there is no FC, but the CYA is so high that the FC is essentially bottled up and unable to do its thing. Pool stores call this Chlorine Lock... and it's caused by their own method. They get you to shock (over load with FC) which temporarily works until that excess FC is used up, then you're back to square one again...
Click to expand...
That makes a lot of sense, thank you for your clear explanation! I’m glad I’m able to know about this before it becomes an issue. It seems like this was a contributing factor of my issues I was experiencing when I first got the hot tub. Only after I did a water change and thought… hmm maybe I’ll skip the shock, let’s just see how it does, was I able to get my chlorine in it in check. Now I rarely have to add but a teaspoon of chlorine, but I think the next time I change I may switch to something that doesn’t build up so much; assuming hottubs are the same.

I’m going to hit it with some stabilizer tonight and see how it does. Hoping tomorrow to finally get some stable readings going!
 
  • Like
Reactions: PoolStored
SuburbanMom said:
That makes a lot of sense, thank you for your clear explanation! I’m glad I’m able to know about this before it becomes an issue. It seems like this was a contributing factor of my issues I was experiencing when I first got the hot tub. Only after I did a water change and thought… hmm maybe I’ll skip the shock, let’s just see how it does, was I able to get my chlorine in it in check. Now I rarely have to add but a teaspoon of chlorine, but I think the next time I change I may switch to something that doesn’t build up so much; assuming hottubs are the same.

I’m going to hit it with some stabilizer tonight and see how it does. Hoping tomorrow to finally get some stable readings going!
Click to expand...
For your hot tub (same principle for the pool too really)

How do I use Chlorine in my Spa (or pool)?

If you have a question about any information within this Sticky, please start a new thread for yourself where you will receive very quick responses to your specific questions. Thank you! Introduction There are two main things to consider when maintaining your hot tub water, Water Balance and...
www.google.com www.google.com
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply