Can we safely swim in this?

[frawri]

Question for you, we havea 13,000 gallon above ground Intex swimming pool. We have put 13 gallons ofstore bought bleach to shock the pool. We have also put in some pool storechlorine, the pool still has dead algae in it that we have had a hard time gettingout. The pool is still cloudy, we plan on still working with it to get itcleaned up. But the question is can we safely swim in it this weekend? Here arethe numbers we got from our water test kit.
TH: 0
Free Chlorine: 5/10
PH: 7.5
TA: 180
CYA: 0
We can’t afford to putanything else into it for now, other than the pool store bought chlorine wealready have. I just want to know can we safely swim in this as it is? If notcan we flush some of the water out and put more in, to then be able to swim init? I mean we swim in lake water with loads of algae, so not worried aboutthat. Hope to hear from someone soon, God bless.

 

[pooldv]

It is safe to swim when
FC is above minimum and up to shock level for your CYA, [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA]
PH is 7.2 to 7.8
and the water is clear

Use the top row of the chart for all CYA levels lower than 20

 

[duraleigh]

Algae is not the problem for swimming. It is nasty but reasonably harmless.

However, if you let your chlorine drop, then you have no protection from bacteria and virus that multiplies explosively in an unprotected pool.

The retort to that is "Why is it safe, then to swim in a lake?" Pools are a different environment and do not have the natural protection (mostly size, I think) that a lake provides. Secondly, it is not always safe to swim in natural bodies of water. The risk is less but it is not always safe.

 

[pooldv]

That is correct. Lakes have millions of gallons of water and people do still contract illnesses from lakes from time to time. There were numerous instances of flesh eating bacteria transmission in the Gulf of Mexico on the Texas coast recently.

FC below minimum level for your CYA does not have a fast enough kill rate for bacteria, viruses and pathogens to effectively prevent person to person disease transmission in a pool, especially in kids. The #1 job of chlorine in a pool is sanitation and disease prevention, killing algae is a side benefit.

 

[Texas Splash]

In addition to the sanitation discussions above, when I read your post earlier the angle of no CYA stuck with me. Remember the CYA (stabilizer) not only protects your FC from the sun, it also protects the swimmers and pool liner from the harsh effects of chlorine. With no CYA in the water, your chlorine is potentially much more potent - until it gets burned-off by the sun. So unless you added any stabilizer, I would not be inclined to go in the water if the FC was over 3-4 ppm. Be safe and have a great holiday.