Filter was off for a week and a half...

[ElkPool]

My pump died, and after several attempts at making it work, I gave up and had a new one ordered and installed. Now my pool is being filtered again after about ten days without.

The water is crystal clear, other than stuff floating around in it. No signs of algae or anything like that. I did NOT keep up with the bleach while the pool was out of order.

I can test the water later (I'm at work now), but I'm pretty confident chlorine will be about zero and pH will be about seven.

I guess the questions that come to mind are: do I need to shock? And, whether or not I do, when is it safe to swim again (i.e. when will enough filtering have taken place)

Thanks!

 

[svenpup]

Yes, you should shock whenever FC goes to 0. If you are correct, and nothing took hold, the shock should be very easy so why not do it?

ETA, you can swim when you are done shocking. Read the how to shock article in pool school (link in my signature).

 

[ElkPool]

Yes, you should shock whenever FC goes to 0. If you are correct, and nothing took hold, the shock should be very easy so why not do it?

The expense and inconvenience of getting all of the bleach, of course. (at high CYA it will take a lot) I am not saying I shouldn't or won't do it, but that's why I would want to avoid doing so if possible.

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Well, you could just get FC up to your normal level and run an overnight FC loss test. Then you'll be sure.

 

[svenpup]

You can add chlorine and see how your CC and chlorine demand work out. Do an overnight chlorine loss test, and if you pass that (and don't have high CC's) then you are probably OK.

What can happen with a low level algae bloom (which may not be visible) is your chlorine demand is high, and you wind up going though a lot of chlorine without ever getting ahead of the algae. Essentially you are throwing away the chlorine, as opposed to shocking which, by design, will kill it all and get your chlorine demand back to normal.

 

[ElkPool]

I just went ahead and shocked it. Wow, that was a lot of bleach to purchase and put in I put in a bit extra, in case my CYA and/or pool volume is a bit more than I figure.

Tomorrow I'll tackle the pH...it's ALWAYS low...I can only imagine what it will be after not taking care of the pool for a week!

 

[ElkPool]

I didn't have time to test in the morning, but test results tonight:

TC 17 (MUCH lower than I expected...I used four big jugs and 11 little jugs of bleach to try and take it to 40 last night, given my high CYA)

pH 8.0 (wow, like I said it's usually low, anyone know why it'd rise after a week and a half of no water maintenance?

These aren't at all the numbers I expected...do they seem reasonable?