I am shocking my pool with the method discussed in pool school for the first time ever. I always thought you just dumped in 3 lbs of shock and ran the filter 
My pool was a little cloudy when I took off the winter cover. Nothing major. It's been cloudy ever since I had the liner replaced last July. Not knowing better I just assumed that the company that did the liner replacement balanced my water. The pool fill water itself was a bit of a mess and full of silt and they just dumped a bunch of stuff into my skimmer a few days after the fill. I was out of town when the liner was replaced and pool filled but saw the chemical part. I figured all was good.
You can see the bottom of the pool and the pattern and there's no sign of anything green. The liner itself has a slimy feeling and did ever since it was installed except after I'd vacuum it. I got the PH, CH, CYA, and TA to reasonable levels and started to add chlorine to get to 3 PPM per the pool calculator. I added the bleach and a few hours later tested my water and had a FC level of 0. Hmmm, I expected it to be around 3 ppm. So I did more reading here and saw that I need to shock the pool.
I plugged in the numbers again yesterday to get to a 10 PPM FC level. I added just over 4 gallons of bleach at about 9 AM and tested my water an hour later and it was reading .5 PPM FC with a higher total chlorine reading. I'm thinking maybe it's not mixed it or something. I did brush the pool BTW. Around 11 AM I add another 4 gallons roughly, actually 4.2 gallons. I test the water roughly 90 minutes later and it's reading .5 PPM with a higher total chlorine.
So off to the store I go and pretty much wipe them out of store brand bleach( yes it is 6%). I add another 4 gallons and this time I test the water where I added the bleach right after I put it in and sure enough it's reading 10 PPM. I was starting to wonder if my test strips were any good. Yes, I know they are dodgy and have a test kit due in tommorow.
I test the water 30 minutes latrer and it's reading 10 PPM. I test again and another 30 minutes later and it's down to 5 PPM. So I add 1.5 gallons of bleach and it's back up to 10 PPM. I test an hour or so later and it's down to 5.
Off to Walmart and I wipe out their stock of bleach. I test the water around 7 PM and it's down under under 5 PPM, so another 2.8 gallons go in. I check arounfd 10 PM and it's back down to 5 PPM. So another 2.8 gallons and I'm off to bed.
I wake up and the pool is cloudy as usual and test my FC levels and it's reading 3 PPM. So this is good news I think. Whatever is in my pool is no longer burning through as fast as it first was. I added another 2.8 gallons and need to go test it since it's been about an hour.
I think I'm making progress and I'm finding that shocking requires faith because I can't believe how much bleach I'm going through. I'll keep going and hope I don't need to make another bleach run for a day or so. it's been cloudy and i have around 30 PPM CYA, so the sun isn't making all the chlorine go away. i'm also up in Maine, so it's not like there's a real strong sun beating on my pool right now anyhow.
My pool was a little cloudy when I took off the winter cover. Nothing major. It's been cloudy ever since I had the liner replaced last July. Not knowing better I just assumed that the company that did the liner replacement balanced my water. The pool fill water itself was a bit of a mess and full of silt and they just dumped a bunch of stuff into my skimmer a few days after the fill. I was out of town when the liner was replaced and pool filled but saw the chemical part. I figured all was good.
You can see the bottom of the pool and the pattern and there's no sign of anything green. The liner itself has a slimy feeling and did ever since it was installed except after I'd vacuum it. I got the PH, CH, CYA, and TA to reasonable levels and started to add chlorine to get to 3 PPM per the pool calculator. I added the bleach and a few hours later tested my water and had a FC level of 0. Hmmm, I expected it to be around 3 ppm. So I did more reading here and saw that I need to shock the pool.
I plugged in the numbers again yesterday to get to a 10 PPM FC level. I added just over 4 gallons of bleach at about 9 AM and tested my water an hour later and it was reading .5 PPM FC with a higher total chlorine reading. I'm thinking maybe it's not mixed it or something. I did brush the pool BTW. Around 11 AM I add another 4 gallons roughly, actually 4.2 gallons. I test the water roughly 90 minutes later and it's reading .5 PPM with a higher total chlorine.
So off to the store I go and pretty much wipe them out of store brand bleach( yes it is 6%). I add another 4 gallons and this time I test the water where I added the bleach right after I put it in and sure enough it's reading 10 PPM. I was starting to wonder if my test strips were any good. Yes, I know they are dodgy and have a test kit due in tommorow.
I test the water 30 minutes latrer and it's reading 10 PPM. I test again and another 30 minutes later and it's down to 5 PPM. So I add 1.5 gallons of bleach and it's back up to 10 PPM. I test an hour or so later and it's down to 5.
Off to Walmart and I wipe out their stock of bleach. I test the water around 7 PM and it's down under under 5 PPM, so another 2.8 gallons go in. I check arounfd 10 PM and it's back down to 5 PPM. So another 2.8 gallons and I'm off to bed.
I wake up and the pool is cloudy as usual and test my FC levels and it's reading 3 PPM. So this is good news I think. Whatever is in my pool is no longer burning through as fast as it first was. I added another 2.8 gallons and need to go test it since it's been about an hour.
I think I'm making progress and I'm finding that shocking requires faith because I can't believe how much bleach I'm going through. I'll keep going and hope I don't need to make another bleach run for a day or so. it's been cloudy and i have around 30 PPM CYA, so the sun isn't making all the chlorine go away. i'm also up in Maine, so it's not like there's a real strong sun beating on my pool right now anyhow.
So now it's time to open it up and do some reading and real testing. Too bad I'm buried in calls today. So i dunno when i'll have a chance to do the tests.
