Safe to swim while shocking?

[bryanw9]

I just replaced my water and am in the process of getting up to spec in the BBB method. I am currently shocking my pool. Here are my numbers as of this am:

Fc 13.5
Cc 1
Tc 14.5
Ph 7.5
Ta 70
Cya 10-15 guess ( added yesterday but not registering fully yet I suppose)
CH 450 (the lowest i can get it)

My question is this: is it safe to use the pool over the next few days while I maintain a shock level at around 12?

Thanks for your help

 

[JasonLion]

You don't want to swim when CC is above 0.5, or FC is above shock level.

 

[257WbyMag]

On top of what Jason said, swimming during the shock process impedes the process of shocking.

 

[prop]

But, is it dangerous?

 

[smccull]

I have little to no basis for this but I would suspect the you might have some mild skin irritation in sensitive people or possibly eye redness. Now that being said I swam in ours when it was at near 10-11 ppm FC and was fine - personally I think the pH has more to do with skin/eye irritation than the chlorine (CC excluded).

 

[BadOleRoss]

I swan in my pool when the pool was at or slightly above shock level with no ill affects but my cc was a 0. I was running a cya of 50 and a fc of 23 while I was vacuuming away inside the pool.

 

[duraleigh]

I swan in my pool when the pool was at or slightly above shock level with no ill affects but my cc was a 0. I was running a cya of 50 and a fc of 23 while I was vacuuming away inside the pool.

I have done the same thing for years. Besides, the extra digits I have grown has really dropped my times in the backstroke!!

(I'm kidding about the extra digits but not about the swimming :lol: )

 

[chem geek]

The active chlorine (hypochorous acid) level in a pool at shock level with the FC that is 40% of the CYA level is the same as a pool with 0.6 ppm FC and no CYA so is less than most indoor pools. The chlorine bound to CYA does have some weak oxidation effect (though little disinfection effect) that is around 1/100th that of hypochlorous acid. So even taking a 32 ppm FC with 80 ppm CYA situation, this may mean that this is equivalent in oxidation rates to a pool with 1.2 ppm FC with no CYA so again around what you find in some indoor pools.

Now, that said, you wouldn't want to drink a lot of the pool water since it is the FC level that is relevant in terms of the chlorine effect in your body. It's also not something you would want to do on a regular basis and we normally do not recommend using the pool while shocking, though mostly that's because you are shocking for a reason and it is the algae or bacteria or organic contaminants in the pool that you don't want to be exposed to, especially when chlorinated (i.e. combined chlorine, CC). Inorganic and organic chloramines can be irritating and some are probably or likely carcinogenic.