"Shocking" pool water....

[new2pools]

Okay, so I am new and have had our pool for about 3 weeks now. Started with adding Alkalinity increaser and calcium hardener (was going with Baquacil but changed my mind midstream) Anyway, went to the pool store to get products to "convert" and realized I had no actual Baquacil product in my water sooooo......I then had to add Alkalinity decreaser, CYA and 4 bags of shock.
Came here and read and started doing BBB method. Been doing that for about 2 weeks or so now. So far all I've added is Bleach. Haven't had to add the other 2 B's yet. I do notice my Ph rising a bit from 7.2 to 7.5.

My question for now is using the BBB method should I still "shock" my pool (by adding more bleach to get the ppm's up) once a week or every other week just to make sure nothing icky is growing in there??
The water is crystal clear but both my kids had a stomach thing recently, and one had a slight cold after and now my son has a fever (and stomach still not feeling great). Okay, so I'm a little paranoid that my pool water is making them sick. I test every day and numbers look good. I will say I probably go on the low side with the CL though. Say my water is at 1-2ppm in the morning I will add to get it up to about 4. (CYA was 35-40 last week when I tested) Sometimes I will let it go til the evening before adding the CL though. I would say my range for CL most days is between 2-4.

 

[duraleigh]

Shocking your pool with bleach as often as you like does no harm. However, it adds cost and is usually unnecessary.

You need a Chlorine test that will test for combined chloramines. It's the best indicator your pool needs shocking....normally before anything visible is occurring.

 

[Rob]

One tip is to try and get in the habit of adding chlorine at night, instead of the morning.

Sunlight uses up chlorine, so if you add it in the morning, it will drop faster due to sunlight, without it actually doing anything beneficial. Adding it in the evening means it will have all night to work at the highest level before the sun starts dropping it down in the morning.

I think on the scale of things, adding it in the morning isn't horrible, but if you really want to maximize how much the chlorine is doing, evening is better.

 

[new2pools]

Hi Dave,

I have your test kit. My CC have always been 0. Thanks for the new tips, btw, they are WONDERFUL!! Just finished testing and what a difference! :-D

Okay, here's my test results today:

FC-1.5 (added CL yesterday morning before the sun...looks like the sun pretty much ate up what I put in- I usually add at night)
CC-0
TC-1.5
PH-7.5
TA-120
CH-150
CYA-25
Temp-80

Last weeks number were: (I had the old tips though so keep that in mind)

I'll post only the ones that I think are relevant--
PH-7.2
TA-170
CYA-35-40

Do todays numbers look okay?? Should the CYA decrease that much?? And, should I add some Stabilizer powder or a tablet to raise it?? I like having less chlorine so maybe that number is okay?
Plus, will my PH keep rising?

So, shocking doesn't really need to be done. Do you think I'm keeping my chlorine too low?

Thanks

 

[JasonLion]

Everything looks good to me.

CYA doesn't go down unless you replace some of the water. The CYA test is fairly subjective and lighting dependant. Probably one of the tests is off a bit and it is still the same as it was, somewhere in that range. I would just assume that it was 30 until you get around to doing the test again.

When the PH went up the TA should have gone up, but your seems to have gone down. Have you been doing anything to get your TA down, or is that a typo, or another curious test result?

 

[new2pools]

When the PH went up the TA should have gone up, but your seems to have gone down. Have you been doing anything to get your TA down, or is that a typo, or another curious test result?

hmmm, must be a curious test result.


I will say though that I just put new replacement tips on the bottles last night so these last test results are probably the most accurate. (I had the bottles with the wrong dropper tips that duraleigh mentioned in another post...the reason I was having such a difficult time getting uniform sized drops)

 

[new2pools]

This week's numbers.....

CL-1.5 (adding tonight)
CC-0
PH-7.5 but looks to be getting darker in color(getting closer to the 7.8)
TA-130
CYA-yes, subjective but again it looks to be somewhere around 20-25 --we did add water this weekend as the pool had gotten a tad low.

At what level do I need to do something about the PH?

Should I add some Stabilizer(have some left) to raise the CYA a bit?? How much do I add?

Thanks

 

[JasonLion]

You want to try and avoid letting your FC get that low. Right now it should be at least 2, and when you get the CYA up a little it should be at least 3.

PH of 7.4 to 7.6 is ideal. 7.2 to 7.8 is acceptable. With a little experience you will get a feeling for how the PH moves in your pool and what it takes to get it back to where you want it.

You should take the CYA up 5 or 10. I don't remember seeing the size of your pool. You can use the pool calculator, see my signature, to calculate how much CYA you will need to add to get there.

 

[new2pools]

Thanks.

I added CL tonight to get it up to about 4.5. I will try to keep it from getting low...I add CL daily though but I think maybe the CYA level is part of it.

Okay, so I totally forgot I had other calcs on that. I just ran it and it said 1 lb, 6oz for my 17200 gal pool at a 10ppm increase, sound right?

 

[JasonLion]

Sounds good. You can either put the CYA in a sock in front of a return or in the skimmer, or you can pour it into the skimmer and then not backwash for a week.