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.