Bleach-How long to wait to swim?

[DanS]

My salt clorinator is not working, and I am waiting for a part. If I use bleach for my temporary chlorine solution, how long do I need to wait to swim after adding bleach, assuming I am not shocking, but just trying to maintain chlorine?

My pool is about 20,000 gallons and CYA is about 50. I have read that 1 gallon of 6% bleach would raise chlorine by about 3PPM. Does this sound right?

How much chlorine should I add daily? I have a test kit, but I want to start with a good estimate.

PH is 7.6, Alkalinity 100, Calcium 225, CYA 50, Chlorine 1.5

Thanks,
Dan

[aylad]

You are correct...in a 20K gallon pool, one gallon of 6% bleach will raise your chlorine by 3 ppm. With a CYA of 50, you need to maintain a chlorine level at all times between 3 and 6 ppm. You don't have to wait long at all after a bleach addition to swim--just make sure that the bleach is dispersed by stirring it around or pouring it slowly into a return stream, you just don't want bleach "pockets". In fact, last night I added some bleach to the deep end while the kids were in the shallow end, but by adding it into the return it mixed quickly. I did not let them swim with open eyes underwater, but otherwise it didn't bother them. It is not what I would recommend for you or any others, but at the time the situation called for it.

Having said that, I would think that 15-30 minutes would be plenty of time to wait.

Janet