Shock question for a small pool.

I recently bought a 12' x 39" Intex pool for my kiddos (The box says it holds 2,670 gallons). I wasn't looking to spend a ton of money and that's pretty much what I've done ever since the thing came home. I've been chlorinating and shocking with what came in a pop up pool starter kit. Now I see that I could've saved myself a ton of money and worry by just using the pool calculator I found online and household stuff that I feel much safer using anyhow.

I can't seem to find anywhere online directions on how much bleach to use to shock the pool. Also, how long after adding the liquid bleach is it safe to swim? The pool has a small filter pump and we keep it going nearly all the time.


A few more questions:

Should we keep the filter going all the time?
Is there another way to get around buying a vacuum for the pool?

One more for the road:
The water in the pool seems to have a film over the top, is that from sunscreen?

Thanks!!!!

In a small pool this size, each cup (8 oz.) bleach will raise the cl by 1.5 ppm. However, to tell you how high shock level is for your pool, you'll need to give us some water testing results. Can you give us some current results and we'll go from there?

When you are just adding a small maintenance dose of bleach, it is ok to get in after a short time -- maybe half hour or so. Just long enough to let the bleach get distributed in the water.

Since the filters on these small pools don't really do that great of a job from what I've heard, you will probably need to run it quite a bit. If it was me, I'd probably run it through the day and turn it off at night. As far as the vacuuming question, you can use a net to get out leaves and bigger debris, but the only way to get dust and dirt off the floor is to vaccuum. Sorry.

Film on the top of the water is most likely sunscreen. Good for you for putting sunscreen on those kids!

Even though this is a small pool, you have to treat the water just like it was a big pool and keep it properly sanitized. Right now, it probably seems like a lot of trouble but after you get everything balanced initially, it won't be hard at all. Just supply us with some numbers and also tell us exaclty what all (ingredients, not just "shock") you have put in your pool and somebody here can help you.

Welcome to the forum!

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Originally Posted by CourtneyY5

I recently bought a 12' x 39" Intex pool for my kiddos (The box says it holds 2,670 gallons).

A few more questions:

Should we keep the filter going all the time?
Is there another way to get around buying a vacuum for the pool?

One more for the road:
The water in the pool seems to have a film over the top, is that from sunscreen?

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Congratulations on your new pool and welcome to the forum!

Have you found this Pool Calculator yet? It says you need 28 oz of household bleach to raise your free chlorine (that's the stuff that does the sanitizing work) from 0 to 5 ppm. Not knowing what all you've already put in the water and what the "numbers" are makes it a little difficult to give specific advice but for a small pool like yours I'd go with 2 cups of bleach a day and see how that works. In the absence of any stabilizer or conditioner that would keep your free chlorine around 3 ppm, a good sanitizing level.

I don't know anything about the pumps on these pools but I probably would not run it 24/7. I'd run it during the day when the kids are likely in it to keep the water circulating and turn it off at night. Add your bleach at night about an hour before you turn off the pump.

The film on the water is probably lotion and sunscreen and bug spray.

As to vacuuming . . . you might be able to get away with not buying a vacuum, if one didn't come with the pool. Get a soft bristle brush made for vinyl pools at WalMart and brush the bottom of the pool. As long as the pump is running it will work on filtering stuff that's suspended in the water. You can also pick up a skimmer or a leaf net to manually scoop up larger debris such as leaves or grass cuttings.

Way back in the day we used to have a horse trough set up in the driveway, about the same size as your pool. If the water got simply too grungy I would just drain it, scrub the thing, and refill it.

Have fun!

AnnaK: I did find that pool calculator, such a huge helper!

I made a mistake by scooping the CYA back out of the pool because it wasn't dissolving, but I added more today per the HTH (pool chemical company) recommendation.

My levels were

TH (total hardness) 100
FC- 1
PH 7.2
TA- 80
CYa-0

I've since used the pool calc and added soda ash and the CYA, and now my numbers are:

TH-200
FC-1
PH-7.8
TA-120
CYA-0 (just won't dissolve!)

I'm going to add bleach once I pick up a bottle from the store (my husband picked up the scented stuff).

What ppm should I be getting the FC to for a shock?

I notice that most on here get the FC to 5ppm and on all of information says that over 4 ppm there is risk of bodily injury.

Thanks so much for all of your help!

How high to shock depends on how much cya (stabilizer) you have. Take a look at this table:

Stabilizer . . . . . . Min. FC . . . . Max FC . . . 'Shock' FC
=> 0 ppm . . . . . . . 1 ppm . . . . . 3 ppm . . . . 10 ppm
=> 10 - 20 ppm . . . . 2 ppm . . . . . 5 ppm . . . . 12 ppm
=> 30 - 50 ppm . . . . 3 ppm . . . . . 6 ppm . . . . 15 ppm
=> 60 - 90 ppm . . . . 5 ppm . . . . . 10 ppm . . .. 20 ppm
=> 100 - 200 ppm . . . 8 ppm . . . . . 15 ppm . . .. 25 ppm

So if you have no cya, then you want to maintain a cl reading between 1-3 all the time and when you need to shock, you take it up to 10ppm. Cya of 10-20, maintain cl level of 2-5 all the time and your shock level would be 12, etc.
By the way, as long as you are careful to never let your cl drop below the range required based on your cya level, you really don't need to shock unless the pool is really cloudy or something. Test every evening and add enough bleach to get back to your required level and you should be fine.

Having said that --- For about a week, until your cya starts registering, you may need to test and add bleach twice a day because without cya the chlorine doesn't last long. After about a week, testing once a day, preferably in the evening, should be adequate.

Cya takes a long time to dissolve -- like maybe up to a week. So don't test for it or add more for about a week or you risk ending up with more than you want in there.

Your ph and alk are fine right where they are. Hope this helps.