Chlorine fall/shock

[PoolDoc]

Question: Today (5/3), I had a cc of .5. Now, to get rid of that, you must shock, correct? Should I shock with such high reading? According to best guess chart, 12.5 would be right at shock level now.

Actually, when you test to the 10ml level on the sample tube, a reading of 0.5 simply indicates that your CC is not absolutely zero. Put another way, your CC is "0.0 < CC < 0.5", if you can follow that.

If you really have to know how much CC there is, test from the 25ml mark. Then, the first increment is "0.0 < CC < 0.2".

But, really, most of the time, I wish people wouldn't test for CC. Shocking does NOT work to remove CC's most of the time, nor do most of the other chemical rain-dances recommended by pool stores. If you simply operate the pool correctly, and maintain consistently chlorinated, algae free water, and don't add pool store goop, your pool will become -- and remain -- practically CC free.

If you test for them, you will see CC spikes after parties, especially if the parties include members of the "leaky bladder" set or the "mommie, I have to go NOW!" set, or really sweaty big guys. Shocking before or after heavy bather loads is a good idea.

But it's better to treat your pool properly, than to pay too much attention to CC's. The only time when CC levels really *need* to be considered is when you are deliberately using monochloramine (via the Yellow OUT or clone route), or have dosed your pool with some seriously messed-up pool store goo, and have to clean it up, or are cleaning up a bad CYA biodegradation mess in the spring time. The rest of the time, you'd be better off not testing.

Heck, I may even *hide* the CHL #3 (R-0003) in the PS235!

Ben

"PoolDoc"