New Pool Owner, No Chlorine less than 24 hours after shocking.

[CarlD]

When you added all that calhypo you hammered the algae and was the heavy lifting that cleared your pool. Reading this was painful as you seem a really capable person being badly mislead by all the misinformation being given you.
Your problem was caused by the pool guy and everyone saw as a chance to sell you stuff. You got "Pool-Stored" big-time. It has happened to all of us. Pool care is really simple but if everyone knew how simple it was the pool services would be out of business and half the pool stores with them.

Check out our sister site, poolsolutions.com and read the section on the BBB method. You will be amazed how simple it all is! It only gets complicated when the pool store has you put in a bunch of junk that makes it worse. Luckily Ben could walk you through it. From now on it will be so simple you will never use a pool service again and you wont believe how inviting your water looks.

Carl

[DistantHorizon]

When you added all that calhypo you hammered the algae and was the heavy lifting that cleared your pool. Reading this was painful as you seem a really capable person being badly mislead by all the misinformation being given you.
Your problem was caused by the pool guy and everyone saw as a chance to sell you stuff. You got "Pool-Stored" big-time. It has happened to all of us. Pool care is really simple but if everyone knew how simple it was the pool services would be out of business and half the pool stores with them.

Check out our sister site, poolsolutions.com and read the section on the BBB method. You will be amazed how simple it all is! It only gets complicated when the pool store has you put in a bunch of junk that makes it worse. Luckily Ben could walk you through it. From now on it will be so simple you will never use a pool service again and you wont believe how inviting your water looks.

Carl

Yeah, read about BBB, but don't have enough bleach around yet... was trying to get by with cal hypo tonight. Guess I'll run to the store and get some more bleach. One way or another, I'm shocking this thing tonight 'cuz my gf is having her niece and nephew over tomorrow afternoon. Hoping poolcalculator's 662oz 6% bleach is accurate.

[CarlD]

Cal-Hypo's FINE since you CH level is 200ppm. Other than adding calcium it has the fewest side effects of powdered chlorine compounds. I don't use it much because I always have Liquid Chlorine around (Just really strong bleach--12.5%--but "Liquid Chlorine" sounds so pro...It actually works out to be the same as if I was paying $1.45/gallon of 6% bleach, so I use it. But it's the same stuff).

Using Dichlor or Tri-chlor tabs is only appropriate when you need to add stabilizer and your pH is fairly high, because both (especially Tri-chlor) drive pH down and both add lots of stabilizer.

The B-B-B method is really a philosophy of easy and sensible pool care. You can do EVERYTHING with Bleach, Borax, and Baking Soda, and just augment it with Muriatic Acid and CYA powder. You don't need ANYTHING else to run a clean sanitary pool, year after year. Oh: You DO need two more things: 1) Knowledge 2) a really good test kit.

Everything else is just for convenience.

Carl

[DistantHorizon]

Well there we go, added approximately 3.6 x 182oz (662oz) of 6% bleach, should be at or greater than 15ppm at this point. I erred on the high side since I didn't have anything to measure with and don't know my exact pool volume yet, maybe I put in 3.7 jugs?

Will test tomorrow morning, and if I have time I'll post the results first thing.

THANK YOU to all of you who have trudged through this thread and assisted me!

[DistantHorizon]

90 minutes after shocking last night, I used the OTO test and dilution method and thought it should be a hair darker, so I added in the rest of my 4th jug of bleach (728oz total added last night). (Figure my pool might really be 25,000 gallons, haven't done the math yet, need to get on that. Plus we had a lot of rain last week, and despite backflushing, I'm still a couple inches high, right at the top of the skimmer).

This morning, once again using dilution and OTO, chlorine is somewhere between 9 and 15. Water still looks nice and clear. Going to work now, I'll measure when I get home.

[CarlD]

It's working!

Carl

[DistantHorizon]

Got home and checked chlorine today. Used cheap OTO, diluted 50% with Brita water, and still had stronger yellow color than the 5ppm the test max's out at - so chlorine is over 10ppm.

So I think things are rolling along nicely... I think other questions I have should probably go in different threads.

Thanks for all the help!