swim after bleach?

[poolhelp101]

just learning with bleach....chlorine a little low this morning between 1.5 and 2.0 , temperature to reach 90 today...need to add chlorine? should I? and how soon can you swim after adding chlorine?

[aylad]

You can add it today, or you can wait until this evening, it's up to you. Once you've put the bleach in the pool and you know it's disbursed, it's fine to go ahead and swim. If you raise it higher than about 5 ppm or so, I'd wear faded suits.

If it were my pool, I'd go ahead and swim today, and just shock it later tonight when you're done.

Janet

[poolhelp101]

thanks! I haven't figured out yet how much and when to add the bleach to maintain the pool. I added one gallon on Friday night and I was at 5...my cya stays about 60. any suggestions on when to keep adding for maintenance? my pool is 20,000 gallons, vinyl liner. Thanks..this forum is great help!

[aylad]

At CYA of 60, your chlorine needs to stay at a minimum of 5 at all times. Your best bet is to test your water daily, and add whatever amount you need to get back to 5-10 ppm. If you'll search the forum for mwsmith's posts, there is a link to a calculator in his sig that will help you figure out how much to add, based on your gallonage. It's generally best to add it at dusk or later, so it doesn't get consumed by the sun, and it has all night to work in your pool. AFter a few weeks of daily testing and additions, you'll get a good feel for your pool and how often you're going to need to add chlorine.

Janet

[poolhelp101]

i added 2 gallons bleach last night....brought chlorine to 6.0...as the night went, it seemed to be getting a little cloudy. added 4 oz. of clarifier last night. this evening, pool is a little more cloudy, but can see the drain... ta is 180, cya 60, ph 7.8... does the bleach increase the ph and could the ph being 7.8 be the cause of the cloudiness? what do you advise me to do to help get rid of the cloudiness? thanks

[aylad]

Bleach will sometimes increase pH a little, but that's not causing your cloudiness. I have a feeling there's something more in the water that needs sanitizing. With a CYA of 60, shock your pool up to 20 ppm, and see if that clears it up.

Janet

[poolhelp101]

i didn't get to shock as you suggested last night (kids stayed in the pool until wee hours) anyway this morning the pool is almost clear but still lacks the sparkle. before work i checked the cl it was low..my reading was 1.0, ph 7.5. i also had the water anaylized this evening at a pool store and i want to check with you before doing anything. the pool store results are tc .8 fc .2, ph 7.5, ta 150, hardness 298, no metals didn't test for cya. my tests never shows hardness (the color never changes??) their advise is to decrease ph as it is too high???? do you agree with that? also to add scale inhibitor due to the hardness and to shock the pool (shocking the pool is the only thing i knew they were telling me right) please help me and tell me what to do. the water seems so much clearer today i don't want to mess up! thanks!!

[poolhelp101]

didn't know whether to address the ph and hardness or not before getting the chlorine level up so i went ahead and started adding bleach...was going to add 4 gallons(my cya is 60 and i have 20,000 gallons) but after adding the second gallon i noticed the pool to cloud...since i am new to bleach...would you please tell me if that is normal and if i should go ahead and add the rest of the bleach tonight? thank you

[ChuckD]

didn't know whether to address the ph and hardness or not before getting the chlorine level up so i went ahead and started adding bleach...was going to add 4 gallons(my cya is 60 and i have 20,000 gallons) but after adding the second gallon i noticed the pool to cloud...since i am new to bleach...would you please tell me if that is normal and if i should go ahead and add the rest of the bleach tonight? thank you

In the interest of getting you an answer (albeit a bit later than you needed) I'll throw a couple pence in here. First stop getting your water analyzed at the pool store. Keep your testing consistent, meaning test it yourself the same way every time. One of my biggest suspicions about taking a sample out to a store for testing is how the sample degrades in the process. I suppose if the store's down the block it may not be too bad, but what if the pool store stop is one of several errands you have to run? The sample may sit in your car (in the sun?), the sample can be mishandled by the PS employee, the equipment may not be maintained too well, etc, etc. So for that reason, I firstly support aylad's suspicion that you may have something else going on, and I suggest you provide your own CL measurements to the forum.

C.

[poolhelp101]

i have posted my results and i agree about pool stores and samples. my results was higher ph than pool store got, mine is 7.8. i did as aylad suggested, a day later but i did begin it....i stopped after the second gallon being added as the water began to get more cloudy while adding the bleach...so i stopped and posted the question if that is normal and should i continue on the shock to 20??? this morning, the pool is cloudy, can see the bottom, but is more cloudy than before adding the bleach... i'm hoping to get advise if that's is normal and just keep on with the bleach???????