Re: Hello all! New to poolforum...questions on chlorine vs. bleach (sodium hypochlori
First thing --- order a good kit so you don't have to rely on the pool store. We recommend the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C which you can get through the test kit link in my signature below.
I am assuming the shock is calhypo? I wouldn't use it. Your calcium is already high and may contribute to cloudy water issues. (Plus, vinyl pools don't even need calcium.) I would just stick with bleach. In your pool, each gallon of 8.25% bleach will add about 3ppm of chlorine. Use that as a reference to figure out doses. Until you get the good kit, go to Walmart and pick up an OTO/Phenol Red kit (yellow and red drops). Also, get some distilled water, a couple of boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle) and a bunch of bleach.
Go ahead and add about a half a box of Borax slowly to the skimmer. That should take your pH up to mid 7s.
Unless you added a lot this evening, add about 4 gallons of bleach tomorrow morning if possible. Tomorrow evening, test it with an OTO kit. Until your good kit comes, you can use a dilution method to test readings higher than 5. (Not super accurate, but better than nothing.) Go to www.poolsolutions.com. On the left-hand side, click on 'guides' and find the one about 'testing without a good kit. Try and keep your chlorine in the 10-12ppm range for now. Once your pool clears, you can let it drift down and keep it in the range recommended by the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in my signature.
As far as CYA, get the pool cleared up and then worry about the CYA reading. Personally, if it were my pool, I'd just buys some and add it separately. You could add about 8-9 lbs which would give you a CYA reading of about 40-45ppm which would be good. You add it by either pouring it into the skimmer and then keep the pump running for 4 or 5 days while it is dissolving or put it in an old sock and hang it in front of a return jet. If you give the sock a squeeze once in awhile, it helps it dissolve faster.
Hope this helps. Come back with more questions if needed.
(BTW -- when new members post, their post goes into a moderation queue to wait to be approved by one of us before it appears on the forum. I deleted your other post. I'm sure you posted again because you didn't see the first one after you submitted it.)
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