Chlorine Enhancer ???

[mandylee]

Okay I will shock the pool. What kind of bleach? Household bleach. I always buy those 1 lb bags of shock. Also, the pool is plaster. Is is silly to take my water in to the pool store? I need to get a reading for CYA. It seems like they try and sell you stuff you don't need. Also, is it better to shock at night?
Thanks
Mandy

[mandylee]

When adding bleach to the pool should you add it in the deepest end, around the edges, the whole pool surface ????? I've never used bleach and I am not sure how to go about it? How soon afterwards should I check my FC level? I can't believe I've been spending so much on bags of shock when I can use bleach! Should I still use chlorine tablets in the floater???

[aylad]

Yes, we're talking about household bleach, but it needs to be plain, unscented....no added perfumes or "extra whitening ingredients" or anything fancy like that. In a pool your size, 3 cups of 6% bleach will raise your chlorine by 1 ppm. How high you need to go depends on your CYA level, which you need to test for. A pool store can test for it, but make sure they're not using strips--make sure they're using the liquid reagents. It isn't silly to go to the pool store for testing, as long as you don't buy any of the chemicals they try to sell you, right off the bat. For example, pool stores worldwide will convince people that their calcium is WAY too low and they must add some RIGHT NOW!!! but calcium is irrelevant in a vinyl pool. Or they'll try to insist you need to buy 4-5 pounds of alkalinity up, which is the exact same thing as Arm & Hammer baking soda at 5 x the price. So....I strongly encourage you to invest in a good, drop-based test kit and forget the pool store. Taylor carries a good one, but most of us use the one sold by the owner of this site. Cost is $70, but it will test for most anything you need, and pay for itself over and over again in the first year. It'll also keep you from getting "pool-stored"!!

Since you referred to the tabs, I'm guessing you've been chlorinating with trichlor, which confirms my suspicion that your CYA is way too high--but have it tested anyway and post back. And when you add bleach to the pool, you can either walk around the perimeter and stir as you pour, or pour it directly into the return stream, it doesn't matter--just make sure it doesn't collect as a "hot spot" around th edges of your liner. It is better to shock at night, so the sun gets as little of your chlorine as possible, and I would stop using the pucks for now until we have a good CYA number.

Janet

[mandylee]

Janet-
Thanks for the info and for being so kind. I am on my way to the store to buy more CYA reagent.I have strips and the drop test kits. What a waste of money on the strips! The drops that I have test for total chlorine, bromine, pH, TA, Total hardness and CYA. I am already out of the CYA, but like I said I will buy more. Is there any other tests I should perform? Also going to pick up a couple of jugs of bleach. I will post my CYA results as soon as I get them. Hopefully you will be able to help me determine how much bleach I need.
Thanks again,

[aylad]

Those are all the tests that you need for now. Ignore the scale for bromine, just read the chlorine side. You also probably need to pick up more like 3 or 4 jugs of bleach. Post your numbers, and we'll be glad to help.

Janet

[Watermom]

Good advice by Janet as always! Another way you can add your bleach is to simply pour it slowly into the skimmer. That is what I always do.

[mandylee]

Well I was able to pick up bleach but the pool store is closed already I guess because it's Sunday. I tried WalMart, Loes and KMart and no one sells just the CYA reagent. I hate to spend the money for the whole kit when all I need is the CYA. I guess I will wait until tomorrow to test for it. For the time being should I put in some bleach just to be safe??? If so how much?

[aylad]

Without knowing your CYA level, it's anybody's guess. I'd just wait until tomorrow, get your test kit, test your water, and go from there. Just pouring bleach in at random is wasting bleach.

Janet