How often to super-chlorinate?

[aylad]

Assuming that I can maintain my FC in the appropriate range (and no issues with algea/clarity/elevated CC/etc) for my CYA, and assuming that I have a high bather load (it seems like a community pool)...how often (and for what duration) should I super-chlorinate? Weekly, bi-monthly?? Dose the pool in the evening and be done, or re-check the next morning and re-dose if needed?

I personally shock it after large bather loads--not because it's really necessary every time, but because you never know if they ALL got out to pee! I also shock it after heavy rainstorms. If you don't have any CC, there's no real reason to shock it, but I find that it only costs $6 or so and a few minutes to do so with bleach, and it keeps things from getting out of hand if I get lazy!!

Janet

[tphaggerty]

I have an SWG, which is absolutely great for normal pool use, but can "fall behind" when the bather load gets really heavy or after a large rainfall/windstorm dumps lots of stuff in the water. I have 2 strategies to deal with this:

1) Anticipation. When I know that I am going to have a large bather load, say a birthday party for my 10 year old, I up the SWG output (on my Aquarite, I will go from 35% to 55% or so) several hours before the party and leave it up until the following day. This kicks the CL level up a bit, but not too much before the "load" hits. This has really worked well for me.

2) Post problem bleach. The few times I have gotten a cloudy pool, instead of super-chlorinating with the SWG, I hit the pool with a couple of gallons of bleach AND turn up the SWG for about 24 hours. This seems to be the most effective way of quickly clearing up problems.