Most shocks will take about 8–12 hours to work. For those using non-chlorine shock, 15 minutes should be enough to circulate the product and sanitise your pool.
It could be you didn't add enough chlorine. It could be that didn't brush the pool well enough first. It could be that your filter isn't performing as well as it could or just needs more time.
Shock- chlorine works by reacting with the algae to kill it. Once it reacts it's gone. There is a lot of algae, so it requires a lot of chlorine. You need to add enough chlorine such that it can kill the algae faster than the algae can grow back. This is shocking.
If you're planning a mid-summer get-together with friends and family and you wake up to a green pool, chances are you won't be able to clear the algae away in one day. The average green algae bloom takes between 4-5 days to clear, so it may be best to postpone the pool party until your water is clean once again.
If you test your pool water and can't get a chlorine reading at all it may be due to very high chlorine demand. High chlorine demand is the inability to keep an adequate level of chlorine in the pool water even though the water appears to be balanced and properly maintained.
Allow the shock to circulate
If you've got any pool toys or brushes that you want to disinfect, now's the time to drop them in the pool. Most shocks will take about 8–12 hours to work. For those using non-chlorine shock, 15 minutes should be enough to circulate the product and sanitise your pool.
Baking Soda and Green, Blue, or Yellow Algae
You'll need to use an algaecide to kill the algae and superchlorinate your pool to clear the water. After this treatment, test your pH and alkalinity and add baking soda to raise alkalinity to at least 100 ppm and pH to between 7.2 and 7.8.
Yes, too much clarifier in your pool is possible. Worse, too much pool clarifier can cause an adverse reaction where your pool water ends up remaining cloudy. If this happens, it's best to partially drain your pool and top it up with fresh water. You can then filter out the remaining pool clarifier overload.
Shocking your pool regularly will help to keep the water clean and free of contaminants. You should aim to shock your pool about once a week, with the additional shock after heavy use. Some tell-tale signs that your pool needs to be shocked are cloudy, foamy, green, or odourous water.
Is it possible to shock your pool too much? Yes—excessive shocking of your pool will keep it at an elevated chlorine level. This will cause irritation of the skin and eyes as well as excessive wear and tear on your pool filter system, including excessive corrosion of all metal parts.
If you still can't see the bottom after shocking your pool, you may need to add a clarifier or flocculant the next day to remove the dead algae. Flocculant binds to small particle impurities in the water, causing them to clump together and fall to the bottom of the pool.
Even if you shock your pool properly, it takes a while for the natural microorganisms to do their job. This can take up to 12-24 hours, as opposed to a couple of days with harsh chemicals. Thus, the pool water takes time to get clear.
If you do not have a Free Chlorine reading of at least 0.5 ppm, we will need to "super shock" your pool. Breaking a chlorine lock will take more than you weekly dose of chlorine. Typically it takes 3X the regular amount and maybe more.
Bacteria, algae and microscopic contaminants, such as urine, sweat, sunscreen and beauty products, take a toll on your swimming pool's water chemistry. These substances, when present in your pool water, accelerate chlorine demand and can affect your chlorine's ability to maintain properly sanitized water.
Raising pool chlorine can be much easier than trying to lower chlorine levels. Simply adding chlorine in the form of chlorine tablets, granular chlorine, liquid shock or powder shock will increase the total amount of chlorine within the pool.
1) What is the difference between chlorine and shock? Do I need to use both? Chlorine is a sanitizer, and (unless you use Baquacil products) is necessary for maintaining a clear and healthy pool. Shock is chlorine, in a high dose, meant to shock your pool and raise the chlorine level quickly.
Most pools should have a 12-pack, or 12 lbs of pool shock on hand, to use for summer super chlorination, shocking or algae treatment. Larger pools may want to buy the 24-pack, while smaller pools can use the 6-pack of pool shock.
If you start in the evening, add a chlorine shock treatment that evening, and let the filter circulate overnight, and follow with the appropriate algaecide for your algae type the following day.
If your pool is green and cloudy, it's likely an algae problem. Algae can persist in a pool even after shocking. A green pool – especially one that turned green overnight or after rain, can also be from a pool pump that isn't properly circulating water or an issue with your filtering system.