To shock your pool, use 2 pounds of shock for every 10,000 gallons of water. This should raise your chlorine levels to 10.0 ppm. Depending on your pool, you can use either Leslie's Power Powder Plus or Leslie's Chlor Brite.
You'll want to follow the rule of 3 pounds of shock for every 10,000 gallons of water.
You cannot overshock a swimming pool or add too much. Adding too much shock or overshocking your pool will kill off algae. The negative of adding too much shock is it will upset the chemical balance of your pool.
Keep your pump and filter running. Give the shock a good 12 to 24 hours to work it's magic. If the algae hasn't cleared up after 24-48 hours, clean and brush the pool and add another shock treatment.
In this case, you should double shock your swimming pool water. To double shock, you will need to add 2 pounds for every 10,000 gallons of water. For instance, if you pool is 20,000 gallons, you will add 4 pounds of shock.
Pools can immediately turn green after shocking when they have metals like copper or iron in the water. These metals oxidize when exposed to high levels of chlorine which makes the pool water turn green. Metals in the water are caused by some algaecides and using well water.
Running your filter after shocking your pool is a must and is just as important to your pool as shocking it is. Be sure to run your filter for at least 6 hours, but shoot for 24 hours to several days, if your pool is particularly dirty or has algae, to properly circulate the chlorine and clean the water.
After Shocking Your Pool
It is safe to swim once your chlorine levels are around 5 ppm or after 24 hours. It is always best to test first!
How Often Should I Shock My Pool? 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.
It's often recommended to shock your pool once a week. If you don't do it every week, you should at least do it every other week. This is necessary to maintain your pool's water chemistry. If you have a lot of people over in your pool or have a party, you may want to shock your pool more frequently.
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.
The best way by far to break a chlorine demand is to perform a chlorine demand test. This test is contained in a separate lab available to BioGuard Dealers, and it can give the exact amount of Burn Out® 35 or Burn Out® needed to break the demand.
Another way to break chlorine lock is to shock the pool with a non-chlorine shock. The non-chlorine shock will oxidize the chlorine in the swimming pool. Non-chlorine shock oxidizes the water, restoring the balance and making it cleaner. To break chlorine lock with shock, breakpoint chlorination is being done.
If your chlorine lock is caused by too high levels of cyanuric acid, the only way to deal with it is to partially drain your pool. Cyanuric acid doesn't dissipate so draining it out is the only cost-effective way to do it.
Vacuuming After Shock
Shock the pool with either the liquid or granulated chlorine shocks. Let the filter run for 24 hours before adding any other chemicals. You should see a noticeable difference the next day in the water clarity.
What can happen if you go into a pool too soon after it's been shocked? There are a few potential issues. "Chlorine will react with water to produce an acid," Alan says. "The effects will be different depending on whether chlorine is inhaled or whether there is skin or eye contact."
Running the pump at night should only be when you are doing a major chemical treatment such as algae clean-up. Your pool is more vulnerable during the day, plants don't grow at night the way they do during the day–that's true of ALL plants including Algae.
Should the green be due to pollen, there may be little to do in the way of minimizing the discoloration short of erecting a building around the pool. Fortunately, assuming there are no allergies to the pollen, it is safe to swim in a pool with that as the cause for green water.
Typically for granular shock, you'll need one pound for every 10,000 to 13,500 gallons of pool water.
Darker pools enhance the reflective qualities of the water while lighter colour pools look bigger in smaller areas as they blend in and create an illusion of space.
The shallow end is going to appear lighter than the deeper water. In order to get blue water, you want a pool finish that has a gray, blue, or white pigment. For green water, you want to pick a darker finish with black, brown, tan, or green pigment. The water color and finish should complement the atmosphere.
Is There Truth to the Rumor? No. There is no chemical which changes color when someone urinates in a swimming pool. There are dyes which could cloud, change color, or produce a color in response to urine, but these chemicals would also be activated by other compounds, producing embarrassing false-positives.