Can I Shock every other week?

[cooltoy2000]

As the school year has began we don't use the tub as often as we did in the summer. We are down to about 2 times a week and mostly on the weekends.

I still add the sanitizer every other day or so. Should I still do the whole scale control, clarifier and shock routine once a week, or can I extend that two two weeks.

Thanks.

[anne]

My tub gets used about 4-5 days per week, mostly just by me, and is about 400gal with chlorine as the main sanitizer and ozone. I have been shocking with MPS on an average of every other week the whole time I have had it, with no problems. Yesterday at the 2 week mark the CC was at less than 0.5, so I'm not at all worried about not shocking enough. Is this valid advice, guys?

[In Canada eh]

Cooltoy,

    Not sure what kind of test kit your using,  if you are using a taylor you can test for combined chlorine
total chlorine(TC) minus free chlorine(FC) equals combined chlorine(CC).  You can shock when your CC starts to climb to about 3 ppm.   I personally don't use clarifier on any type of schedule, only as needed. Scale control is due to your local water conditions so I won't comment on it

[Vinny]

Valid point anne!

What I do is look at the CC readings and if it's 0.5 PPM or less I "shock" with 5 or 6 PPM and it'll burn up the CC. Shocking every other week with MPS is a great thing to do as well.  If I haven't used the tub for a while and decide to shock with MPS I also add dichlor and run the pumps to chlorinate.

The CC reading is the key to how often you need to shock. If in anne's case she doesn't get much CC then no need to shock. But on the otherhand if you get 1 PPM after 1 soak, it's time to shock.

My advice is what In_Canada_eh said with the exception that a CC reading of 3 PPM may be a little chlorine smelly, I would say a 1 PPM CC reading requires a shock. I've only had that chlorine smell once and that was in my pool a few days after opening up and shocking ... I shocked it again to get rid of the smell.

[glastron]

when u shock how long do you leave the cover off book says 15 min SeaKlear says 1 hour guess the longer the better?

[Vinny]

I leave it off for at least 20 minutes. If I have the time I will leave it open for about an hour. I tend to leave it open longer with dichlor than when I use MPS. I typically don't have a high CC reading and I rarely put 10 PPM dichlor.

I run the pumps with air whenever they turn on. My thoughts is with all that air being injected, my water is off gassing a lot in a pump cycle.

[cooltoy2000]

I am on the SpaGuard system.

My dealer gave me a sheet, which gives me the following weekly schedule ( I am wondering if I need to do this every week if my usage is down fro0m the summer):

25.5 ml of Stain and scale control



15 ml of Clarifier



Usual amount of sanitizer



and a bag of Shock

[hottub.pool_boy]

Yes, you can shock every ohter week. Same goes for the accessory chems.

[cooltoy2000]

Thank you very much.

[TN__HOT_TUB]

This water treatment stuff is such a gray area.  I suspect you'll be fine by shocking your water twice a month.  Just make sure you keep those filters clean.

Shocking water and cleaning filters seems to solve most water issues.  

[tony]

Anne and Vinny are right on with their advice.  You don't have to shock until the combined chlorine levels reach .5 ppm.  For some, this may be less than a week;  for others more than a month.  A safe guideline is weekly, but depending on use, it could be different.

[RobRoy]

When you want to increase your free clorine 3ppm, what is a good way to measure it? In other words is 1tbl spoon, 1ppm?

[anne]

When you want to increase your free clorine 3ppm, what is a good way to measure it? In other words is 1tbl spoon, 1ppm?

That will depend not only on the volume of water in the tub, but also what is in the tub that the chlorine has to deal with. I hope someone else more knowlegable pipes in here, because I have wondered the same thing, too. I'm "thinking out loud", as it is a good way for me to make sure I understand what I THINK I understand: I BELIEVE that if you have a completely pristine tub, with nothing to sanitize, that if you put in chlorine, all of it stays as free chlorine and then eventually dissipates. If you have nasties in the tub, then some of the chlorine present is working hard to sanitize/oxidize, and you get some combined chorines and have some free chlorine. So the measured FC after adding will depend on that. This theory has holes, though, so I'd love to here a more accurate version.

For me, if I add 1 tsp chlorine (to a 400gal tub) after using the tub, I have a FC level of about 3ppm. When I got my tub I read here that approx 1 tsp per user would be a good ballpark of chlorine needed, and that has definitely worked for me.

[In Canada eh]

My advice is what In_Canada_eh said with the exception that a CC reading of 3 PPM may be a little chlorine smelly, I would say a 1 PPM CC reading requires a shock. I've only had that chlorine smell once and that was in my pool a few days after opening up and shocking ... I shocked it again to get rid of the smell.

 :-? :-?Oopps, sorry my bad

[anne]

For me, if I add 1 tsp chlorine (to a 400gal tub) after using the tub, I have a FC level of about 3ppm. When I got my tub I read here that approx 1 tsp per user would be a good ballpark of chlorine needed, and that has definitely worked for me.

I may have to amend this statement. It may be more like 1.5-2ppm. Been a while since I actually checked the FC level, since my 1 tsp per person rule has been resulting in clear water and TC of only 0.5-1 about every 2 weeks. I'll get back to ya'll.