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Icky Pool Incident...Question about Shocking Pool

14 years ago

This is not a pleasant question to ask... On Sunday, a guest at our pool party ( a child) had diahrea in our pool. (sigh) She got out quickly and there was nothing visible to the eye, but she said she had diahrea in the pool and did not feel well. Well of course we have not stepped foot in the pool since. My husband instantly added some shock -- one pouch, and we have a salt water pool if it matters. I called the pool store where we get our water checked and asked them what to do. They said to "shock the fire out of it" (yes, we live in the South!) They told me to triple the amount of shock we usually use. My dh added six more pouches of the shock last night. Now I'm afraid to swim in my pool, or to let my kids. Between the diahrea and the excessive amount of shock, not sure how safe it really is... Any suggestions on how to get it safe to use before this holiday weekend? Thanks for any advice regarding this less than pleasant topic! :)

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Comments (5)

waterworkspools
14 years ago
If the Shock you are referring is non-chlorine shock, it will not help your situation. For a diarrhea situation you need to achieve CT of 4800. CT means chlorine-time, or minutes times ppm of chlorine... ie: you need a chlorine reading of 4800 ppm for one minute OR 4800 minutes at 1 ppm OR 480 minutes at 10 ppm and so on. Some of the things present in diarrhea are very difficult for chlorine to kill and thus it takes a lot of chlorine for a long time to rid your pool of it.
landa_mac
14 years ago
Here is what one health department recommends:

http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/eh/docs/ep_rw_fecal.pdf

Here is a link that might be useful: How to manage fecal accidents in Pools
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When it comes to how much chlorine should be in the pool on a regular basis and when shocking, the ozone system doesn't matter. Ozone is a supplemental system. It can only augment chlorine. As you found out, it does nothing against algae. What is the active ingredient in the Swimtrine Plus? Is it Calcium Hypochlorite (cal-hypo) or dichloro-s-triazinetrion, aka dichlor? How are you testing the water? Just prior to starting the shocking process, what were the chemical levels for the following: Free available chlorine(FC), Total or Combined Chlorine(TC or CC), Alkalinity(TA), pH, Stablizer (CYA), Calcium Hardness(CH), and if you are using Bio-Guard brand Optimizer*, what is it's level? Are you using an erosion feeder and 3" tablets to feed the pool it's daily chlorine or a salt water chlorine generator? What equipment is at the filter pad? Brand and model information are important. At the moment, all we know is that you have a 50K pool with an edge and that it has an ozonator. The more we know about what you have to work with, the better we can help you. *Optimizer, for those that didn't know, is a borate based additive that can help stabilize the pH in salt systems, when tend to have the pH rise. Scott
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just-a-pb
14 years ago
OK,
A little squirt from a kid, get over it all ready.
The fact that they all Pee in the pool doesnt seem to be an issue.

I gurantee there is more danger with the handle of your shopping cart then there ever was with your pool.

Unless the child died soon after this event!!

This brings up visions of a babyruth floating in the pool. LOL
teppy
14 years ago
honestly, i would just shock my pool and not worry about it. you need to get your own test kit to know that you are at shock level. if your pool is in the sun for a good many hours a day, that chlorine level will come down fast enough. you can check it with your test kit to know when the chlorine is at safe enough levels to let them in. and really, you don't need to buy special shock packs. just use regular old chlorox bleach. shock level will depend on your pool size and the amount of CYA in your pool.
nu2this_2008
14 years ago
I hate to say this but this happened to us last year and the issue was answered extensively. The subject was "Grossed out & Disgusted" and this is the link - http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pools/msg071419062694.html
I went overboard and shocked the pool, keeping the free CL at 12 for 72 hours. I then backwashed the DE filter shocked it again to achieve free CL of 12. I waited until the CL dropped to 4, backwashed again, and finally opened the pool. This happened to us in early August and was not how we had planned on spending the hottest part of summer. Good Luck and PS, I had managed to forget this incident until you reminded me.

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