Muriatic acid - how soon can we swim?

[EmilyOTR]

I usually add acid in the evening and I forgot last night. My pH is getting high so I need to add it. How soon can my kids swim after adding?

While I'm asking, what is the rule on bleach too? I only rarely, if ever add it since I have a SWG.

 

[triptyx]

If the pump is running, you can give it about 15-30 minutes depending on your comfort level. If you're especially worried about it, you can brush vigorously around where you added it.

Bleach I'm a little less stringent on as it dilutes very fast, but same as above.

 

[EmilyOTR]

thank you! Can you explain brushing? Is this something I should be doing? lol

 

[triptyx]

You should be brushing the sides/bottom of the pool once a week to keep anything from building up.

When I say brushing here, I use a nylon pool brush (metal is ok too, but my plaster is extremely old and soft so I'm more careful with using very hard objects to rub on my plaster) to strongly brush the bottom a few swipes through the 6 foot area around where I poured the acid. This just keeps any of it from pooling, which is unlikely but I like the reassurance that I haven't let a high concentration of acid rest on the bottom if I missed the return jet stream.

Since you want to swim pretty fast after a chemical add, the brushing really helps to just stir up the area where you added the acid to mix it in faster and remove any possible hot spots.