Ammonia and a very cloudy pool

Chlorinating, maintaining the right chlorine levels,
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tricia

Ammonia and a very cloudy pool

Postby tricia » Tue 06 May, 2008 00:02

I have a cloudy pool attributed to high ammonia levels. We just opened our pool so it can't be pee. It was closed for the winter perfectly balanced and clean. I have drained and refilled 1/3 of the pool water and have gotten no improvement. Adding chlorine seems to be a waste of money and time, as it won't balance. Anyone have suggestions? :cry: :cry:


chem geek
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Pool Industry Leader
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Location: San Rafael, California

Postby chem geek » Tue 06 May, 2008 01:31

Sometimes when you let a pool go over the winter soil bacteria gets into the pool and consumes some of the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) and converts it to ammonia. It takes a LOT of chlorine to get rid of the ammonia so your only choices are to do more partial drain/refill or to use a lot of chlorinating liquid or unscented bleach to clear it. If you know the amount of ammonia (as ppm nitrogen), then it takes around 8 times that amount of chlorine as Free Chlorine (FC) to get rid of it.

You should be sure, however, that the pool was actually tested for ammonia. Cloudiness is algae. If you add chlorine and it seems to disappear almost right away (within minutes) with FC going to zero and Combined Chlorine (CC) then showing up, then there probably is ammonia in the water.

Richard

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