Cloudy, but clean pool water

[jcs44]

I seem to have a problem with chlorine balance. Water balance is pretty much OK. Free Chlorine reads 0.7 ppm. Total Chlorine reads 5.87 ppm, and combined reads 5.17 ppm. Pool place recommended adding non-chlorine sanitizer which did not seem to help. Pool sand has 2-3 years on it. When I first opened the pool a week ago the water was very dark green, but it cleaned up quickly to a nice color, but cloudy. I'm really not sure what to do at this point. Any ideas.

Thanks, John

[Teapot]

If I had a dollar for everyone who said "water balance is pretty much OK" I'd have over a hundred dollars by now. Stupid pool place, what exactly did they sell you? Turn the packet round and read the composition for us.

Your combined chlorine is to high and you need to get that down by shocking the pool. Shocking is a process not a product, you need an un stabilised chlorine like chlorox or calcium hypochlorite (HTH chlorine) and take the chlorine level up high and hold it there by regular top ups of chlorine until the combined chlorine is 1ppm or less.

The correct shock level is obtained from you stabiliser level (cyanuric acid). You need to get the chlorine level up but also a water test for cyanuric acid. Later you can use a clarifyer to help the filtration to remove the fine stuff.

[Denniswiseman]

Hi John
Whole heartedly agree with Teapot
Your pool is completely out of balance. I would have expected the chlorine readings to be the other way round
Get a complete set of numbers using a decent test kit (Taylor K2006C or TF100)
FC:
TC:
pH:
TA:
CH:
CYA:
You can use basic products to sanitise and balance your water
Liquid chlorine (sodium hypochlorite or plain bleach)
Muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid) to lower pH and TA
Bicarbonate of soda to raise TA
Aeration will raise pH only
Soda ash will raise pH and TA
You then need to Slam (Shock Level and Maintain) with relation to Chlorine / CYA Chart and your recommended Pool Levels