Undissolved Chemicals

Nexxceleb · Postby **Nexxceleb** » Tue 18 Jun, 2013 15:05

So I have a problem with my pool. It's been almost a week and my pool is extremely cloudy. My father usually takes care of the pool but since I was having a party coming up and my father was too lazy to do it, I decided to take care of the pool myself. The pool was opened a month ago and no chemicals were added except shock since the pool was opened. So I knew something needed to be added so I took a water sample to my local pool store and have them help me with what my pool needed, which was basically everything.

The pool store told me I needed almost everything. They told me what to add and how much to add. They said to add a new chemical every 45 min from each other to prevent cloudiness. My filter was running the entire time. Based on the questions I was asking, they should have known I was new to this and should have told me that all the chemicals needed to be stirred in a bucket of water. All they told me was to put everything directly into the pool. So that's what I did. I even read the directions and still didn't see that it need to be diluted.

So now I need help with my stupid mistake. I put the chemicals directly into the pool without diluting it. First I added 50 lbs of calcium. Forty five min later, I added 5 lbs of pH, an hour later 8lbs of stabilizer, then the next morning 18 lbs of alkalinity. Because it started to look cloudy I added 4 gallons of liquid shock like they told me then I backwashed the pool. It was still cloudy so the next day, I backwashed the pool again like they said then added 1lb of powder shock(without diluting it) because the instructions said DO NOT ADD WATER.

Its been almost a week and the pool is still cloudy. I couldn't use the pool during the party and something fell in the pool so I had to take the net to get it out. I cannot see the bottom so I had to fish for it. That is when I noticed tons of chemicals at the bottom and moving it around made it even more cloudier. I put my robot in there and it has been picking up alot of the chemicals at the bottom but I know for sure there's more. Today I tried to take the net and pick some up but now its rough and seems like it is stuck to the pool. I just got this pool liner last summer and I know it is discolored for sure which is pretty upsetting.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to make sure I covered the basics of what actually happened. I cannot see the bottom so I am not sure how much is still down there. BTW I have a 30k gallon pool and it is 9 feet deep. I cannot drain it because it vinyl. What should I do?

Postby **chem geek** » Tue 18 Jun, 2013 23:43

You can use The Pool Calculator to calculate dosing and you can see that in your 30,000 gallon pool, the 50 pounds of calcium chloride (if anhydrous) would raise the Calcium Hardness (CH) by 180 ppm, the 5 pounds of pH Up product (sodium carbonate; soda ash; washing soda) would raise the pH substantially, likely well over 8.0, the 8 pounds of stabilizer would raise the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) by 32 ppm but would bring the pH back down (though CYA takes time to dissolve) and the 18 pounds of Alkalinity Up (baking soda) would raise your Total Alkalnity (TA) by 62 ppm.

I don't know what your initial numbers were, but I suspect that your TA, CH and pH combination got too high and the cloudiness is calcium carbonate over-saturation. You really, really need to get your own good test kit -- either the TFTestkits TF-100 or the Taylor K-2006 where the former has more volume of reagents you use the most (it gets the reagents from Taylor, but repackaged).

After you get your test kit, you can find out what is really going on. Do not trust the pool store for testing your water -- they obviously don't know what they are doing. Read the Pool School to learn how to properly maintain your pool.

Nexxceleb · Postby **Nexxceleb** » Wed 19 Jun, 2013 11:37

Chlorine 0
ph 7.8
alk 120

Postby **chem geek** » Wed 19 Jun, 2013 16:22

What about the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level? Without knowing that, you can't know what to do next. You can't know how high you need to raise your FC to shock the pool nor whether it might be better to dilute the water to lower the CYA level. Read the Pool School articles on Defeating Algae and on The Shock Process. If you do shock the pool (elevate the FC to a high level), lower you pH first to 7.2 before doing so since your pH is already on the high side.

Nexxceleb · Postby **Nexxceleb** » Wed 19 Jun, 2013 18:12

That is at 100. I could feel the bottom liner n it feels very rough and sand seems to be coming up. Is it at all possible that it tore the liner by settling at the bottom for so long?

Postby **chem geek** » Thu 20 Jun, 2013 02:50

That might be calcium carbonate precipitate, but you may be able to sweep that up or if you get your chemistry in balance and somewhat lower the pH it may dissolve. Or if you have the ability to vacuum-to-waste you can try that if the stuff is loose.

A CYA of 100 is high and you might consider a partial drain/refill to lower it. You'll need less chlorine to kill the algae if you do.

Nexxceleb · Postby **Nexxceleb** » Thu 20 Jun, 2013 08:15

Thanks. I added chlorine and I can see a little further down but still not the bottom. I will do another test and post the results. Do you recommend buying acid to lower the pH?

Nexxceleb · Postby **Nexxceleb** » Sat 22 Jun, 2013 16:02

So, its been 9 days and still extremely cloudy. The robot has been picking up chemicals and now lots of sand. I decided to open the filter and see if there was any dissolved chemicals that the filter couldn't handle. When we opened it, it was filled with water with a white layer over the sand. Once we got past that, the sand looks exactly like what the robot is picking up. I have attached a pic of it.

Nexxceleb · Postby **Nexxceleb** » Sun 07 Jul, 2013 13:41

So finally my pool is Crystal clear. I can see the bottom perfectly so thanks for your help with that. The water is nice and blue. However, there is a bunch of sand at the bottom. I put my robot in and it picks up nothing. I tried vacuuming it but its not picking up. When you touch it with something it just moves around in the water. I tried brushing it but it made the pool cloudy again for a few days then when it cleared, it was still there. What to do?