cloudy water but pool is balanced

[akaufman]

Hi there,
I have a 20,000 gallon above ground pool with a salt system and a Hayward cartridge filter. I went to the pool store and they tested my water with the following results:

Free chlorine 4.4ppm
PH 7.6
Alkalinity 68 ppm
CYA 49 ppm
Hardness 100

They sold me 11 kg of calcium for the hardness and something to increase the alkalinity but the water was still cloudy this morning. It looks blue and cloudy - not green. I clean the filter every day or two and it does nothing. I read somewhere that with a CYA of 49, I would need more chlorine than 4.4 - even though the test strips say to aim for 1-3 ppm. Any advice?

Thanks,

Alex

[Denniswiseman]

Hi Alex
With a CYA of 50 in a salt water pool, you need to raise it to 70 and target 5ppm chlorine with a minimum of 3 and a shock level of 28ppm according to Chlorine / CYA Chart
Don't panic about a low TA so long as your pH is stable (increasing it could cause your pH to rise more rapidly)
You don't have to worry about Calcium with a liner or fibreglass pool
Calcium will turn the water cloudy just persevere
One other thing, strips and pool store testing are widely inaccurate as well as their advice (they are in the business of selling)
Get yourself a decent test kit (Taylor K2006C or TF100) and control your own pool destiny
You could also check out Pool Maths to work out how much CYA to add and Pool Levels as a reference

Muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid) to lower pH and TA
Bicarbonate of soda to raise TA
Aeration will raise pH only