New Pool Owner + Cloudy Water

Causes and cures for cloudy swimming pool water.
Milky pool water, white, pink, brown, purple, black cloudy water.
Eric.M

New Pool Owner + Cloudy Water

Postby Eric.M » Tue 14 Aug, 2007 08:55

Hello
I just recently bought my little sister a 24' above ground pool. According to the test kit that came with the pool I am keeping the Chlorine , Alkalinity , PH just right .. but the water is always cloudy. I think we only had about 2 weeks of clear water. I have no idea what to do about it.

The test kit they gave me with the pool are the test strips mostly likely the cheapest ones the could find. I will be getting something better soon , but I am still new to this.

The reading on the strip was Chlorine 5(10) .. Alkalinity 120 ... PH 7.8

Any help would be great
Thank you in advance


chem geek
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Postby chem geek » Tue 14 Aug, 2007 13:32

Do you know the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level in the pool? If it's too high, then you need to maintain a higher Free Chlorine (FC) level. If it's too low or zero, then chlorine will be broken down by the sun's UV rays so could get to near zero. Either way, algae can develop and when this happens the pool first turns dull, then cloudy, and then green.

I suggest shocking with unstabilized chlorine (such as bleach or chlorinating liquid) slowly added over the flow of water coming from the return and then brush the pool bottom near where you added the chlorine to mix the water and improve circulation. Raise the FC level to 15 ppm and keep it there until the cloudiness goes away, but really you need to have your CYA level measured to know for sure what to do.

You should get yourself a better test kit, the Taylor K-2006 from Taylor here or from Leslie's here or the even better TF100 test kit from tftestkits here.

Richard
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mr_clean
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Postby mr_clean » Thu 16 Aug, 2007 15:28

If this above ground pool is one that is a pump and filter together combo, you first need to take out small filter and clean once a week.

Did you add powder-conditioner? this protects chlorine and makes it last longer.

Test strips are junk! go to pool store and bring water sample from pool in clean bottle. they will test and let you know all test readings. also buy good test kit which normally come with directions.

in some of these above ground pools they have a protective cover over intake and return lines, you can remove the return line cover if it has nothing to hurt kids and water will flow across pool for better circulation. do not remove intake wich sucks in water.

run filter 8hrs a day during summer

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