Milk to Bubbles

Causes and cures for cloudy swimming pool water.
Milky pool water, white, pink, brown, purple, black cloudy water.
sunbather
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Joined: Sun 17 May, 2009 13:21
My Pool: inground stainless steel pool about 36 X 22, holds about 144,000 litres. Sand filter with regular and auxilliary pumps. Automatic chlorinator
Location: Leawood Kansas

Milk to Bubbles

Postby sunbather » Sun 17 May, 2009 13:32

Last week after several rainy days we niticed overnight our good looking pool had turned milky. After testing we noticed the chlorine was down below reportable levels so added so more 3" tabs to our auto chlorinator setting about 3. Next day no change. husband added a shock treatment to the water, no change in milky appearaance but now recording 4 ppm chlorine level. Next day checked water; pH good, chlorine good, alkalinity way high, over 160 ppm. Treated with dry acid that we had mixed in a bucket with water and poured in the deepest end of the pool. Next two days still high but coming down. Husband took water sample to pool store, were told to add another shock chlorine treatment and slowly add water silkener through skimmer basket. Warned not to backwash or rinse for 48 hours. As we watched huge clouds of swirling white milky water poured into the pool from the system and the water on top not looks like it has swirls of bubbles. Bleech. Label on the silkener said to not mix with other chemicals. Pool company said to add the chlorine at the same time, Husband checked water again today, this is day 8 of the yucky unattractice pool water. Chlorine level okay, pH level okay, alkaline level is down to about 120 ppm although it should be lower. We would certainly like to swim this summer, hopefully by Memorial Day. Need instant help and fast solutions. Thanks


chem geek
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Joined: Thu 21 Jun, 2007 21:27
Location: San Rafael, California

Milk to Bubbles

Postby chem geek » Sun 17 May, 2009 15:31

Continued use of stabilized chlorine products (e.g. Trichlor tabs and Dichlor powder/granular) will increase the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level lowering chlorine's effectiveness. I suspect your CYA level is high. You should use unstabilized chlorine, such as chlorinating liquid or bleach, to get rid of what is probably an impending algae bloom. See Defeating Algae.

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