Cloudy pool water

[irishsph]

For the past few days I have noticed a somewhat increasing cloudiness in my pool. I think I first noticed it on Wednesday for sure.
This morning after removing solar blanket it was probably a little worse.

I have a Taylor testing kit and came up with the following results this morning:
Free chlorine = 5 ppm
combined chlorine = 0 ppm
pH = 7.0
Total alkalinity = 50 ppm
calcium hardness = 100 ppm
cyanuric acid = 60 ppm

I've got an 18 foot round above ground pool. The temp has hovered anywhere from 78-85 degrees so far this year. Currently it is 80.
I use 3" jumbo chlorine tabs in my pool and not much else.

thanks in advance for any help!

[Lindon]

The TA is very low which can cause PH to jump all over the place, the TA needs to be 80 minimum & ideally around 100. The PH READS low & pool water PH should be over 7.2... ideally over 7.4 (PH 7.0 is neutral on the PH scale but PH 7.0 is also 200 times more acidic than PH 7.2) but with such a low TA your PH reading may not be trustworthy. It might in fact be high which can cause cloudy water! In the first instance I would advise getting your TA up, ( leave it for a few days before then checking out what the PH reads.) Your CL is ok..ish but why SO high? Its not high enough to give cloudy water (which is the other usual culprit) but 1-2 is fine & 3 is ample in a normal residential pool. Your CYA at 60 ppm is not bad but it IS a bit high, even 60 can make the CL have to work harder & increase the demand for it... really needs to be between 30 & 50 (closer to 30 is ideal) but the only way to achieve that is drain away some water & dilute the remaining with fresh water. (If you reduce water volume by 50% then you reduce CYA by 50%) If you DO go down that route its always a good idea to test what your 'fill up' water TA & PH is, depending on those readings it may be a good idea to sort the CYA first & then look at the pool TA & PH after filling it back up. Sounds like your using stabilised multi- functional CL tablets... hope you realise that means your constantly increasing your CYA level!!! Once the correct level of CYA is in the water there is no need to keep adding to it, if you do, especially in a relatively small volume of water you'll eventually get CL 'block'