Cloudy water-calcium hypochlorite shock

Causes and cures for cloudy swimming pool water.
Milky pool water, white, pink, brown, purple, black cloudy water.
jenn8504
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Cloudy water-calcium hypochlorite shock

Postby jenn8504 » Sat 30 Jun, 2007 10:49

I got one of those 15'x48" easy set pools about a week ago. I filled it up on a Thursday and shocked it w/ a calcium hypochlorite shock on Sat. then again on Tue because the chlorine levels were low.

Well, the lady at the pool store tells me this was a mistake because using a calcium based shock will make it look cloudy. The alkalinity was high and the pH was 7.8 so she told me to add some muratic acid which brought the alkalinity down to like 180. She also had me put some metal control in it and sodium based shock-1/2 gallon and some granulated as well. Everything is pretty much within range except the alkalinity now.

I can actually see the bottom if someone hasn't used it in a while but people get in it, it gets cloudy again.

Will the calcium hypoclorite just go away or is my pool ruined from it? What will help clear it up?


chem geek
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Postby chem geek » Sat 30 Jun, 2007 10:58

A combination of high Calcium Hardness (CH), high Total Alkalinity (TA) and/or high pH will cause an over-saturation of calcium carbonate in the pool and can lead to cloudiness and scaling. You really need to get your own good test kit such as the Taylor K-2006 from here or from here or a similar but even better kit from tftestkits here.

Your TA is too high so the easiest thing to do is to follow the procedure to lower your TA level which may be found here. That will hep prevent cloudiness in the future.

After checking your CH level, if it's high then you shouldn't use Cal-Hypo as your source of chlorine and should switch to bleach or chlorinating liquid instead. You'll need to add chlorine every day unless you have a pool cover (then 2-3 times per week) or your pool doesn't get much direct sun.

Richard
jenn8504
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I'm new here
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Joined: Tue 26 Jun, 2007 20:23

calcium hardness

Postby jenn8504 » Sat 30 Jun, 2007 11:01

is there anything i can get to get the hardness down? my alkalinity is 180 and my pH is 7.2. If I add more muratic acid won't it lower the pH too much?
chem geek
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Joined: Thu 21 Jun, 2007 21:27
Location: San Rafael, California

Postby chem geek » Sat 30 Jun, 2007 13:18

Since you are already at 7.2 and your pH test may not show below 7.0, you can just start the procedure with the Aeration step and have the pH rise (from aeration) to 7.4 and then add acid to bring it back down to 7.2. This combination of aeration and acid addition will lower your TA.

As for CH, you don't really know what level you have, but to lower it dilution is the only way. So get the TA low first and test your CH level -- it might be at a level you can just live with so long as your TA and pH are kept low enough (TA at 80, for example, and pH below 7.7). You would only need a higher TA of 120 or so if you used an acidic source of chlorine, such as Trichlor, but Trichlor would add to your CYA level so using bleach (unscented) or chlorinating liquid would be better.

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