Clear Green to VERY cloudy???

[jenny0725]

I'm not sure what we have done! Please HELP!!!!

We have a 14,000 in ground fiberglass pool with a salt water chlorinator.

After vacation we came home to a pool with algae. Cleared that up but have not been able to clear up the "green" look to the water.

Last night we added an algaecide to the water and then this morning the pool was very cloudy! Not as green but it has a really cloudy blue color.

We have had a problem getting enough stabilizer in our pool to keep our chlorinator working so we have been adding liquid chlorine as needed.

A clarifier was added this morning and the pool is not improving after several hours!

What have we done?

Current readings are:

Free Chlorine: 4
Total: 5+
PH: 7.6
Salt: 3500
Stabilizer: 50
Alkalinity: 220
Hardness: 310

[Backglass]

I'm not sure what we have done! Please HELP!!!!

We have a 14,000 in ground fiberglass pool with a salt water chlorinator.

After vacation we came home to a pool with algae. Cleared that up but have not been able to clear up the "green" look to the water.

Last night we added an algaecide to the water and then this morning the pool was very cloudy! Not as green but it has a really cloudy blue color.

We have had a problem getting enough stabilizer in our pool to keep our chlorinator working so we have been adding liquid chlorine as needed.

A clarifier was added this morning and the pool is not improving after several hours!

What have we done?

Current readings are:

Free Chlorine: 4
Total: 5+
PH: 7.6
Salt: 3500
Stabilizer: 50
Alkalinity: 220
Hardness: 310

If you have a salt pool, you chlorinator should have continued working the whole time you were gone. Did you leave the pump off the whole time?

Your numbers look good, except for the Total Alkalinity which is sky high. You should start on a routine of aeration and acid to bring it down. Anything that can aerate the pool...fountain, point your return up to break the surface or an air compressor and hose will bring up the ph but leave the TA as is. You can then add acid to bring down both the ph & TA...then repeat. It takes awhile, sadly.

On a side note, have you tested for copper?

[jenny0725]

Thanks! Yes.... the pool was left on the timer while we were gone. The chlorinator does not seem to work well if all the levels are not in the "ideal" range. Could the high alkalinity be causing the chlorinator not to function properly?

I've been running our fountains during the day and I will continue! I'm assuming that I need to continue adding chlorine until my water clears up and keep the pool on 24/7.

I'll start working on the alkalinity and see if we can bring it down.

We did have a metal issue and cleared that up. Retested and are showing no more metals.

[Backglass]

You should run your pump & filter 24/7 until it clears...that will help a lot.

Keep your fountain on and it will cause your ph to rise. When it gets really high (8.0), slug it with muriatic acid to bring it down to 7.0, then repeat until your TA is in range (80-120). I try to keep mine at 100. Your mileage may vary.

The potential results of high Total Alkilinity are:

• pH keeps going up despite regular addition of pH-down
• cloudy water
• burning eyes and itchy skin
• reduced chlorine efficiency resulting in algae growth.

Sounds like you!