"Hats off to Chem Geek"

Causes and cures for cloudy swimming pool water.
Milky pool water, white, pink, brown, purple, black cloudy water.
tnt2000
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"Hats off to Chem Geek"

Postby tnt2000 » Mon 09 Jul, 2007 13:23

After 4 week of battle and nothing working I took Chem Geek's advice and this morning I woke up to a crystal clear pool.....Thanks to Him and everyones advice....
TnT2000


chem geek
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Postby chem geek » Mon 09 Jul, 2007 14:57

Congratulations on your clear pool and thanks for the compliment though the effort is a group one and many on this and other forums are all here to help and give valuable advice.

Don't be too complacent with the clear water. All of the following three things need to be true to be sure that you've gotten rid of all the algae, including that which is not visible. 1) the pool is crystal clear and 2) you show minimal drop in Free Chlorine (FC) level overnight (< 0.5 ppm usually) and 3) you show minimal measured Combined Chlorine (CC) (< 0.5 ppm). Until all three conditions are met, you should maintain shock level of chlorine (40% of the CYA level or about 25 ppm FC).

After these conditions are met, you then need to have an ongoing target FC level of 11.5% of the CYA level so with your CYA level in the 58-65 range that's around 7.5 ppm and an absolute minimum of 7.5% of the CYA level or around 4.9 ppm FC. If you let the FC drop below that, they you may get green algae. Your only other options if you don't feel you can maintain that FC level consistently are either 1) to use a weekly maintenance dose of PolyQuat 60 algaecide or 2) dilute your pool water to lower your CYA so you can maintain a lower FC level.

Richard
BFinn

Cloudy Club Pool / Old Sand Filters

Postby BFinn » Fri 13 Jul, 2007 07:53

Chem Geek- Highly used Club pool with old sand filters. Cloudiness can't be remedied. In the old days we used to feed Alum with a raised PH to increase effectiveness of filters. Alum would coaggulate with higher PH on top of sand filter to increase effectiveness.
Is this still done or just one of the old non-eco friendly techniques from the old days.
Thanks - Finn
chem geek
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Postby chem geek » Fri 13 Jul, 2007 09:44

I'm just a pool owner, not a pool industry person so I really don't know the answer to your question of whether this is still done. Flocs are still used for difficult clouding problems, but usually that's when circulation is poor as with some above-ground pools that have no floor drain. In these cases, using a floc (sucn as OMNI Liquid Floc Plus which some users have reported has good results) will consolidate particles so they can be vacuumed to waste.

As for using a floc for the sand filter, there are some "filter aids" that may work better for that purpose, but I doubt they are really needed. A sand filter usually gets better with age, not worse, because the more junk in a sand filter the better it filters. I suspect that perhaps some of these old filters may have lost some of their sand so adding more sand to the proper level in the filter is probably the solution. Also, to make a sand filter work better, one can add a small amount of DE (into the skimmer) and that almost turns the sand filter into a DE filter for better filtration. Of course, the DE goes away with each backwash, but you just add some more -- just enough to have the pressure go up a couple of PSI.

As for the cloudiness, that can be due to water balance with over-saturation of calcium carbonate. Get yourself (or get the people who maintain the Club pool) a good test kit, the Taylor K-2006, and use the Taylor watergram to calculate the saturation index. If the pH, TA and CH are high, then that could be the cause of the cloudiness with the usual solution to lower the TA level, or possibly a partial drain/refill to lower the CH level or maybe to lower the pH if it's high.

The other possibility for the cloudiness is a nascent algae bloom. This is especially likely if the CYA level is high and a corresponding higher FC level has not been maintained. The FC level should have a target of around 11.5% of the CYA level with an absolute minimum of 7.5% of the CYA level. To shock the pool, around 40% of the CYA level will be needed to clear it quickly, though 20-30% of the CYA should still help, but if the CYA is really high then a partial drain/refill is in order since CYA can only be reasonably reduced through dilution.

Richard
poolrookie155

what is de?

Postby poolrookie155 » Sun 12 Aug, 2007 07:45

This is the first year I have had a pool. I also had the green water. Now it's cloudy, been that way for over a week. I used a floc and for the first time, my pool is holding chlorine. Anyway, my question is that I see people talk about de. What is that? I'm sure you have the answer for me. Thank you.
Backglass
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Re: what is de?

Postby Backglass » Sun 12 Aug, 2007 09:40

poolrookie155 wrote:This is the first year I have had a pool. I also had the green water. Now it's cloudy, been that way for over a week. I used a floc and for the first time, my pool is holding chlorine. Anyway, my question is that I see people talk about de. What is that? I'm sure you have the answer for me. Thank you.


DE stands for Diatomaceous Earth...a type of pool filter. Please start a new topic thread with your water test results, and we will help get you clear!
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