battling weeks of cloudy water

[douhil]

I installed an in ground pool 26,000 gal. last fall and this spring opened it with black algae. I backwashed all of it to waste, but it was still very cloudy. So, I went to the local pool place and they SOLD me all kinds of chemicals based on my water reading. After 3 weeks and 350+ bucks my pool was pretty clear. Well, we went on vac. Over July 4th and got back to a green pool. Since then I’ve been battling the overwhelming cloudiness. I’ve tested my water and replaced my sand etc. (pool company rec.) Back to the pool place again and more $$$, but the pool is still very cloudy. I’ve noticed dusty particles build up on the floor over a couple days and when I vac. small stream of fine dust returns to the pool. So, I called Hayward and they are sending me new laterals and a top. Is my filer broke or is the water just messed up from all the chemicals they are having me buy.

Here’s my latest reading from the pool company: they want me to buy 10lbs. of Lo N Slow and 10 more lbs. of stabilizer 100. I am running out of $$ to fix this, so can someone give me a true cost eff. Way of fixing this?

CYA: 10
Tot. chlorine: 6
Free chlorine: 3.9
Ph: 7.9
Tot. alkalinity: 210
Adj. tot. alk: 207
Tot. hardness: 172
Optimizer +: 0

[Backglass]

Your story is one we have heard over & over. Being "Pool Store'd" into hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars of chemicals with little result. The answer is to learn about pool water, what the numbers mean and do it yourself. In addition to the satisfaction of being master of your own pool, you will have the best looking water on the block AND more money in your pocket.

Step one is to get a real test kit if you don't already have one. It will run you about $60 bucks, but it's money well spent and essential to clearing you pool. I suggest the Taylor K-2005 or K-2006 available on just about every pool webstore.

Step two is to learn about common chemicals you can get everywhere that are exactly the same as many pool store products sold for 10x the price. You can use 6% Liquid Chlorine (aka Clorox Bleach!). Alkalinity increaser (aka 20 Mule Team Borax!) and PH-UP (aka Baking Soda!). It doesnt have a fancy label but the chemicals are the same. Go HERE and click the top exclamation point to be amazed.

Now about your numbers...something is in your pool eating your chlorine as you have over 2ppm of Combined Chlorine (Total - Free). The CC's need to be burnt of by raising you pool to shock level (10ppm in your case). That's roughly four gallons of wal-mart bleach (download bleachcalc from the link on my sig).

You do need more CYA (Stabilizer) as this prevents the sun from degrading your chlorine. You can go from 30ppm of chlorine to -0- in a sunny afternoon with no CYA. 10 is a start, but you should shoot for 30.

You ph is a bit high. Get some Muriatic acid from the hardware store (sold for masonry cleaning at about $5 a gallon) and add some to bring it down. It's powerful stuff and wont take much. Pour it into the pool by your return so it mixes in. This has the added benefit of bringing down your TA which is also high.

I cant believe that they had you change sand after one season and doubt you have broken laterals but I guess it is possible. Since you changed sand out, did they have you backwash for at LEAST 5 minutes followed by at least a 5 minute rinse? You must do this to wash the dirt and smaller sand particles out of the sand bed.

The junk you see on the bottom is most likely dead algae and dirt that needs to be vacuumed up or to waste. The key is to run your pump & filter 24/7 until it is clear.

Keep us posted!

[chem geek]

I'd get the test kit and make sure the CYA is really 10. Something smells fishy about this situation. Sometimes a pool store will subtract the CYA reading from 100 so you might actually have 90, or they will just do the test wrong. If you have been using Trichlor pucks/tabs (usually 3" in size, but also come in 1" and even 1/2" varieties), then I doubt your CYA is that low. After you get your test kit, we'll know for sure. Do you know what kind of chlorine you have been using? Was it tabs/pucks or was it Cal-Hypo or something else?

In addition to the K-2006 kit (I would choose that over the K-2005 since it has a better chlorine test), you can also get the TF-100 kit that in many ways is even better here. It has a more logical size for the reagents, can test CYA down to 20 ppm (instead of 30 ppm in the K-2006), and has a quick OTO chlorine test in addition to the accurate FAS-DPD test.

Richard

[douhil]

Thank you for such a fast response and as of yesterday or last night I added 4 gal. of basic chlorine from (wal-mart) from a post I read on this site. as of this morning it's still cloudy.
I’ve been buying the HTH pool shock (the store told me to) and adding about 3 bags every 2 days along with 3" puks in the simmer. As for the sand I’m really hoping my filter is fine, since I had sand before when it was also cloudy. How much of the acid should I use along with the extra stabilizer? also, what should I look for as to whether this is algae or fine dirt?
Will this clear up anytime soon after adding the acid, because my wife is really disappointed (in me) for spending all this $$$ on a pool we can’t use. All I hear is why are we having so much problems and others (friends pool is just fine). She not a diff. person just frustrated like me.

[james_fr]

I've had the same problem for the last week.
16 X 32 inground plaster pool. The water became cloudy - almost milky looking after a heavy rain. The PH went to zero and I could not get a chlorine reading no matter how much I added. I did finally get the PH to increase to get a reading and did get a low chlorine reading. After 3 - 4 days of shocking every night and adding PH + during the day I finally decided to drain it and refill.
All is okay for now but I'm still puzzled and trying to determine what happened. I had my water analized by two different pool companies and both reflected that my water was stabalized with the advice to keep shocking.
I checked my chlorine 3 " tablet contents against my neighbors as follows:

Trichloro-straizinetrione (Mine 99% (His 93.5%
Other Ingredients (Mine 100%) (His 0%)
Available Chlorine (Mine 90%) (His 84%)
Copper Sulphate (Mine 0%) (His 1.5%)
Inert Materials (Mine 0%) (His 5%)

Perhaps the absence of copper sulphate in my chlorine was the problem? I have no idea what copper sulphate is for. Any help to solve this puzzle would be greatly appreciated.
Jim

[james_fr]

I forgot to mention, I had added algecide when i had the problem and after draining the pool I found a small deposit of sand. I had new sand installed in my filter.
JIm

[Backglass]

I've had the same problem for the last week.
16 X 32 inground plaster pool. The water became cloudy - almost milky looking after a heavy rain. The PH went to zero and I could not get a chlorine reading no matter how much I added. I did finally get the PH to increase to get a reading and did get a low chlorine reading. After 3 - 4 days of shocking every night and adding PH + during the day I finally decided to drain it and refill.
All is okay for now but I'm still puzzled and trying to determine what happened. I had my water analized by two different pool companies and both reflected that my water was stabalized with the advice to keep shocking.
I checked my chlorine 3 " tablet contents against my neighbors as follows:

Trichloro-straizinetrione (Mine 99% (His 93.5%
Other Ingredients (Mine 100%) (His 0%)
Available Chlorine (Mine 90%) (His 84%)
Copper Sulphate (Mine 0%) (His 1.5%)
Inert Materials (Mine 0%) (His 5%)

Perhaps the absence of copper sulphate in my chlorine was the problem? I have no idea what copper sulphate is for. Any help to solve this puzzle would be greatly appreciated.
Jim

Well without test readings from the water, you will never know. It could have been cloudy from TA, Hardness, ph, Algae or a combination of several.

You certainly didn't need to drain the entire pool...that was the proverbial sledgehammer to kill the fly, but much like the analogy, it does work.

[douhil]

draining my pool will have to be a last resort. My wife would kill me by then.
any update on the amount of m.acid I should use and the stabilizer based on my current reading from the first post?
should I vac. to waste the dusty stuff on the bottom or will this get rid of the chem. i'm putting in as well. shouldn't the chem. take care of the dusty stuff once the acid and stab. are in line?
maybe stupid questions, but i'm new at pool maintenance and just don't want to buy or do anything wrong.