Cloudy- like a milky kind of cloudy- help?!

Causes and cures for cloudy swimming pool water.
Milky pool water, white, pink, brown, purple, black cloudy water.
Just_another_newbie
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Cloudy- like a milky kind of cloudy- help?!

Postby Just_another_newbie » Mon 13 Aug, 2007 20:31

I just bought a new house with a 25 year old gunite pool. The previous owner showed me what to do with it as i have never maintained a pool before. However, i quickly discovered he wasn't giving me the full picture. I had a leak in the skimmers that i fixed and the state of the pump area was disgusting a part on the filter needed to be replaced last week, he obviously has let everything go. So i decided to scratch his guide and start a fresh- he was simply telling me- shock with 2lbs every week, clarify, and keep the chlorine feeder (?) full with the tablets. Backwash every three weeks. I may have never owned a pool but i knew this wasnt all i needed to know!

Anyway.....i took the water to be tested and it was ok, not perfect but the store helped me even it out and it was fine for two weeks then my alkalinity needed messing with so i was back and forth with chemicals. It was looking good all this last week after i had done the chemicals the week before, then on friday, i did the shock treatment and immediately noticed a cloud forming......i used a clarifier......came back saturday to a still cloudy pool so i added more clarifier....sunday, no changes one more attempt with clarifier.

Today i took in my water, i have been using a walmart test kit and it showed my chlorine as way too high- there wasnt even a color to match! The guy in the store said my alkalinity needed adjusted and i bought soda ash, he said my chlorine is high but its okay for it to be high???? I have added 6lbs of soda ash so far, in two different batches (he said 10lbs total) and my water is so cloudy i cannot see the bottom nor can i see the aquabot in there! Its looks like its milky almost, its blue.

Any ideas? I really want to get this right, i was excited to get a pool but so far its been nothing but trouble!


Backglass
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Re: Cloudy- like a milky kind of cloudy- help?!

Postby Backglass » Mon 13 Aug, 2007 20:48

Just_another_newbie wrote:I just bought a new house with a 25 year old gunite pool. The previous owner showed me what to do with it as i have never maintained a pool before. However, i quickly discovered he wasn't giving me the full picture. I had a leak in the skimmers that i fixed and the state of the pump area was disgusting a part on the filter needed to be replaced last week, he obviously has let everything go. So i decided to scratch his guide and start a fresh- he was simply telling me- shock with 2lbs every week, clarify, and keep the chlorine feeder (?) full with the tablets. Backwash every three weeks. I may have never owned a pool but i knew this wasnt all i needed to know!

Anyway.....i took the water to be tested and it was ok, not perfect but the store helped me even it out and it was fine for two weeks then my alkalinity needed messing with so i was back and forth with chemicals. It was looking good all this last week after i had done the chemicals the week before, then on friday, i did the shock treatment and immediately noticed a cloud forming......i used a clarifier......came back saturday to a still cloudy pool so i added more clarifier....sunday, no changes one more attempt with clarifier.

Today i took in my water, i have been using a walmart test kit and it showed my chlorine as way too high- there wasnt even a color to match! The guy in the store said my alkalinity needed adjusted and i bought soda ash, he said my chlorine is high but its okay for it to be high???? I have added 6lbs of soda ash so far, in two different batches (he said 10lbs total) and my water is so cloudy i cannot see the bottom nor can i see the aquabot in there! Its looks like its milky almost, its blue.

Any ideas? I really want to get this right, i was excited to get a pool but so far its been nothing but trouble!


We are here to help. Before you dump more stuff in however, please post all your test numbers. We need to see where your water is first.
===============================
I'm no expert...just a long time pool owner. The real experts are at www . troublefreepool . com

Download Bleachcalc free at troublefreepool . com /files/BleachCalc262.exe and start saving money on chemicals.
Just_another_newbie
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Postby Just_another_newbie » Mon 13 Aug, 2007 21:06

Heres the results to the test from the store today, i have a taylor kit on the way. I ordered it yday.

FC- 5
Water PH- 6.5 (+40)
TA- 50
Calcium hardness - 300

Thats all they gave me. Thank you for replying :)
Backglass
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Postby Backglass » Tue 14 Aug, 2007 08:32

Just_another_newbie wrote:Heres the results to the test from the store today, i have a taylor kit on the way. I ordered it yday.

FC- 5
Water PH- 6.5 (+40)
TA- 50
Calcium hardness - 300

Thats all they gave me. Thank you for replying :)


Glad to hear your getting a decent kit. It will give us the missing links to fix you up!

Your ph is extremely low and needs to be brought up asap so you don't damage your pool. I would use Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) as this will have the dual effect of raising both your ta AND ph. You can get the 12lb bag of Arm & Hammer at Costco or Sam's and sometimes Walmart.

Please post your pools dimensions and volume and we can figure out the dosage.

As for "why" it went cloudy, when your ph & ta are off and you add certain chemicals, cloudiness can result.

As for your other questions, you only need to shock when you have detectable CC (combined chlorine) or Algae growth. Depending on your CYA level (your test kit will tell us) you might need to stop using the chlorine puck feeder and switch to un-stabilized liquid chlorine (ie: Bleach). AND you only backwash when necessary...usually when your filter pressure is 10+psi above the "clean" reading. Filters actually filter much better when a little dirty so you want to wait as long as you can before backwashing.
===============================

I'm no expert...just a long time pool owner. The real experts are at www . troublefreepool . com



Download Bleachcalc free at troublefreepool . com /files/BleachCalc262.exe and start saving money on chemicals.

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