Cloudy - Please help!

Causes and cures for cloudy swimming pool water.
Milky pool water, white, pink, brown, purple, black cloudy water.
Sarah

Cloudy - Please help!

Postby Sarah » Wed 14 Nov, 2007 21:57

Hope somebody can help me.

Our ground pool is 25,000 gal. It was very green and black walls due to lack of care (We gave up trying to have it clear and partially abandoned it...). Finally have decided to try again. We emptied 2/3 of the pool, refilled it and treated it with different chemicals. Most of the black on the walls are gone, but still have some. We could have it “almost” clear for a month. After that, we didn’t check the chemicals for a week and turned green. Have chocked it and added algaecide and turned cloudy (milky), as it has been most of the time for years, unless we change the water. I’m working daily on it to try to get it clear, but it is 2 weeks now and can’t get rid of the cloudiness. I couldn’t see the bottom. 4 days ago I tried clarifier 1 oz per 6,000 gal as per instructions. I can now see the bottom very blurry and is a little foamy on top (pushed to one corner by the wind) The foam is slightly greenish. While I vacuum a white dust comes back into the pool.
TC 2.0
FC 2.0
CC 0.0
PH 7.4
TA 110 ppm
Stabilizer 130 ppm
TDS 2500

Please help me !
What can I do?
How many times can I apply the clarifier? In the bottle says that if I add too much the effect would be reverse, but nothing about re-applying it; therefore have not tried it again.

Thank you :)


chem geek
Pool Industry Leader
Pool Industry Leader
Posts: 2381
Joined: Thu 21 Jun, 2007 21:27
Location: San Rafael, California

Postby chem geek » Thu 15 Nov, 2007 00:08

The primary problem is that the stabilizer is way too high. You would need extraordinary amounts of chlorine to clear the pool. Since you mostly drained and refilled the pool, I am surprised the stabilizer (Cyanuric Acid, CYA) level got so high. If you were using stabilized chlorine products, such as Dichlor or Trichlor, as your source of chlorine, then that might explain it or if the CYA level were through the roof before the drain/refill. Some products are stabilized and aren't clearly labeled as such. For example, Leslie's Chlor Brite which is sold as chlorine shock is actually Dichlor where for every 1 ppm Free Chlorine (FC) this product adds 0.9 ppm CYA.

I would suggest doing another partial drain/refill of 2/3rds of the water to get the CYA down to around 40 ppm or so. Then it will only take a maintained chlorine level of around 16 ppm FC to clear the algae. At the current 130 ppm CYA, it would take at least 26 ppm FC to slowly clear the algae and over 50 ppm to quickly clear it so it's just not worth it. The high stabilizer (CYA) level makes chlorine much less effective. You should use either chlorinating liquid (or unscented bleach) or possibly Cal-Hypo for shocking though the latter increases Calcium Hardness (CH).

I would also invest in a good test kit such as the Taylor K-2006 you can get from Taylor here or from Leslie's here or from poolcenter.com here or the even better TF100 test kit from tftestkits.com here.

Richard
Sarah

How to "close" the pool?

Postby Sarah » Thu 15 Nov, 2007 08:10

Thank you so very much for answering my post. The CYA was high before draining it and had been aplying "Chlorinating pus" ("4 in 1 sanitizer and shock") that has 71% Thricloro,8 brboron and 20% others.

I think I'll follow your advice of draining. I guess I'll "close" the pool till next summer to make it worth it.

Please tell me what would be the best way to keep the pool while "closed". I am in Florida. It is in the open (no screen), no cover. I have cartridge filter. Should I just forget it, or what product shoud I apply meanwhile?

Thank you for your time and dedication to 'desperate pool owners'. Many times the counceling of the stores leads us astray...
chem geek
Pool Industry Leader
Pool Industry Leader
Posts: 2381
Joined: Thu 21 Jun, 2007 21:27
Location: San Rafael, California

Postby chem geek » Thu 15 Nov, 2007 10:54

The "Trichlor" part is chlorine with CYA, though a little better than Dichlor in that with Trichlor for every 1 ppm FC it adds 0.6 ppm CYA. Trichlor is also very acidic.

You could just let the pool go over the winter and deal with this next spring, but because the pool is open it would be better to not provide a haven for mosquitos. If you mostly drain it (be careful if you have a high water table -- you should only do multiple partial drain/refills in that case or use the sheet or silage bags methods) then fill it with fresh water, then you can dump a lot of chlorine into it. See this link for an example of a pool that was cleared using chlorine alone during spring startup.

It's going to be harder for you to clear this pool because of the cartridge filter since you probably don't have a vacuum to waste option. Usually you would clear a lot of the gunk out after it settles by doing vacuum to waste. Also, a cartridge filter takes more effort to clean than just backwashing a sand or DE filter. I'm sorry your pool is in this situation. Killing the algae won't be so hard after the CYA is diluted, but clearing the pool will take time and effort. The chlorine can break down all the algae on its own, but with a lot of algae that takes much longer time which is why vacuum to waste is much easier. I wonder if you can rent a water vacuum pump for that purpose.

In any event, it will take a LOT of chlorine to clear this pool. Since the pool sounds like its plaster, I don't want to suggest an alagecide with copper in it to help kill the algae. I think using the chlorinating liquid would be better. After a partial drain refill, if the CYA is 40 ppm or so, then just raise the Free Chlorine (FC) level to 16 ppm and keep it there by adding more chlorine when it drops (it will drop quickly initially as it kills the algae). It takes 3.2 gallons of 12.5% chlorinating liquid in 25,000 gallons to raise the FC by 12 ppm.

Richard
bio dex man

Pool Problems

Postby bio dex man » Tue 29 Jan, 2008 19:14

I use products from Bio-Dex and they really help get all my water looking great. I'm not sure what product you are using, but I really like these ones.

Check them out, www (dot)biodex(dot)com

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