cloudy, thinking about calling the pool man to fix the h2o

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

cloudy, thinking about calling the pool man to fix the h2o

Postby another nowbie post » Sun 27 Apr, 2008 17:43

First I am a noob when it comes to a pool, the closest exp I had was with one of them blue kid pools that were popular a few years back.

Let me run you thru my experience so far this year.

Opened my pool 7 days ago, had green mesh type cover. The water was a little green and minimal visibility, no leaves, some bugs the norm I expect.

I had to put some stabalizer into it but other then that just chlorine. The first 3 days I kept it at 10 for my cl levels then let it settle into about 3-4 for the remaining days (until yesterday Ill get into that). The water went from greenish to a nice looking blue, I could barely see the shallow end but no hope oh the deep end. I vacummed alot and brushed it alot also.

This pool just will not clear up. At one point I had it where on the shallow end I could see where I missed vacumming it. At this time I increase the chlorine dramatically (using liquid clorox unscented). I also was reading on these forums that the jets should not shoot "up" cause it keeps the water from recirculating, so I now have my jets shooting on a hard diagnal down.

I backwash nightly even though the pressure gauge doent indicate this is needed.

As I look at my pool now it is still blue but I can barely, and I mean barely see the shallow end bottom or second step in deep end ladder. Yesterday I dumped alot of liq chlorine into it to try and reshock and see the deep end floor for the first time since we moved in.

Am I missing something here? Im shocking the hell out of it in hope to clear it, my sand filter has been running for almost 175 hours STRAIGHT.

A concern of mine is the jets pointing down, is this preventing the dead algea to settle and be vacummed? Should I bring the chlorine back to normal and try the floc I read about? Also I vacum on "filter" not waste and Im thinking that may be a BIG No NO.

Im thinking about turning the filter off for a night to see what the water looks like with no movement?

I got a good test kit incoming but the one I have now shows the following.

22,000 gal inground pool, standard shallow and deep end type.
In full sun all day, no near trees or anything.

cva is 68
TA is 120
Hard is 200
Ph is 7
Chlorine is 18 right now due to me taking my frustration out on plastic clorox bottles yesterday but my water was 3-4 prior to yesterday morning.

What ya think? If needed Im going to hire someone to come here and finish this up, I dont want to get my butt kicked on my first start up...


chem geek
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Postby chem geek » Sun 27 Apr, 2008 18:46

If you've got an above ground pool without a floor drain and if the cloudiness seems to be towards the bottom of the pool, then unless you can get this cloudy water to circulate through your filter and to get thoroughly shocked with chlorine then perhaps using OMNI Liquid Floc might be faster for you. It's a last resort as chlorine alone can usually clear a pool, but when circulation is poor that floc can help. But then you'll need to vacuum to waste or otherwise vacuum up what settles to the bottom (follow the instructions and turn off the pump after adding the floc).

As for vacuuming to filter -- assuming you backwash the filter at some point then that's not terrible. If you don't backwash the filter, then it could be full of crud keeping the water cloudy and using up chlorine. Read this sticky for more info on what is normally done to clear a pool that has algae.

With your CYA near 70 ppm, after you've cleared your pool of algae you will need to maintain an absolute minimum Free Chlorine (FC) level of 5.2 ppm and probably target 7 ppm unless you use a supplemental algaecide. And you should use unstabilized chlorine to not continue to build up CYA.
another nowbie post

Postby another nowbie post » Sun 27 Apr, 2008 19:11

It is an inground pool, are my jets suppose to point down, parrallel or slightly up?

As far as the chlorine, I plan on using liquid as much as possible but I do have a chlorinator and would like to at some point use the puck type so I dont have to baby sit, to your knowledge do they sell pucks with just chlorine and nothing else? What is the danger level for cva?

Last ? and Ill leave for the night, guestimate on clearing time without floc campared to using it? Open question I know if you can answer I understand.
chem geek
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Postby chem geek » Sun 27 Apr, 2008 22:36

If you have a floor drain and its working, then the jets can be pointed straight out to form a circular flow pattern in the pool. The floor drain will cause a vertical flow.

I just noticed that your pH is low at 7 (does that mean 7.0?). The pH test won't be accurate when the chlorine level is high (above 10 ppm), but usually it will read too high, not too low.

There are unfortunately no slow-dissolving forms of chlorine that don't add extra stuff to the water -- either CYA with Trichlor or CH with Cal-Hypo.

Is the chlorine still dropping in FC overnight? If so, then it's still oxidizing the algae. As for how long, usually a pool with an algae bloom will get cleared in about 4 days using chlorine alone though sometimes it's up to a week. The difference is mostly the diligence of keeping the chlorine high, regular brushing, and filter cleaning. A floc will take about two days but that's after you've killed most of the algae which takes about a day if you hit it hard (i.e. turns from green to cloudy).

Your measurement of CYA sounded like it came from a pool store. You should really get your own good test kit, the Taylor K-2006 you can get at a good online price here or the TF100 kit you can get at tftestkits(dot)com here which has 36% more volume of reagents so is comparably priced "per test".
another nowbie post

Postby another nowbie post » Mon 28 Apr, 2008 18:40

I honestly do not know if there is a pool drain in the deep end... :oops:

FC level droped about 4 last night, while brushing today I hit the light housing and a nice semi to light green cloud came out. Brushed it out well. Increased the CL levels to 18 today since I found some algea, brushed and vacuumed and backflushed.

Is it normal for my steps to get some dust or dirt covering them (not completely covering but visually you can see it) if not vacummed for a day, came home today and it was there, I live on 2 acre mostly grass lot next to the woods and I think everyone mowed their lawn yesterday so Im guessing that is why its there.

Letting it run for another night, on the bright side I can finally see the bottom of my ladder :D

Ordered the test kit you recommended will do better test when it arrives, yes the cya is from the pool place. No tablets going in this pool till I get the cya level confirmed.

One more thing, my ph level is exactly 7.2 with the chlorine level up. DOnt plan on messing with this till I can see the bottom, correct?
chem geek
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Postby chem geek » Mon 28 Apr, 2008 20:28

Yes, don't try and mess with the pH at this point. Just keep the chlorine up, brush, filter (and clean filter). It sounds like you've had algae growth in several places and need to kill it all. Once you get your test kit, you'll know more. The fact that the chlorine falls overnight means the chlorine is still killing or oxidizing (clearing) the algae.

As for whether you have a floor drain, I presume the pool is too cloudy for you to see one, but if you go to your pool pump and look at its input pipe (that's the one going directly into it lengthwise; not the one coming out from the top), see if it splits into two with two separate valves before going into the ground. If that's the situation, then you probably have a floor drain (or two) going through one pipe while the other goes to a skimmer.

Richard
another nowbie post

Postby another nowbie post » Wed 30 Apr, 2008 08:28

Just letting you know, been flushing and brushing and maintaining Cl levels pretty anally (sp?).

Anyway got up today, and the pool is clearing up nicely, I can now see my wall patterns to the bottom of the shallow end and the deep end is slowly getting nice.

I DO have a bottom drain but cant see it yet but I know soon i will.

My CL levels maintained over the night so I put in 2 gal of clorox and expect it to clear up rather quickly over the next few days. I am going out of town till thursday night so the little women is responxible for the dailey chores, I told her to add 2 gals wed and thursday morning....I hope I taught her as well as you have been doing for me.

Just wanted to thank you for your help, case of beer incoming upon completion.

Its a good day. :D :lol: :D
chem geek
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Postby chem geek » Wed 30 Apr, 2008 12:52

That's great news. The chlorine levels maintaining overnight means that the algae is dead and mostly oxidized. The remaining cloudiness is just the remnants of dead algae and should continue to clear. In the worst case, if filtering and chlorine doesn't clear it, you can use a flocculant such as OMNI Liquid Floc Plus, but usually this isn't necessary.

Richard
another nowbie post

Postby another nowbie post » Sun 04 May, 2008 09:56

I can see my deep end drain! :lol: :lol:

The pools not 100% clear yet but down to about 6-7 feet it is. I have some brown streaking stains where I missed vacuuming early in the process, Im guessing these will clear up as the chlorine over comes them.

Now to wait and see how long it takes the deep end to crystal clear up.

On a sad note I am STILL waiting my taylor test kit but the dip strips I got show everything in the target range except the chlorine levels, they are reading at 20 or so. I backed off the chlorine Im putting in it today to try and bring it down to around 8ppm.

The strips show the cya level around 30 fyi.

Still on track ya think?
chem geek
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Postby chem geek » Sun 04 May, 2008 14:58

Yes, it sounds like you are still on track and almost there. It's been about a week which is on the outside of how long it usually takes to clear a pool -- typically it's 4-6 days. I would keep the Free Chlorine (FC) level up until all three of the following occur: 1) Water is crystal clear, 2) minimal (< 1 ppm) overnight drop in FC, 3) minimal (<= 0.5 ppm) Combined Chlorine (CC).

Richard
another nowbie post

Got test kit and Im concerned now.

Postby another nowbie post » Thu 08 May, 2008 09:27

Readings are as follows:

FC 10
TC 10
BR 10
PH 7.4
TA 80
Cal Hard 200-250
CYA 35-40

The pool is very clear, still getting stuff gathering on bottom after having the pump off for few hours.

I thought my chlorine was higher then this but the test doesnt lie. SHould I be concerned about having a combined Chlorine of ZERO?

Gonna read the taylor book to see what this pretty circle dial thingy is now, lol.
another nowbie post

Postby another nowbie post » Thu 08 May, 2008 09:41

Also what reccomended chlorine levels do you think I should try to maintain with these readings and a 22,500 gallon pool.

Cleared this up with bleach, currently using last of the pucks I have then will go back to only the BBB you guys recommended.

Thanks for all the help, since I started getting help here and not the pool store I spend less then 30 bucks to clear this up.
chem geek
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Posts: 2381
Joined: Thu 21 Jun, 2007 21:27
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Postby chem geek » Thu 08 May, 2008 10:04

Having a Combined Chorine (CC) of zero is good and is what you want.

To keep away algae, you need a minimum Free Chlorine (FC) level that is at least 7.5% of the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level and targeting 10% gives you some cushion. So with around 40 ppm CYA I would target 4 ppm FC. If it drops briefly to 3 ppm, no big deal, but don't let it get below that. Since you'll probably lose 2 ppm per day, you'll add chlorine at night to get to 6 ppm, most likely, but see how things go.

You can consider automating your chlorine dosing using either unscented bleach (e.g. 6% Clorox Regular or off-brand Ultra) or chlorinating liquid by using The Liquidator which you can read more about in this thread.

Richard

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