Help - Green Cloudy Pool Water for 2 months

[janetwp]

Hello All...... Same story different day. I have had this pool for 4 years, no problems. We got 2 labs about 6 months ago, they like to swim but they do not live in the pool AND 1 has been at the trainers for 4 months. I have always kept a polaris in the pool and it runs for about an hour every day until about 3 months ago. I took the polaris out because the dog that stayed home thought that it was a toy and would fetch it, bring it out and tear off the bag.....very costly to keep replacing soooooo I took the polaris out. It seems that is when my problems started. My pool has been green and cloudy ever since.

I have about an 18,000 kidney shaped inground pool with a sand filter. Here are my readings from the pool place.

Saturation Idx. -0.2
TDS 1700
CYA 100
Tot. Chlorine 10
Free Chlorine 10
pH 7.1
Tot Alkalinity 94
Adj. Total Alkalinity 64
Tot Hardness 560
COpper 0
Iron 0
Manganese No
Quat 3

I am unsure what the TDS is suppose to be and I am not sure what "Quat" is.. They told my husband they were concerned with the pH and alkalinity. These were their recommendations: 17.5 lbs of Balance Pak 100 for the alkalinity, .25 lbs of Balance Pak 200 for the pH and 2 qts of Scale Inhibitor for the hardness and 4ozs of Polysheen Blue for the cloudiness. My filter did get new sand last summer when my son broke a pipe. Of course they tried to sell my husband a bunch of stuff but I told him to wait until I heard from this post. I have used 50 pounds of chlorine in the past month. I also have allot of gunk on the bottom that I vacuum by hand BUT have since read that I should have vacuumed to waste, which I did not do. Although I have had this pool for awhile I am a little "dumb" with all of this because it was so trouble free before. I have alway used a small little test kit left from the previous owner but did purchase a better one today from the pool place. I am so ready to just drain the water and start over. Any help, really fast, would greatly be appreciated. Thanks!!!!

[muss08]

First, and most importantly, the best investment a pool owner can make is a good test kit. I personally use the Taylor K 2006 and is about $50-$60. Very accurate and reliable. Pool store tests can be inaccurate but not always. First, green cloudy water means you have algae and are about to have a full on bloom. If all readings are accurate your TA is FINE. 80-120ppm is normal. pH is a bit low. 7.2-7.6 is normal. Now to the bad news. I would recommend draining at least 1/4 of your pool to get your CYA down. 100 is getting pretty high requiring more chlorine to be effective. Your Hardness is high but you need to find out if this is calcium hardness. If you drain your pool do this first and post a listing of your test results after it is refilled and we can go from there. If you do not want to drain your pool (which i would understand) you need to get your FC up to 25ppm and keep it there until the level holds overnight(this ensures all organics are dead). What would you use to shock your pool? Make sure the active ingredient is not a trichlor or dichlor as these are stabalized and will increase your CYA further. If it is cal hypo then this will raise your hardness. Your best bet is to use regular unscented clorox (6%) in your quest to raise the FC. 6 96oz jugs will get you to shock level. Pour slowly over a return to ensure proper mixture. 7.1 pH is acceptable as chlorine is more effective at a lower pH. Like I said though this 25ppm needs to be maintained until it holds overnight so stock up on some extra jugs because the FC level will start to drop almost instantly as it is killing bacteria. Also if you are not going to drain I would recommend a calcium sequestering agent to keep the calcium in solution.

[muss08]

Just to add- yes vacuum to waste often. This too will help to get the hardness and CYA down as you will have to refill. Your TDS is fine. What kind of test kit did you buy? Most only test to 5ppm FC and this is why I was recommending the Taylor K 2006 because it can test to 50ppm and test of pH TA CH CYA.

[PresleyWD]

Our pool got this way last fall & I was ready to fill it in (and its only 2 years old). A gentleman at a local pool store recommended an item for pools that use Bacquasil called 'Flock' . This worked for me. You might want to try it. Our pool uses chlorine but he said it would trap the algae and it did.

[janetwp]

OK here is an update. Friday I drained 1/4 of the pool water. I first vacuumed to waster then drained the rest. I had to leave town but my husband filled the pool for me Friday evening, unfortuanately no chemicals were added but the pumps and polaris did run all weekend.

Today (Monday)I added 12 gallons of liquid chlorine. Last week I had bought a Bio-guard test kit at the pool place, it was not a cheapy but does only go up to 5 ppm for chlorine, I will order a Taylor kit as soon as I am finished with this post. I tested the water a few minutes ago and here are my readings:

FC - "1"
Ph - "8"
Alkalinity seemed to be in the "ideal"range - believe it or not.

So....................add chlorine then muractic acid or muractic acid then chlorine.

The chlorinating granules that I have been using are:

"3-in-1 Sanitizer Algacide and Stabilizer"
Sodium Dichloro-S-Triazinetrione Hydrated - 99%
Available Chlorine 55.5%

I also have this..................Several people in this area, and I mean almost everyone I have talked to, are having the same problem as I am. We live in Texas, about 80 miles NE of corpus chrisit and about 60 miles from the coast. About 2 months ago we had what people called a "mud rain", it looked like you drove thru a dust storm and then took a water sprinkler and just sprinkled your car with water. They said it was from Mexico. Could this have any bearing on the trouble we are having?!?!?!?

Thanks for the advice!

[Guest]

Just wanted to address one issue here.

You drained 1/4 of your pool to lower CYA and hardness. The chlorine you mention using contains CYA. I wouldn't add them. Give liquid chlorine a try at least until you get the test kit and are able to test CYA levels.

Last thing you want to do is raise CYA after just draining to lower it.

[janetwp]

Sorry if my last post was a little misleading. I have not used the "chlorine granules" since I have drained and refilled my pool, I DID use the liquid clorine as I was advised to do. I posted what kind of chlorine I had been using as a response to a question in an earlier post.

[muss08]

As Pool User stated your granules will add stabalizer to the pool. Any chlorine product with the words dichlor or trichlor have stabalizer in them. I'm glad you are using the liquid (although I would still recommend bleach). The dust storms can definitely contribute to your high chlorine demand. There are organics and bacteria in dirt that can contribute to a higher chlorine demand. But first things first you need to get your pH down. Almost all test kits only go to 8.0 so yours could be higher. Assuming your pH is 8 you need to add 69oz. of 31.45% muriatic to get down to 7.2 (based on 18000 gallons). Wait a couple hours and test again. If your pH is at least 7.4 go ahead and add chlorine. You need to get the pH down quickly because chlorine is very ineffective at a pH higher than 7.6. If you are ordering the Taylor kit make sure it is the Taylor K 2006 as this tests FC up to 50ppm and is so accurate it tests down to .2ppm.

[janetwp]

Sorry, sorry sorry..................... I am using bleach not chlorine. It is the off brand of Clorox but is a 6% bleach. I will add the muratic acid tomorrow morning and go from there. Sorry again for using the wrong term.

[Guest]

Muss,

I'm curious why bleach? No difference from liquid chlorine other than strength. Is it the cost?

I use liquid chlorine because I get it from a pool service guy that works in my neighborhood for cheaper than bleach.

Any other differences I don't know about?

Thanks.

[chem geek]

It all depends on the price of the chlorinating liquid vs. the bleach. I get 12.5% chlorinating liquid from my pool store for $3.65 per gallon. This is equivalent to $1.35 for a 96-ounce (3/4 gallon) jug of 6% bleach. Sometimes, off-brand 6% Ultra unscented bleach can be found for $1.00 which would be equivalent to around $2.50 for 12.5% chlorinating liquid.

I get the chlorinating liquid from my pool store even though it isn't always less expensive than bleach because they reuse the bottles (better than recycling) and I like to support them so long as they are reasonably priced. It's also half the weight to carry.

You are correct that other than strength, there is no difference (assuming one gets unscented bleach with no additives).

Richard