CLOUDY BLUE WATER!!

berkoboy · Postby **berkoboy** » Tue 05 Aug, 2008 10:24

I had just returned from abroad like others here found my pool green.

here is what I did, which seems to be working. I have one comment however, like others have noted every pool is different and what may work for me may not for you.

My pool is a liner pool 6x3m in the ground type.

I firstly supercclorinated it and left the pump running overnight. This made it blue but cloudy. then I sampled the water and raised the PH, with all the extra chlorine this will of course be low. I added enough chemicals to raise it from 7 ( normally at 7.4) up to 7.8.

ran the pump for about 4 hours then stopped the pump, put it manual and added flocculant. Left overnight, woke up to find I could see the bottom of the pool and lots of debris on the bottom.

Hoovered, a good backwash and its looking fine now, just a bit of tweaking to do and it will be perfect.

No I am no expert I have learned about my pool from making my own mistakes but what I would like to pass on is don't panic.

I have read all the posts on this subject and I have taken relevant pieces of information from everyone elses posts to help my particular situation.

Good luck everyone and enjoy your swim(s)

DUMMY · Postby **DUMMY** » Wed 06 Aug, 2008 16:20

LIKE EVERYONE I HAVE SPENT A TON OF MONEY BACKING THE CAR UP TO THE POOL STORE WHERE THE EXPERTS FILL THE TRUNK.WHEN THE POOL HAS GREEN STAIN ON THE WALLS, I AM SOLD METAL OUT AND STAIN B GONE ( CITRIC ACID ) TO REMOVE THE STAIN, CL LEVEL MUST BE VERY LOW FOR THIS TO WORK. THE STAIN GOES AWAY, HOWEVER, THE WATER BECOMES CLOUDY, CLOUDY WATER GOES AWAY AS SOON AS GREEN STAIN APPEARS, EVERY STORE TELLS ME THIS IS A COMMON PROBLEM WITH FIBERGLASS POOLS.. YOU CAN HAVE CLOUDY OR STAINED, ITS ONE OR THE OTHER.

DUMMY

Guest · Postby **Guest** » Wed 27 Aug, 2008 06:53

I have been fighting this problem for a month!!! Same as others- take a sample, buy a lot of chemicals and no difference,
This time 400ml of acid in each deep end corner, after shutting off pool for 10 min.,wait 5 minutes turn onn. THen vacuum and putin 10L of liquid chlorine, one hour later 1 bottle of metal free because copper had gone to 3 because of all the algicide(ERASE) that had gone in previous.(las night at 8 oclock)
Previous to the above)Have drained pool to the bottom of skimmer while vacuumming at waste 2 times previous.
This morning it is NO clearer!!!and I can smell the chlorine. HAvent backwashed yet.
The ph is 7.8 Acid 2 Total 1.5 Free 0
T>A> 125 C.H. 130
The pool people want the cloudiness to cleR THEN WE WILL WORYY ABOUT ADJUSTING THE ABOVE.
Please help.

popsicle0311 · Postby **popsicle0311** » Mon 18 May, 2009 06:57

We are having the worst problem ever with our pool this year. :crazy:

We cannot get the water to go from a very light green to crystal clear blue as it has in past years. We have done everything and when we take the sample to the pool store - they test it, and say that everything looks great!! If that is the case - why won't it turn blue? We have spent so much money on this pool, and have done everything humanly possible to clear it up and it still doesn't work. Does anyone have any suggestions.

It is a 19,000 gallon pool. If I add a whole bottle of Clarifier will it hurt the levels, ph, alkalinity, etc.? We are at our wits end with it and about ready to stop trying. :thumbdown:

sterling · Postby **sterling** » Mon 18 May, 2009 19:26

DUMMY wrote:LIKE EVERYONE I HAVE SPENT A TON OF MONEY BACKING THE CAR UP TO THE POOL STORE WHERE THE EXPERTS FILL THE TRUNK.WHEN THE POOL HAS GREEN STAIN ON THE WALLS, I AM SOLD METAL OUT AND STAIN B GONE ( CITRIC ACID ) TO REMOVE THE STAIN, CL LEVEL MUST BE VERY LOW FOR THIS TO WORK. THE STAIN GOES AWAY, HOWEVER, THE WATER BECOMES CLOUDY, CLOUDY WATER GOES AWAY AS SOON AS GREEN STAIN APPEARS, EVERY STORE TELLS ME THIS IS A COMMON PROBLEM WITH FIBERGLASS POOLS.. YOU CAN HAVE CLOUDY OR STAINED, ITS ONE OR THE OTHER.

DUMMY

I have had a fiberglass pool for 6 years and love it. Twice I have had the problem you describe -- both times I used too much copper to kill algee followed too quickly by too much shock. A really GOOD pool person will give you the Exact instruction on what to put in, how much, how long to wait, what goes in next... It is exspensive but works.

Keep the copper down helps. leaving Days between copper and shock helps too.

If the copper is going from the water to the walls and back again, there is just too much copper. It has to be trapped somehow. Is the fill water high in copper?? Do you have copper in the plumbing?? I really don't think this has a thing to do with fiberglass -- 95% of the time I just have a pool that is much easier to mantain.

sterling · Postby **sterling** » Mon 18 May, 2009 19:50

Smart Shopper wrote:Try Baking Soda...stores charge a small fortune for ph down...read the box..it's sodium bicarbonate..a/k/a/ BAKING SODA...buy store name brand..4 lb box less than 2 bucks...cast entire four pounds into pool...non toxic...can swim at the same time...next day cast another 4 lb box...it worked for me....

Baking soda is for PH UP... I think. Acid is for down. But you are right is really better quality than PH+, and cheaper.

frustrated this year · Postby **frustrated this year** » Tue 19 May, 2009 09:16

I agree that I will never use flock again. Used it a couple years ago, hated it. My pool is cloudy this year too. Been opened for about 2 and a half weeks and still cloudy. Ph is normal, Alk is normal, stabilizer is normal. Chlorine readings are low most of the time, except RIGHT after we shock it. Filter is running 24/7 right now until this is cleared up, chlorinator is working, dissolving tablets at a normal rate. Today the pool was clearer than it has been yet, so maybe we are getting a handle on it. At least I can see the middle drain this morning. We've also had the pool for 14 years. To everyone that's having cloudy problems, I just say be diligent about checking chem levels and vac even if you can't see the bottom.

Postby **chem geek** » Tue 19 May, 2009 09:33

Using Trichlor pucks/tabs or Dichlor powder/granular when you have cloudy water most likely due to a high Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level with not a high enough Free Chlorine (FC) level is only going to make the problem worse. Read the Pool School for more info on the chlorine/CYA relationship. In a manually dosed pool, if your FC is maintained at a minimum of 7.5% of the CYA level (certainly no less than 5% of the CYA level), then the pool is at high risk of having algae grow faster than chlorine can kill it.

damnpools · Postby **damnpools** » Tue 02 Jun, 2009 09:29

Ok So my levels- chlorine is a little high (added stabilizer so its staying consistent),
Had a hard time lowering alkalinity but finally did it. Ph is also a little lower than it should be, between perfect and low.
Water is a nice blue color but cloudy. Can see second step, Its an above ground vinyl pool,
Have done floc twice, second time was last night, and its even cloudier today.
Been reading all these posts and decided to take out chlorine floater, and just leave the pool for the rest of the day, I dont know how quickly the chlorine will drop or if the floc will make anything settle, But im trying as many free options as possible before putting anymore money into the pool.

Want to know more options that apply to me incase this doesnt work. I dont really feel like reading 50 pages of do this do that but only if your levels are this that and the other.

Mastermason · Postby **Mastermason** » Wed 01 Jul, 2009 10:57

Take pool readings, check lint and lint strained, shock pool and voilÃ . Don't forget to vacuum. Dcpoolguy. also check to see if your pool is filtering properly and at the right level.

Guest · Postby **Guest** » Wed 01 Jul, 2009 11:02

My bad also if you are using a stabilizer, is cynuric acid it will make water cloudy, this weakining chlorine. Be carefull mastermason dcpoolguy out.

mn123 · Postby **mn123** » Sun 02 Aug, 2009 11:07

We had the ppol store out here to get the pool started and i was completely clear. Then we ended up with small holes in different parts of the pump... This happened twice which resulted in air getting into the pump and it not functioning Properly. the pool person was out to fix it after the first incident and it never quite got as clear as it was again. The second time they fixed it and never reshocked it... We changed pool people because teh firs tone we used was supposed to explain everything to us because we had never had a pool and did not. He even did not tell us he only had one skimmer open in the first place someone else told us we needed both running.

Now we are at a point where the pool is cloudy blue as the sky and can't get it completely clear.We have been working on this cloudy blue issue for 2 weeks now after about 200.00 worth of chemicals. The pool store keeps telling us to just keep adding liquid chlorine. This is a sand filtered pool. We tried to vaccum the other day and needless to say went to pull it out to shock some more and I pulled the hose out before the vaccum and the hose detached from the vaccum and now we can't find it in the pool, LOL, good one huh? Anyway our chlorine levels are very high as we have only bought the kit that turns colors with the chlorine and PH levels on it. The PH is also very high. It turns purple, like off the charts, but the pool store says not to worry about that until the ool is clear. Well, the pool isn't clearing and we added 20 more gallons of chlorine yesterday...

It is now Aug 1st and we are ready to give up but our son would like to have a pool arty for his 15th bday in 4 weeks and we have dumped so much money into it at this point it seems like such a waste... We have only used the pool twice this year due to all of the problems... Can someone please help??? Affordably???

Camden · Postby **Camden** » Thu 20 Aug, 2009 16:07

I have the same cloudy blue sky water like you; asked the pool guy I'll pay him for the service but he said I'm very close getting my water crystal clear. This pool guy services my brother's pool and I tested his water and it's way of the chart; some how the amazing thing is his water is crystal clear and I mean crystal clear. One problem I noticed my brother's pool is all the original plaster was gone, left of it was just cement. As for mine when I brush or rub my hands against the plaster, a smoky white residue that came from the plaster and its also contributing to my cloudy pool also. As of right now I'm cleaning my grid filters everyday, and you know what small particles and some kind of powder from all dissolving chemicals clinging to my filter. I wonder that is a contributing facts to cloudy water. I keep you posted if it works.

Camden · Postby **Camden** » Sun 23 Aug, 2009 10:55

Hi, you have put too much chlorine in your pool, that is way too much for a 20,000 gallons pool. Don't add any more chemical to the pool right now, if you don't want to replace the pump then use teflon tape wrap it around the hole then buy an epoxy putty stick and fill the hole for the time being. This is a temporay solution, mine is as bad as yours, but it's doing the job for me. My skimmer elbow pipe was complete broken; asked a professional for an estimate to fix $1200 just for the pipe. I rented a jackhammer, cracked open the cement in 5 minutes and went to home depot got an 8 dollars elbow pvc pipe and it's fixed. I'm no professional but these pipes are 3 feet deep so nothing is hard to do.As far as the cloudy water, there are microscopic contaminants in your pool which needed to be filtered out, you should try cleaning the filters until you no longer see these particles. I'm a beginner, my pool was green and I have tried everything the pool stores told me. I have every chemical you could think of. Then I realized it's not working from what these thiefs told me. The amount of chlorine in your pool right now will disipate from the sun and don't swim in it right now. What I had was a green pool and now is crystal clear. I have a grid filter and I ran the pump everyday for 8 hrs and nothing clears up. Then I took out my grid filters and rinse it off, I can't believe what was clinging to the filters. I then use Diatomaceous earth powder and pool clears up the green water, however; cloudy water is present, I can see the bottom. However, Diatomaceous powder only works if my filter is clean free, I clean my filters everyday after running the pump for 8 hrs for two weeks,believe it or not its a no brainer, it works, and I mean it works. Until all Diatomaceous earth powder is gone, I bought a bottle of Water Clarifier and pour 5 ounces in the most cloudiest area, run the filter for 16 hrs and no more secret about cloudy pool anymore. Now my pool is crystal clear all by accident.

mn123 wrote:We had the ppol store out here to get the pool started and i was completely clear. Then we ended up with small holes in different parts of the pump... This happened twice which resulted in air getting into the pump and it not functioning Properly. the pool person was out to fix it after the first incident and it never quite got as clear as it was again. The second time they fixed it and never reshocked it... We changed pool people because teh firs tone we used was supposed to explain everything to us because we had never had a pool and did not. He even did not tell us he only had one skimmer open in the first place someone else told us we needed both running.

Now we are at a point where the pool is cloudy blue as the sky and can't get it completely clear.We have been working on this cloudy blue issue for 2 weeks now after about 200.00 worth of chemicals. The pool store keeps telling us to just keep adding liquid chlorine. This is a sand filtered pool. We tried to vaccum the other day and needless to say went to pull it out to shock some more and I pulled the hose out before the vaccum and the hose detached from the vaccum and now we can't find it in the pool, LOL, good one huh? Anyway our chlorine levels are very high as we have only bought the kit that turns colors with the chlorine and PH levels on it. The PH is also very high. It turns purple, like off the charts, but the pool store says not to worry about that until the ool is clear. Well, the pool isn't clearing and we added 20 more gallons of chlorine yesterday...

It is now Aug 1st and we are ready to give up but our son would like to have a pool arty for his 15th bday in 4 weeks and we have dumped so much money into it at this point it seems like such a waste... We have only used the pool twice this year due to all of the problems... Can someone please help??? Affordably???

Hi,

Patti · Postby **Patti** » Tue 08 Sep, 2009 14:08

I had the same cloudy blue water everyone is talking about. Someone on this site recommended Superfloc. I ran to my pool store and asked about it and they also said its the way to go. Sure enough... two days later I was finally able to see the bottom and sides of my pool. The floc gathered all the cloudiness and junk and brought it to the top of the pool water in clumps. I had to wait until the clumps settled to the bottom and then vacummed the pool up. Its nice and clear now, even though we have to now cover it for old man winter.