PLEASE HELP - Pool Water Went Cloudy Overnight

Causes and cures for cloudy swimming pool water.
Milky pool water, white, pink, brown, purple, black cloudy water.
lisa412
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My Pool: Fiberglass, 16 X 33, inground

PLEASE HELP - Pool Water Went Cloudy Overnight

Postby lisa412 » Wed 01 Jul, 2009 19:55

Two weeks ago my PH level was low and pool store advised that we add PH increaser which made the pool very cloudy (could not see the bottom); however all the levels were balanced and after 24-48 hours of clarifier the pool cleared up and was crystal clear! It stayed crystal clear for 6 days, until today. We did get some heavy rain yesterday and heavy rain today - would that have caused this problem?? (We have had rain before, though, that did not cause this.) I'm frustrated since I finally got the water clear, have a party in 2 days and now, all of a sudden, can't see the bottom again. Does anyone know what could have caused this and what to do? I just shocked the pool hoping that will help since the chlorine level was low. Please help!
Thank you!!!


kenlenard
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My Pool: Inground, lagoon-shaped, cement w/liner, about 18k gallons
Location: Chicago Area

PLEASE HELP - Pool Water Went Cloudy Overnight

Postby kenlenard » Thu 02 Jul, 2009 08:37

I just had the same problem... biblical rains caused my pool to get hazy & cloudy for the first time in 2 years. I have a "superchlorinate" setting on my pool wich is the equivalent of shocking the pool. It got the pool noticeably clearer in 24 hours and crystal clear in 2 days. The shock you added should get you up & running pretty well. As an aside, I also have a downspout that runs into an area with dirt & wood chips near my pool. 95% of the time when it rains, it's not an issue. But when the skies open up, that area overflows sending muddy water into my pool which takes a day or two to clean up. Do you have anything like this in your yard where muddy water might run into your pool? I need to reroute the water coming through that downspout. Good luck.
lisa412
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Posts: 5
Joined: Sat 13 Jun, 2009 13:16
My Pool: Fiberglass, 16 X 33, inground

PLEASE HELP - Pool Water Went Cloudy Overnight

Postby lisa412 » Thu 02 Jul, 2009 14:15

Thank you for your reply!
No, we don't have a problem with anything running into our pool because our pool is way above ground level (even though it's an inground pool.) It's a fiberglass pool, 16 x 33 with a Hayward cartridge filter. The manufacturer suggests that the surfaces above the water line be waxed (using a good car or pool wax) once or twice per year. We waxed about a third of the pool on Monday but then with the heavy rain the water level increased about 2 inches. But typically wax doesn't mix w/water so I'm not sure if that caused the clouding. I shocked the pool last night (with a one lb. bag of calcium hypochloride) but was really surprised when the pool store told me today that the FC was .6 !!! They said the heavy rain and lower TA would cause that??? They also told me my TA dropped from 90 to 60 and to raise that up a bit. Wait an hour and then shock the pool and add the bioguard polysheen clarifier. The last time this happened we added the bioguard sparkle up directly to the skimmer along with the clarifier. The pool totally cleared in 48 hours. We're repeating the process and I hope that helps. This all happened after the pool store told us to add 4 lbs of PH increaser....immediately following that, the pool went cloudy. Prior to that, it was crystal clear. Everything I've read says never to add more than 1 lb per 10,000 gal of water. Don't know why they told us to add 4 lbs at once. Anyway, it's very frustrating to have it go from superb to disaster overnight. What type of filter do you use?
Thanks!!
kenlenard
I'm new here
I'm new here
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue 23 Jun, 2009 08:00
My Pool: Inground, lagoon-shaped, cement w/liner, about 18k gallons
Location: Chicago Area

PLEASE HELP - Pool Water Went Cloudy Overnight

Postby kenlenard » Fri 03 Jul, 2009 09:58

Good luck... I hope it works quickly. To be honest, my pool is saltwater and I rarely have to mess with pool store products. My neighbor has a nice inground pool that is not saltwater and he has a giant plastic trunk in his backyard this is filled to the top with various chemicals. My pool requires shock in the spring & fall and I check the levels of FC, pH, etc., but other than stabilizer, I don't really add much to the pool. All of the various products out there are enough to make your head spin. Good luck.
chem geek
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PLEASE HELP - Pool Water Went Cloudy Overnight

Postby chem geek » Fri 03 Jul, 2009 12:26

Read the Pool School to learn how to properly take care of your pool and please get a good test kit (either the Taylor K-2006 or the TF100 from tftestkits.net).

I don't have a saltwater chlorine generator (SWG), but I only add 12.5% chlorinating liquid in my 16,000 gallon pool plus a small amount of acid every month or two. That's it. $15 per month. I have a pool cover which helps keep the chlorine usage down to somewhat less than 1 ppm FC per day even though the pool is used 1-2 hours every day. It really can be that simple, but you need to take charge or your pool and understand the side effects of the normally recommended chlorine products:

For every 10 ppm Free Chlorine (FC) added by Trichlor, it also increases Cyanuric Acid (CYA) by 6 ppm.
For every 10 ppm FC added by Dichlor, it also increases CYA by 9 ppm.
For every 10 ppm FC added by Cal-Hypo, it also increases CYA by 7 ppm.

Even with a low 1 ppm FC per day chlorine usage, after 6 months of Trichlor usage the CYA would increase by over 100 ppm in just 6 months if there were no dilution.

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