Cloudy Water After Adding Soda Ash

[franks6439]

Sequence of events (pool stats at end):

1) Pool company opened my pool and checked the chemistry. Said everything looked good except calcium hardness which was 150 and should be 200-300.
2) I double-checked the chemistry with my Taylor kit. I got:
Chlorine: 5
pH: 7.2
TA: 65
CH: 175
3) Since there was a difference in CH, I wanted to double check with another pool store in case my chemicals were too old, so I submitted a sample for testing. The results were:
TC & FC: 5.2
pH: 7.2
TA: 59
CH: 174
CYA: 87

Here's where it gets a little weird on several points - I should point out they are using BioGuard water analysis.
a) Even though the CH was low, they did not recommend adding calcium on advice from the manager who said with a white plaster pool, anything above 100 was acceptable.
b) The TA was low, but they say the recommended level is 125-150 instead of the 80-120 that I always see as ideal. They recommended adding 37 lbs of BalancePak 100 - baking soda.
c) They say the ideal pH is 7.4-7.6 which means my pH of 7.2 was slightly low. BUT.... the recommendation said my pH was TOO HIGH or would be too high after adding the baking soda.

4) All this being a little strange to me, I decided to do the following:
a) I added 10 lbs of Calcium Chloride. The CH went from 174 to 190.
b) The next day I added 1 13lb Costco bag of baking soda. The TA went from 60 to 90.
c) Today, I calculated that to raise the pH from 7.2 to 7.4 I would need about 4 lbs of soda ash. I decided to be conservative and add only 2 lbs. As soon as I started adding it, the pool clouded up and has stayed that way for several hours. The pH went from 7.2 to 7.3. Everything else stayed pretty much the same.

In the 20 years I've had the pool, I've never had a problem. I've used both pH reducers and pH increasers, but never used calcium chloride before.

My current chemistry is:
Chlorine: 5.2
pH: 7.3
TA: 90
CH: 190
CYA: 87

Pool Stats:
30,000 gal gunnite pool
PCC 2000 system
INTELLIFLO 2 VARIABLE SPEED PUMP TRADE SERIES
STARITE SYS 3 MOD CART FILTER 450SF
SANIKING 940 PERFORMMAX CHLORINATOR

[Denniswiseman]

I would be inclined to wait and see if it clears
With your inline chlorinator you are adding CYA continously and 87 is far to high for a chlorine dosed pool and you should be targeting about 10
Excessive CYA renders your chlorine ineffective and you have to use more to get the same sanitation
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 Calcium Hardness (CH) by at least 7 ppm
To reduce your CYA you have to do a partial drain and refill
Continuous use of Trichlor/Dichlor will raise your CYA which means you have to raise your chlorine level as well

Use these common products to balance your pool
Liquid chlorine (sodium hypochlorite or plain bleach)
Muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid) to lower pH and TA
Bicarbonate of soda to raise TA
Aeration will raise pH only
Soda ash will raise pH and TA

Have a read through these links (the Slam one doesn't apply yet but it's worth knowing)
Pool School
Slam (Shock Level and Maintain) with relation to Chlorine / CYA Chart and
Recommended Pool Levels
Pool Maths