This is our 2nd season with our 21' round above ground pool. we have never had problems with cloudy water but then all of a sudden we started experiencing it.

Right before we left for our vacation wie did our weekly maitenance dosages. when we returned home the pool was cloudy so we backwashed and added oxidizer, and topped up the sanitizer/algistate and added algicide.

We took a water sample to our pool place and it said everything looked good but PH was 8.6....they told us this is why it is cloudy.

We were told to add 3.5 pounds of PH decreaser...
we followed the directions on the container and added 2 pounds first day and 1.5 second day...then took water sample back in..PH was down to 8.1 but still too high.

We were told to keep adding PH decreaser another 3.5 pounds did the same step again added 2 pounds one day and the other 1.5 pounds the next day.

The water looks a little better but still very cloudy.

My questions are how did the PH get off? (we do top the pool off it gets to low but never more than 2" or so, and we keep up with our baquacil treatments)
Is the decreaser the right step to take and can you over add it and hurt your pump?
We have also been told to try the Floc if this doesn't work, is this a treatment solution or should we keep trying to get the PH down to normal ranges first and if it doesn't clear up once down to normal ranges should be then do the floc?

Just Concerned, will take any advice!

your best advice is to get rid of baquacil. you will save money and not have these problems if you stay on top of it. see pool-school/

Yeah, baquacil doesn't get many good thoughts on this forum. Almost everyone here is an advocate of simplicity and cost in pool management......that pretty much means sanitizing with chlorine.

If you search on the forum for baquacil, you will find many, many threads of people who hjave made the switch. To this point, no one has implied any regrets.....pool water management gets simpler (and cheaper) without baquacil.

Here is just a sample of my problems using baquacil:

We bought our first pool in July of 2007, but because we had such a wet summer that year, it didn't even get set up until mid August. I, too fell trap to the Baquacil "sucsess stories" Well, since the pool was only open for about 2 months before we had to close ALL was great!

Fast forward to spring 2008. Opened the pool to beautiful crystal clear water (or so we thought). Teen daughter and some friends got in to stir it up a bit for a light vacuum job. Quickly got out due to being attacked by white tissue papery stuff they had stirred up. Yep, you guessed it, white water mold. After trying to get all of it cleared out, which I think we did, I was spending, oh heck I don't even know, other than it was a LOT, just trying to keep the water in check.

The sanitizer alone was 30 dollars a pop and I was going through at least 2-3 a month. Fast Forward to August, and got another little present I wasn't bargaining for, mustard algae! Finally, after tons and tons of shocking, got that cleared up and shut the pool down in early Sept. Hated to do it, because it was fairly warm, although the water was starting to get cold. Most people don't start experiencing problems with it until their second or 3rd year. After doing a lot of research on it, I learned that you really need to drain a lot of water and replace it every year when you start up your pool and you should totally replace your water every 5 years.

When I first decided I wanted to convert, I went to the pool store for "help". The lady there is really nice and I do believe she thought she was "helping" when she gave me chlorine pucks and said just drop on of these in everyday. Being fairly new to having a pool, I took her word as gospel and followed the directions.

The next week took a water sample back to be tested and she said , levels still high, this may take all summer.

I didn't want to wait all summer and be a slave to my pool as I had been the previous season, so I jumped online and started researching. I found this site and read and read until I thought my eyes were going to fall out...lol. Then I said what the heck and started following the directions for Baquacil to chlorine conversion.

I wasn't sure at first what I had gotten myself into because I used about 70 BIG bottles of bleach, but I kept reading "have patience", and by the third day I had clearing water! I ordered my FT-100 test kit and I really LOVE it. It is so easy to use.

My pool water is so beautiful, it looks like glass when the pump is off, and sparkles so nice in the sun. I don't regret the conversion, and so far I spend about 10 dollars a week in bleach and I NEVER have had to add anything else. Way cheaper than I was doing with the sanitizer, oxidizer and algaesat on baquacil.

bearclaw20, it would help if you post a full set of water test results.

PH normally goes up when the TA is really high, or when some chemical that raises PH is added to the pool. Without knowing what your TA level is, it is difficult to comment on what might be going on.

This is my 2nd year with our 21ft round above ground pool. Last year we had no problems with the baquacil and now this year everything was fine until last week when the water got very milky/cloudy. we did the usual weekly maintenance dosage before we left for vacation and when we returned the water was white. I re-tested everything and it said that the oxidizer was low to added more and did the weekly maitenance dosages....nothing helped so took water sample to pool store and PH was 8.6. We were told to add 3# of PH decreaser and have water rechecked. After 2 days PH went down to 8.1 so did 3# decreaser again but water still looks really cloudy and the oxidizer test strip is showing up white like we need to add an intial dose?
I am so confused and upset and have no clue what to do.
I have read the muracid will help clear up the PH but not shore?

Do I need to try the muracid? and then top up everything and shock it?

Need help. I would love to convert to CHLORINE, but have already purchased like 400$ work of baquacil for this season!

Any chance the pool store will accept it back for a store credit? If not, consider selling the Baq chems on Ebay or Craigslist, and converting.

Here are my water analysis results from the computer lab

Baquacil 40
TA-92
Ph 8.1
Calciuam 220
oxidizer 2
copper 0
iron 0
total dissovled solids 0
sat.index .53

hope this helps

i will check with the pool store on a refund, etc

if I start the conversion now how long will it take..would the pool be back open by the end of july? I read pool school article but freaked out about conversion, need to know more terms for chlorine ,,etc

I read your other thread...

Your Baq level is up there, which can prolong conversions. It depends mostly on how quickly you can oxidize the Baq. If you were able to dedicate a week...starting on a Saturday, checking chlorine levels every hour, you can make rapid progress that first two days by frequent checks/chlorine additions. Some conversions take days, some take weeks. There really isn't any way to predict because it all depends on how often you can test and add chlorine. A good test kit is essential for the process.

If you started on a saturday, worked like crazy for the weekend adding bleach, then if you have to work you can do before and after work all week, and then ramp things up again on the weekend.

Hope this helps.

Maybe I will just try to get the PH down and start the conversion next May. What do you think I need to do for the cloudy PH problem? would muracid helP?

The first priority is to get the PH back in range. Keep adding muriatic acid until the PH is down to between 7.2 and 7.5. There is some chance that will clear up the cloudiness. If it doesn't, post a full set of water test results and we can explore some of the other possibilities from there.

Sorry this might be a long post, but I have several questions.
I have a 21ft round 52" deep pool so I guess around 11000 gallons, how much muracid should I use?
and will the muracid clear up the cloudyness in a matter hours letting me know that it was infact the PH?

Also I have been using the baquacil ph decreaser that is granular I put 2# in this morning july 5th, when would it be safe to add the muracid?

My oxidzier is showing that I need to add more should I do that after I get the PH cleared UP? or could this be a false reading since the Ph if off? I have added 2 gallons this week with still reading that there is none in there?

Also based on my numbers what do you think about everything? would you agree that the PH is making the water cloudy?

once I get the Ph cleared up should I also top up the sanitizer since it was at 40 and should be at 50. It has been running low all summer around 32.

We run the pump 24 hours a day and have minimum swimmers not used all that much maybe twice a week with under 5
people!

I haven't seen most of your numbers. To get an idea of what might be causing the cloudiness we need to know your TA and CH levels.

If lowering the PH is going to clear up the water it will do it within about an hour of getting to a lower PH.

You can try adding about one quart of muriatic acid at a time, give it 30 minutes to mix in with the pump running, test the PH, and continue adjusting from there.

Unless you have decided to convert to chlorine, you should raise your oxidizer and sanitizer levels up to the recommend levels.

Alright, I found your other topic. Both topic have been merged into this one.

Your calcium saturation is fairly high, so it is quite possible that the cloudiness is calcium, especially if it is very white/milky. If it is calcium, lowering your PH to below 7.5 should clear it up quickly.

Your low oxidizer level means it is also possible that there is some kind of organic contamination involved. You want to bring up the oxidizer level.

thanks! so how much macid should i add per 11000 gal?

If you want to be conservative, you can use one cup of muriatic acid at a time, wait a while, test again, and then adjust from there. Or you can use my Pool Calculator, see the link in my signature, to try and calculate the amount. Since the PH change you need to make is large, it is best not to use the full calculated amount, but instead perhaps 2/3rds of that amount and then see where you end up.

I am now a baqu convert, but back in the day when I did use baquacil -when my pH was high, my water was also cloudy. Definitely do what Jason said and get your pH in the proper range, but then definitely use the baqua shock. One summer I had to use three gallons in one week to get my water cleared back up. At over $15 a gallon, I decided that bleach is a WHOLE lot cheaper. In the heat of summer I definitely had to shock more often than the once per month baqua recommends. I wouldn't over do it on the sanitizer though 40 ppm is acceptable. Do you top up to 50 ppm every week? Good luck! Consider converting to BBB next year

Took pool sample back today got more numbers for you. Pool was still cloudy this morning. Here are our numbers. Sanitizer 31. Ta 79 ph 7.3 calcium hardness 231 oxidizer 2 sat.index -.32. They said that everything looked find and did a phosphate test which we were told was way to high!!! Don't know what this is? They also had us buy something called perfect pool +phos free and said to add it our pool? I am so confused and concerned! I need some advice and I am worried about the TA I think it is low. What is phosphates and are these making the water cloudy it isn't green or slimy!!!

Phosphates are often used as a ploy to help the pool store sell expensive chemicals you don't need. If you lower the phosphate level there is much less chance for algae to get started. But lowering the phosphate level is expensive and troublesome, doesn't always stop algae, and there are other simpler ways to prevent algae.

Your TA is a little bit low, but it isn't anything serious. Add backing soda to bring TA up to around 90 or 100.

Your sanitizer level is low, and it was low before. It looks to me like you aren't adding enough sanitizer.