Foggy white water

[Wjohnstone74]

Hi All,

i bought a house house recently with a pool and hot tub. I've been referencing this site but my issues are a bit unique - to me anyway. I have a 16*32 IG 20k gallon pool. On Sunday of this week, all my levels were in the normal other than cya and the water was crystal clear, I could do no wrong! Yesterday, I took the cover off the pool only to find milky, foggy water and I can barely see the bottom of the shallow end. I had the water tested at the local pool place and here are my numbers:

flc - 3.89
tcl - 4.34
ccl - .45
ph - 7.3
ta - 138
ata - 105 - no idea what this is
stab - 119
ca - 225
cu - .3
fe - .2

ive added a clarifier and shocked the pool to where the drops are a deep dark yellow - my kit doesn't go past 3ppm. I've also drained some water and put the hose at the bottom of the deep end with the pool drain closed in order to drain from the skimmer and fill at the same time as per intructions on this site. I know my stabilizer is high, I had no idea my trichlor pucks were making it worse. I bought a calcium hypochlorite today to use that until my cya is normal again over the next year or two. What's the point of an auto chlorinator? Frustrating. Anyway, it's been 12 hours, no improvement, 30 degree weather coming this weekend, and I'm hoping someone can give me some insights.

When i found my pool with this problem yesterday all my chlorine was gone. Between Sunday and yesterday the water turned milky and the chlorine disappeared. Note I use a Hayward chlorinatior and there are pucks in it. Setting was at 1.5, which has worked well all summer. So confused...

Thanks!

wayne

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum.

Your problems are not unique. Excessive use of pucks has over-stabilized your pool making your chlorine far less effective. Effective chlorine keeps algae, bacteria, and organics in general from contaminating your pool but your high CYA takes away most of it's killing power.

read "The ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry" up in Pool School. That'll get you to a good start and help you understand what has happened in your pool.

 

[Wjohnstone74]

Thanks Dave. I read all that, sometimes I just need to hear it direct from someone I guess. I suppose I should drain the pool down 1/3 and go from there. For now I have a pile of chlorine and clarifier in there to hopefully clear it up so we can at least use it.

Im just shocked at the speed of this turn of events.

 

[pooldv]

Your chlorine is way too low for your CYA, Chlorine CYA Chart

 

[duraleigh]

Spare the clarifier if you can. It seems to often do more harm than good.

 

[kimkats]

Oh it was just hiding and waiting to spring.

The high CYA finally got too high for the pucks to be any help.

The inline IS useful BUT only for weekend getaways and such. It is not good for every day use unless you are able and willing to drain water as needed.

You really need to get a good test kit. The only one you can get up there is the Taylor 2006 (NOT 2005 as it is missing a couple of important tests).

Kim

 

[Wjohnstone74]

Thanks for all the replies. Quick question - with this high cya and given the amount of chlorine I've put in the pool, how long will it take approx for the chlorine to dissipate to save swimming levels? Does the unstabilized chlorine stabilize with the high cya?

I checked my my records and my cya was 80 at the beginning of June. I had no idea it could climb that fast. Oh well.

 

[pooldv]

It is safe to swim when chlorine is above minimum and below shock level for your CYA, Chlorine CYA Chart

It is not possible to accurately predict your chlorine consumption at this point. Normal is 2-4 ppm per day. With algae it can be can that much per hour.

 

[Wjohnstone74]

Just an update - I've replaced about 6" of water so far doing backwash/refill from the bottom cycles and this morning there is a visible minor improvement in clarity - I can see the bottom of the shallow end and the edge of the deep end. Chlorine is still really high, using technical verbiage my levels are super dark purple on a test strip and dark orange on the drops. It's supposed to be sunny today so that should start to dissipate as well.

Cya seems eps to have come down a bit but with such a high chlorine level I'm not sure this means anything.

Ill update ate progress as it continues, as always any comments or suggestions are welcome!

 

[PAGirl]

Did you order a proper test kit yet? The TFP method works when you follow everything step by step. First step is a good test kit to ensure your chlorine level is correct for your CYA level.

Also, it is safe to swim up to SLAM levels, but if you can't see the bottom of your pool it is NOT safe for swimming.