cloudiness, perhaps calc. results don't suggest a problem though! what to do!?

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AdelaidePooler

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Oct 20, 2013
77
Adelaide, Australia
Hi,
After basically taking last swim season getting very frustrated and eventually mending pool leaks over the winter (July-September here!) I have now got a pool that's holding water, has been SO much easier to adjust seeing as my chemistry was moving around wildly due to constant refilling and all has been going swimmingly...

Except over the last few days the pool has developed a cloudiness. Now, I think it's calcium because, in my very old pool, the cracked tiles just above the waterline have a got a deposit on the cracks (i've chipped some off and it bubbles in acid). The calcium test also shows a reduction from 425 to 350 which is odd as I have not replaced 18% of my water! (I've barely had to fill at all since repairing the leak) also my pH is reducing, could that be because the calcium is precipitating out to solid?

My current test results are as follows:

FC: 6
CC: 0
pH: 7.4 (was 7.6 two weeks ago)
TA: 120
CH: 350 (was 425 two weeks ago)
CYA: 75
Salt: 4300
Water Temp is between 28C/82F and 30C/86F

therefore CSI (from PoolMath): -0.19

Prior to the clouding, I had what I thought was a pretty well balanced pool with a CSI of around 0.08!
And searches I do to find out about calcium cloudiness usually suggest reducing CSI to negative, which I already am, so I'm at a loss firstly as to what has caused the clouding, and secondly what to do about it! :confused:

Any thoughts or advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Just wondering how your pH was holding up? Have you added any calcium products recently?

Maybe reducing your pH to 7.2 and then bringing it back when it rises. This may also assist with bringing down your TA which seems a little high as well.
 
Have you had any issues with your FC lately? I ask because cloudiness is most often an algae problem than calcium and with your test results I agree that it seems unlikely you would have a calcium problem.

I suggest that tonight you raise your FC to 10 or above, shut down your SWG and run an OCLT. If it fails then you will need to SLAM, if it passes then you have ruled organics out and can continue looking at calcium as the possible culprit.

Honestly I hope it is algae, that might be simpler to correct...
 
Donldson said:
Have you had any issues with your FC lately? I ask because cloudiness is most often an algae problem than calcium and with your test results I agree that it seems unlikely you would have a calcium problem.

I suggest that tonight you raise your FC to 10 or above, shut down your SWG and run an OCLT. If it fails then you will need to SLAM, if it passes then you have ruled organics out and can continue looking at calcium as the possible culprit.

Honestly I hope it is algae, that might be simpler to correct...
Click to expand...
I concur. My CH is more than double yours and I can still see that the screws in the drain cover are phillips head. High CH alone will not cause cloudiness.
 
Thanks for the replies. My FC has dropped to 4 on occasion (getting timing and power of SWG right) and I bumped it back to 7 with liquid chlorine rather than relying on SWG.

I will try an OCLT to see what happens and get back to you with results.

Still curious as to what happened to my calcium... that stuff's expensive!
 
The pH has dropped some, which I thought was curious running an SWG and a relatively high TA. No calc products added since initial raising of CH to 425.
I considered my TA was a bit high when setting it all up this year, but also read a thread that said it's not really necessary to chase a low figure just for the sake of it if the CSI is within range.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean when you say "bringing it back when it rises". The pH?
Do you mean raising the pH with aeration?
 
Yes but thinking that your pH would tend to rise anyway with the SWG and then actively running the pH at a lower level at least temporarily to see if it cleared up the cloudiness. As mentioned this would also assist with lowering your TA.

But definitely doing the OCLT to eliminate organics as the cause in the first instance is a good idea.
 
Yeah, the OCLT is the next step. If you fail that test, then you SLAM. If you pass that test, I would suggest you lower your pH down to 7.0 and monitor it and hold it there for several days......that might help.

PS - when you drop your pH that low, you want to manage it carefully......don't go lower than 6.8 nor higher than 7.2
 
3 tests later and I'm a little more confused than I was!
I passed the OCLT, tests and procedure below in case I did anything daft.

Yesterday evening I tested and got:
FC 5.0
CC 0.4
pH 7.4 (I habitually have my wife look at the colours for a second opinion)
TA 120
CH 350


I bumped FC up with 3L of liquid chlorine and turned the SWG off. Pump and filter still on for mixing.
I tested after dark and got
FC 9.5
CC 0.5 (although the pink was very faint)
pH 7.4 (wife checked)
and all other tests the same.

Well this morning all was the same except the pH has gone up to 7.6! (again wife checked).

Putting that into PoolMath gives me a CSI of 0.

The chlorine should not have raised my pH should it!?
 
It seems that the bump of FC up to 9.5 has made an inroad into clarity of the pool, so the cloudiness may have been the beginnings, or end, of some algae after all, despite the all clear on an OCLT.
I'm none the wiser as to why my CH has apparently dropped, or why my pH seems to be testing strangely. I am considering that it may have been testing error somehow. I will need some new reagents soon, so I'll head off to the Aussie test kit threads...

The maxim of chlorine and patience being the great healer is holding, so I will keep my FC higher for a bit.

Thank you for the encouragement for me to stay with the basics, as opposed to jumping off at a tangent as I am wont to do on occasion!
 

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Glad to hear that the cloudiness is clearing up for you. It may very well be algae despite your OCLT pass.

I would also suspect that it is the aeration being created by your SWG that has increased your pH rise especially with a higher TA.

The only real way that you can be losing calcium is through backwashing/draining or splash out so other than that I guess testing error is the only other alternative. Just running some quick figures through Poolmath to drop to the amount you mentioned (435-350) is an 18% drop in water volume and that's not taking into account any CH being added from fill water.

Keep us posted as to how things progress.
 
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