Hi. This website has been great to help me along with my (new to me) pool. But I'm still having a problem with cloudy water.
Current test:
Free Chlorine - 10
Total Chlorine - 10
Alkalinity - 100
pH - 7.2
Hardness - 100
After the pool was first opened by the pool guy - it started to turn from dark to light green then to light blue. We were not doing a good job at this point and we were only changing the skimmer baskets and leaving the filter running 24/7. We didn't know we needed to re-shock it and basically be paying much closer attention as we had just moved in a couple days before the pool was opened. So then the pool turned dark green. The pool guy came back and re-shocked it - now I started paying close attention. After he left I realized that nobody had changed the pump basket and it was packed full of leaves and had cracked the basket. Put in a new one and started paying very close attention to all baskets and chemical levels - and backwashing frequently. The pool remained and cloudy but looked good otherwise and the levels were all good. I tried a clarifier but that did not work. Took sample to local pool store and they said all the levels looked really good but to just keep adding shock and let the filter do its job. The pool never cleared up so we tried a floc (can't recall brand but I can look it up - it did have Alum in it) We used a very heavy dose (as the instructions said - because we could not see the bottom of deep end - in fact we could not see bottom of shallow end - we could only see barely a foot down)
The floc worked - but it took three days. The pool would slowly settle and it just kept getting clearer. By the third day - we could still not see the deep end - but we could see maybe 6 feet down (pool is 8 or 9 feet) at center. Even though we could not see everything after three days - we took the advice of pool guy and vac'd to waste. Then got the chlorine levels way up and started the filter. Pool looks pretty good - but has gotten a bit more cloudy than it was right after the floc. We can still see the shallow end - barely - but that is it. Levels seem good - except the Chlorine is high. (the shock used was sodium hypochlorite) I understand too much calcium hypochlorite can make a pool cloudy but I don't think that is the case.
I've come up with a new theory just about every day and tried many things -but nothing seems to get it cleared up. My latest theory is that I let the pool get soooo much algae that there is still dead algae in there and the sand filter is not efficient enough to get it out. My thought is that I should possibly change sand in the filter (the somewhat rusted bolts make me think it has maybe never been changed? or not for a while). And I should also floc it again and maybe this time I will be able to see all the debris and i can do a better job vacuuming it to waste.
** The hayward pump is only a year old and is very very strong
** The filter pressure stays at 20psi and never goes up.
** When I back wash now (as I'm told to do it twice a day) the water is very clear - no debris or dirt as I'd seen in past
** My wife swears the pump was operating at 10psi at beginning of year but maybe that was because all the leaves packed in the pump basket?
Sorry - I know this is such a long post - but I wanted to give all the details to try to get this solved. thx much!!
Current test:
Free Chlorine - 10
Total Chlorine - 10
Alkalinity - 100
pH - 7.2
Hardness - 100
After the pool was first opened by the pool guy - it started to turn from dark to light green then to light blue. We were not doing a good job at this point and we were only changing the skimmer baskets and leaving the filter running 24/7. We didn't know we needed to re-shock it and basically be paying much closer attention as we had just moved in a couple days before the pool was opened. So then the pool turned dark green. The pool guy came back and re-shocked it - now I started paying close attention. After he left I realized that nobody had changed the pump basket and it was packed full of leaves and had cracked the basket. Put in a new one and started paying very close attention to all baskets and chemical levels - and backwashing frequently. The pool remained and cloudy but looked good otherwise and the levels were all good. I tried a clarifier but that did not work. Took sample to local pool store and they said all the levels looked really good but to just keep adding shock and let the filter do its job. The pool never cleared up so we tried a floc (can't recall brand but I can look it up - it did have Alum in it) We used a very heavy dose (as the instructions said - because we could not see the bottom of deep end - in fact we could not see bottom of shallow end - we could only see barely a foot down)
The floc worked - but it took three days. The pool would slowly settle and it just kept getting clearer. By the third day - we could still not see the deep end - but we could see maybe 6 feet down (pool is 8 or 9 feet) at center. Even though we could not see everything after three days - we took the advice of pool guy and vac'd to waste. Then got the chlorine levels way up and started the filter. Pool looks pretty good - but has gotten a bit more cloudy than it was right after the floc. We can still see the shallow end - barely - but that is it. Levels seem good - except the Chlorine is high. (the shock used was sodium hypochlorite) I understand too much calcium hypochlorite can make a pool cloudy but I don't think that is the case.
I've come up with a new theory just about every day and tried many things -but nothing seems to get it cleared up. My latest theory is that I let the pool get soooo much algae that there is still dead algae in there and the sand filter is not efficient enough to get it out. My thought is that I should possibly change sand in the filter (the somewhat rusted bolts make me think it has maybe never been changed? or not for a while). And I should also floc it again and maybe this time I will be able to see all the debris and i can do a better job vacuuming it to waste.
** The hayward pump is only a year old and is very very strong
** The filter pressure stays at 20psi and never goes up.
** When I back wash now (as I'm told to do it twice a day) the water is very clear - no debris or dirt as I'd seen in past
** My wife swears the pump was operating at 10psi at beginning of year but maybe that was because all the leaves packed in the pump basket?
Sorry - I know this is such a long post - but I wanted to give all the details to try to get this solved. thx much!!
