New Pool Owner - need some help with white cloudy water

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S

sfriedman

0
Jul 12, 2016
2
Southfield, MI
Hi All! I'm a new pool owner and looking for some help after ready to give up with the stores and pool builder.

I just got mine finished at end of last season, swam for a couple weeks and had to close the pool. Opened it up a month or so ago and it was pretty cloudy. Pool builder came and shocked it and water eventually cleared up for a few days but then it became cloudy again. I shocked it and it cleared for two days then clouded again. I've been fighting it for last two weeks. Last week I added a total of about 10 bags of burnout, ph up, ph down, CYA, calcium, clarifier etc - nothing seemed to help and it was about $400 worth of stuff. My chlorine levels kept dissapating fast. I couldn't get them to stay above 2 and they kept falling fast. Friday, the pool store owner said I perhaps had a "chlorine demand" and now that I added my free chlorine and total chlorine were withing 0.5, one more shock should do it. I added 6 more bags of burnout and then my pool service company finally came and added 4 gallons of liquid chlorine. On Sunday it was a little clearer but still not so much. My levels were safe enough to swim but still cloudy. After the kids swam, I decide to shock once again and poured in 12 gallons of liquid chlorine. My chlorine level finally shot up really high, though not sure how high since my electronic tester only goes up to 10 and the stick I used turned really dark purple so I know it was a lot more than 10 ppm.

However, pool was still cloudy Monday. I changed my filter for a cleaned one and this morning it started to look a little clearer. I was able to see shallow end (though still hazy) but not deep. Apparently the pool service company came today while I wasn't here. My son said he didn't think he added anything but he did vacuum the pool. It is now fully cloudy again.

I tested my water this evening and here is where I stand:
FC 8.67
TC HI (>10)
PH 7.2
ALY 219
CH 244
CYA 64

What would you suggest I do at this point? Just wait it out? I'm assuming my chlorine will continue to drop fast. Do I shock it some more? If so, do I use burnout or should I get more liquid chlorine?

I'd also like to understand what is causing this.

A few more facts/concerns. I'm wondering if I have a lack of circulation and if my SWG is working properly - it may need to be cleaned - I'm having the builder out tomorrow to help me with that.

I have my pump running on high from 10 AM to midnight then it goes to low speed from 12:45 AM to 9:45 AM.
I have my aux pump running from 10 AM to midnight.

I'm not sure if the builder did a good job laying everything out.

I have two main drains, two skimmers in pool, three returns in pool, two spa drains, one cascade return and eight spa jets.

My main pump is hooked up to pull from either spa drains (spa mode) or two skimmers (spillover or pool mode).
It returns to either spa jets (spa or spillover mode) or pool returns (pool mode).

My aux pump pulls from the main drain and returns to my bubbler in the shallow kiddie area, 4 laminar jets and/or water slide. Most of the time only the bubbler is on.

I am concerned that since we generally leave it in spillover mode, it's only pooling water from the top of the pool (skimmers) and returning it to the spa. The water at the bottom of the pool may not be filtered so well. Therefore I run the aux pump most of the time which pulls water from main drain in deep and returns to bubbler in kiddie area. I am having the builder put in a flow meter so I can confirm that pool is changing over properly but not sure if the circulation system is an issue.

Any help you can give will be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Welcome! Good to have you here :smile:

If you adopt Trouble Free Pool Care, you'll be entirely able to fix the problems you describe. The more reading you can do in Pool School, the easier it will be to understand what's going on. It will all come together with your own effort and a bit of help from some new friends here at TFP. This is a good article (just the first post and description of TFPC).
TFPC for Beginners

To do this, you'll need a recommended test kit. I'll save the sales pitch, haha! Order this kit, along with the XL option and if you can swing it, the speed stirrer. TFTestkits.net

This kit is what you'll need to do a SLAM to be sure will kill off all the algae that is eating up the chlorine delivered by your SWG. You'll pay for the kit with savings by using commonly available and lower priced pool chemicals, and avoiding expensive pool $tore potions.

In the meantime, it's great that you have the chlorine holding better in the pool now. That will stop it from getting any worse.

Quick question... out of all those pool $tore bottles, were any copper based algaecides used? We do not use these because of the problems they cause, but we need to know if there might be any copper in the water, which can make things tricky.

The first priority is to get the water right, and then later everything about the plumbing can be sorted out. It's more likely chemistry than plumbing causing issues.

Ask any question, make any comment, that comes to mind. Lots of people here that will be happy to help out.
 
needsajet said:
Quick question... out of all those pool $tore bottles, were any copper based algaecides used? We do not use these because of the problems they cause, but we need to know if there might be any copper in the water, which can make things tricky.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the welcome. I've ordered the TF-100 test kit but in the meantime am using my LaMotte ColorQ Pro 7. Is that not a good test kit? While I know it is limited to testing chlorine only up to 10ppm and I need higher for SLAM, I find it easier to use the digital reader then trying to match colors. Am I wrong about the accuracy of this test kit?


I checked the empty bottle of algaecide that I have and I don't see any copper listed. The algaecide was BioGuard - I think Backup 2.

Water looked better today. Still hazy but I was now able to see the bottom of the pool.

This morning my numbers were:
FC 8.81
TC 9.61
PH 7.5
ALY 149
CH 232
CYA 63

After work (and with pool open all day) they were:
FC 7.18
TC 7.35
PH 7.5
ALY 141
CH 198
CYA 64

So seems like my CC is low enough. I'm hoping the clearing of the water continues and I don't have to SLAM.

Will update tomorrow.

Thanks
 
I looked up the msds on Bioguard backup 2 and apparently there are several types. One has copper for sure.

You will love the new kit. There is only color "matching" on the pH. Some people who have trouble with the tf100 pH test use their Lamotte for pH. Almost any kit will test pH correctly.

If your water is hazy, that's something that needs to be addressed. You also may need to add some CH, but let's get our kit in and go from there.

- - - Updated - - -

And yes, supplement with liquid chlorine/bleach.
 
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