Trying to get rid out my cloudy/murky water

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2000f350

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Jul 13, 2009
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I have a 27' round above ground that has had cloudy water most of the summer. I am looking for advice on how to clear it up and maybe some insight as to what may have caused it. Right now, these are my test results:

pH 7.0
FC 4.5
CC .5
TA 70
CYA 60

These numbers have been fairly consistent for most of the season, except for the TA was low when we opened it. When we opened it, the water looked clear. Within a few weeks, the water appeared to have some sort of fine white particles suspended in the water that would settle out when the pump was shut off. Now, I don't see the white particles any more, but the water will not clear up. We used clarifier some time ago, which may have helped some then, but not enough. Should i use that again? If so, how exactly should i use it? Should the pump be turned off after the three hours it says on the bottle before I sweep the pool?
Please help....
 
How accurate are those test results? What sort of testing method was used?

What chemicals are you using in the pool now? How do you add chlorine and do you use shock products? What are the ingredients?

If you look at the chart herehttp://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock you can see that your FC is too low. That stuff might be an algae bloom ready to happen. You will want to keep your FC above 5.0 at all times. That will mean running it up to 8 or 9 with 6% bleach or 12% "liquid shock" per the Pool Calculator and testing daily to know when to repeat to keep the FC above 5.0 allways.

OTOH if you shock with a cal-hypo "shock product" and the CH is very high, that stuff might be calcium. I'll bet it is algae though.
 
What are you testing with? What is your CH level?

You should do an overnight FC loss test, and if your FC isn't holding you'll need to shock the pool.

How often do you run your pump?
Can you put your pool details in your signature - go to User Control Panel, then Profile, then Edit Signature.
 
ok--I am adding chlorine using the Aquasmarte system. My test results I hope are accurate because I used the TF-100 kit as recommended here. My CH was as I remember around 200. I did not write that down yesterday. My pump runs about 12 hrs. a day. It is a 1.5 HP pump. I have not done the overnight FC loss test yet. I can do that later tonight. As far as shocking the pool, I assume that you mean the Blast from Swimways that I am using weekly. This is based on recommendations from where I bought the pool late last summer. I am also adding the Pool Perfect or Pool Magic stuff that they said would control algea. Is this stuff worthwhile, or is it basically snake oil?

Thanks
 
Aquasmart -- how does that work?

I see that Blast is potassium monopersulphate. I've never used that, no idea how that interacts with anything else.

Pool Perfect and Pool Magic -- in reading the advertisement, I cannot figure out what this is supposed to do, a little bit of everything apparently, from cleaning scum rings to letting you not change the filter, to clearing the water and making it smoother, whatever that means.

Color me suspicious. That all sounds very expensive. "Blast" weekly would cost me $10/week on my pool, before all the other stuff was added in.
I spend less than that on bleach and acid and the occasional trichlor puck or cal-hypo or calcium increaser I use from time to time.
 
Pool Perfect is an enzyme that is good at breaking down oils. Pool Magic is a combination of enzymes and phosphate remover. The enzymes are very handy if you need them, say some oil or paint was spilled in the pool or you use massive amounts of tanning oil. The rest of the time they are not needed. Phosphate remover is never needed.
 
Turn off the Aqua Smart before you do the Overnight Test, because it's adding trichlor chlorine to the water so your results will not be accurate if you leave it on.

What setting do you have it on to acheive 4.5? It must be set pretty high to get that reading, as a setting at 5-6 for 12 hours usually will result in a FC of around 1-1.5. Have you found over time that you must turn up the dial to get a FC reading, or supplment the chlorine with something else to get the FC to register?

The Aquasmart is like the pool frog, and it's adding metals to your pool. You can save yourself a lot of headaches and money by ditching that system and utilizing BBB methods - meaning liquid chlorine/bleach for shocking and not adding unnecessary products to your pool.

I suspect you are on the verge of an algae bloom. I recommend that you shock the pool with bleach/liquid chlorine (see the CYA chart) until the FC holds overnight (with the AS unit OFF) and the CC is .5 or less and the water is clear.

Read this article about the Aquasmart:
http://www.troublefreepool.com/alternative-sanitizers-and-chemical-free-pools-the-truth-t3025.html

And follow these instructions for shocking the pool:
http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/shocking_your_pool
 
I turned the aquasmart off overnight and had 0 chlorine loss overnight. The CC is zero too. I raised the chlorine to shock level using liquid chlorine. I believe it was algae because it felt slightly slimy on the bottom. I brushed and swept it daily for 3 days. The color of the water has changed from murky dark blue to lighter milky color. I've run the pump 24 hrs a day for three days. Now I'm just waiting on the FC to go down, but what do I do now to clear up the milky water?
As of this morning...
FC 20
CC 0
PH 7.4
TA 110
CH 200
CYA 50
Temp 87
 
If your numbers are accurate, it seems as if you have obliterated the algae that caused your problem (0 FC loss overnight and you also were thorough in sweeping, etc. ) Now it remains to remove the residual materials using your filter. I use DE, so for me that's pretty much a no-brainer. The sand filter might need an assist, like a clarifier to help agglomerate the stuff to a particle size the filter is capable of removing. Before you run out to the pool store, wait for a little more advice from the forum. Remember, the problem took time to develop so it is likely to take time to solve.
 

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