very milky pool

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H

hayfarmer

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Mar 29, 2009
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eastern washington state
Hi Boys and Girls... Well not starting the season off to good... I got my pool opened 9 days ago. Took the cover off to find a green pool and Allot of dirt in the bottom... The dirt blow off one of my fields during the winter...before we had snow...
Anyway got the dirt out and got it up to shock level and the filter has been running 24/7 for nine days... it now seems to be very very milky looking. does not seem to be getting any better... Is this the results of the dead Algae.. and will it be filter out... i saw a post on here saying that you have to vacuum the algae out... i can not turn the pump off at night to let it settle to the bottom... I need some good advice on what to do next... my numbers are post and don't look to bad...
Thanks guys/gals
jim

FC 20.5 well above shock level for 40 CYA
CC 0
PH 7.3 7.4
TA 60
CYA 40
 
Have you done an OCLT (Overnight Chlorine Loss Test)?

If you have and passed it, then I'd let the pump run a few more days to see if it clears up. It can take a while for the filter to clear it up after an outbreak.
 
Since you passed the OCLT you can let the FC come back down to normal for your CYA. Going against normal recommendations, you can try a little clarifier. That sometimes helps in particular instances where the water hasn't cleared after several days of filtering. You could also try some DE in the filter if you already have a box of it. If I had the DE I'd try it first but I wouldn't buy a whole box if you don't normally use it.
 
Bama Rambler said:
Going against normal recommendations, you can try a little clarifier. That sometimes helps in particular instances where the water hasn't cleared after several days of filtering..
Click to expand...

:shock:

Actaully, I was gonna suggest it too :oops:

I've used it on occasion. There are 2 basic types. One is "all natural" and made out of chitin. The other is a man-made polymer. I've had better luck with the man made stuff. One note of caution:
Don't overdose it!!!!

Follow the amount on the bottle for your size of pool. It wont change anything right away, so its not going to be instant. Give it 24 hours to work. In this case more is not better.
 
I second bk406's suggestion that calcium clouding could be an issue. Do you know what your CH level is?

Another possibility is something wrong with the filter. This could be something simple like leaving your multi-port valve set to circulate instead of filter, or something more complicated like damage to the main valve or filter that allows debris to bypass the filter. A good way to investigate this kind of issue is to watch you filter pressure. It should be going up over time and the filter might well have needed cleaning/backwashing by now if it is working correctly.
 

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your right the ph might be off because of the high FC. I have not checked the CH because i thought with a vinyl pool it was not that big of thing... I can tell you that we have very hard water in the house... And for the filter I have back washed it many times this year trying to get the dirt off the bottom of the pool. that was before i got smart and vacumed to waste. So I am sure its working because the pressure goes up and then i back wash it and it come back to around 12 psi..

I will check the CH and let you know as soon as i can... I think the last time i checked it, It was like 675 but i will check it again.. thanks everyone
I did put some DE in the skimmer today and it seems to be a bit better....
 
With CH at 230 the milkiness is very unlikely to have anything to do with calcium clouding.

Sand filters can be very slow at clearing the water sometimes. Have you tried adding a little DE so it will catch more of the small particles?
 
Jason i have added Some DE. Put it in yesterday. I am going to give it a few more days and if it dose not get better.. I am going to use a little bit of clarifier.. Its never taken this long to clear up... I kind of wondering about the performance of the sand filter.
would it help if i pull the water off the bottom of the pool instead of using the the skimmer... right now i have both valves open...
Thanks so much...
 
Drawing water from the bottom vs. the skimmer shouldn't affect this situation.

Clarifier is kind of hit or miss. It might clean it all up very quickly, or more likely do nothing at all.

Nearly all of the ways that the filter might be broken would cause the filter pressure to stay constant or go up very very slowly, instead of going up normally.
 
I'm just a newbie but last year I had a very cloudy pool also. Never found out for sure but I think it was mustard algae. In fact I was looking around TFP (before I was a member) looking for some answers. Pool store wasn't overly helpful in this case. I shocked the heck out it using bleach and put Sparkle Up in my cart filter and noticed a difference in a matter of hours. Not crystal clear mind you, but improving. I'm hoping that with help & advice from TFP I can avoid that mess this year. Right now I just hope my pool water thaws out by May!
 
Well i went and bought some clarifier and put in yesterday afternoon... The pool store said they would be very surprised if it did the trick... Well woke up to a clear blue pool this morning... Not sure what was going on put the clarifier WORKED..
Thanks everyone for the Advice...
 
If the particulate matter is very fine and the filter doesn't filter down very low or if circulation is poor, then a pool can remain cloudy for a while. A sand filter has the worst filtering ability of all three types: sand, cartridge, DE. This can be improved by adding some DE to the sand filter, but as you found out you can also use a clarifier which also helps (sometimes).

Whether a typical cationic polymer clarifier works or not depends on what it is trying to clarify. Clarifiers work really well sweeping up negatively charged particles, but they don't do as well with neutral particles and don't do anything at all with positively charged particles.
 
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