New to Site - Cloudy Water

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sooneraia

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May 2, 2011
18
Just located this forum, I will be here regularly. My problem, first off I have a liner pool (white), in-ground, lagoon shape, 30,000 gallons, sand filter, chlorine feeder (tabs), live in Oklahoma so it's kind of chill now. I just opened the pool a week ago, pool guys put some shock in (didn't tell me), pool has now taken a blue-green color and is cloudy. Today's numbers (from the local pool store) are:

Water temp 70
TDS 1500
CYA 99
Tot Chl 0.5
Free Chl 0.5
ph 6.7
Tot Alk 171
Tot hardness 231

I will try to attach some photos if I can. Problem is, the cloudy look. Should I pump up the chlorine?

Also, I have been donating lots of cash to the local pool store, I am serious about using this BBB method this year.
 
If you are SERIOUS.........go ahead and order one of the test kits mentioned here. Best money you'll ever spend on the pool. Your CYA is possibly a LOT higher than 99-which is gonna require massive amounts of bleach to clear a pool that size. Pool store numbers generally aren't that reliable to begin with.
See the CYA /chlorine chart in pool school for shocfk levels.. You will probably be better off replacing half the pool water now to cut the CYA level at least in half before trying to shock it. Your TA is about twice as high as it needs to be, and your PH is too low. Do some reading in pool school to see how to fix those. Welcome to the club.
 
Well if the numbers are to be trusted Chlorine is way too low, your CYA is too high and you likely have an algae outbreak. This will be very hard to fight with CYA levels this high, you are going to likely need to replace at least 1/4 (maybe 1/2 or more as the CYA tests only read up to 100 so it may be much more) of your water to lower the CYA level, and then avoid things that will raise is (stabilizer, dirchlor or trichlor chlorine products). Once you lower your CYA level through water replacement you can begining shocking with liquid chlorine/ bleach until the algae is dead. Read up on pool school and clearing a swamp.

Ike

p.s. with a liner pool the general adice is not never drain more than a couple of feet of water then refiill and repeat to lower your CYA, always keep at least a foot of water on the liner to aviod wrinkles and other problems.
 
Duplicating much of what the others said:

There are a number of problems here.

First, the PH is too low. You need to raise PH back up to at least 7.5, preferably 7.8 if you are going to continue using trichlor tablets (see below).

Second, your CYA level is way too higher. Worse, many CYA tests max out around 100, so your actual CYA level might be higher. You want to get CYA down to something much more reasonable sometime soon. You also need to think about how your CYA level got that high and decide if you want to continue using products like trichlor tablets that constantly raise CYA, forcing frequent water replacement.

Third, your FC level is way too low.

You are going to need to shock the pool. Doing that will be much easier if your get the CYA level down first. The only practical way to reduce CYA is to replace water.
 
Guys, that CYA number can't be right. I went back and looked at all my test reports over the last couple of years, probably 15 - 20 of them, and every one of them has a CYA of 99. Same number every time. That can't be right? Right?
 
Sure it can if there test reading maxes out at 99 or 100, if your CYA is really, 100, 120,150, 200, etc. You might try taking a couple of more samples in dilute pool water 1:1 and 2:1 with tap water which will have no CYA. and have them just check the CYA level.

Ike
 
Sooneria...welcome to TFP :wave:

Sure that CYA number may not be right, but it is likely higher, rather than lower. That said, your best bet is to invest in a good testkit. I recommend the TF100 (in my sig) or the Taylor k2006.

If CYA is close to 100, you are looking at replacing approximately 30% or more of your pool water, to reduce it to manageable levels (70ppm or below). CYA dictates your shock FC level and once you reach 90+ on CYA, shocking becomes a really difficult and uneconomical task, given so much chlorine is needed.
 
Well this morning it looked a little better, not much. I finally got my chlorine up to around a 3.0 (via my small tester). I will take another water sample to the pool store later this morning to see what they show, and post those numbers.
 

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If your CYA is really 99 (I'm guessing it's higher) and your FC is only 3 you are not going to make much progress.

I highly recommend as well you get your own test kit and do a partial drain/refill to lower the CYA level. Then start maintaining shock level according to the CYA Chlorine chart. IF you want to clear the pool - you are going to need ALOT more chlorine and achieve a much higher FC level - 3 is no where near your "min" much less shock level. Hope this makes sense.
 
So is it possible to have a clear pool with a high Cya number? Probably a dumb question. I just know that, as I mentioned earlier, every single one of my pool store tests showed a Cya of 99, not a single bit of variation, not 85, 95, 98, nothing but 99. I am wondering if they even test that or if they just throw a number in there. Thanks.
 
It would not be the first time they just threw a number in there. I wouldn't trust it at all. I was the victim of bad pool store testing.

(Perfectly clear water and CYA over 100 at the time) Yes - entirely possible to have clear water and too high CYA. Won't take much for the clear water to turn cloudy/green in no time. Can happen overnight.
 
OK. So I go to the pool store to get my water tested, the following results:

TDS 1600
CYA 99 (They said it was more like 120, bot they always show 99)
Tot Chl 8
F Chl 8
ph 7.6
Alk 195

Alk, a little high but no biggie. I brought up the high CYA number and they were not in the least concerned, even went so far as to say ideal range is 30-200.

So I dropped my level a little (about 12" below the skimmer), removed all the chl disks from the system and have been pumping the liquid bleach (6%) to it. I have put in 8 bottles so far. I am also brushing the sides and bottom. I will continue to work it and see how it goes. The pool store recommended flocculant to "capture the suspended algea particles".
 
sooneraia,

The very high CYA in your pool is making your chlorine less effective. Hence, your shock process will require a TON more chlorine and likely take longer as well.

I would suggest you drain and refill in several small increments until you get your CYA down to around 50ppm. It will then be very manageable and the chlorine you put in their will do the job more quickly and more effectively.

If you decide to go this route, you can stop your chlorine additions for now and then restart when you get to 50ppm CYA.
 
Many people come to this forum with the exact same pool store story you are telling, at some point high CYA levels become unmaintainable at which point the pool store will tell you something like your water is stale and needs to be replaced, etc. Until then they will be glad to sell you far more chemicals than you need to compensate for that high CYA. The common pool store method goes something like this:

Start with fresh fill, add assorted start up chemicals

Sell the customer Tri-chlor pucks because they are easy to use either in a floater or an inline chlorinator

Everything looks good for a while

CYA levels slowly creep up

Chorine is no longer able to provide effective saniation at the pool store suggested ranges (also note these are the ranges that are easily tested on an OTO or DPD chorine test kit)

Pool store tells you some story about chlorine resistant algae and sells you expensive algaecide

Algaecide may or may not work, combined with dunping in some "shock" if not they sell you more

They then tell you to dump all the water and start from fresh with more new start up chemical


Around here we skip all the middle steps of dumping lots of money into the pool for a temporary fix and jump right to the base of the problem the high CYA levels.

Ike
 
Your pool looks much like mine did in this post, notice the green cast to the water.

looking-for-assistance-on-a-green-pool-t29391.html

My CYA was too high as well, after draining some water and lowering the CYA, the shock worked very quickly.

Once the water was blue but still cloudy, I used Pool First Aid by Natural Chemistry and the water was crystal clear overnight.
41t8OeKr9VL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


I wish you the best.
 
Is it OK to do a combo drain / fill? I read where you can drain (using a sump pump) while filling with a hose. I have concerns about dropping my level way down, then filling back up (partially because with the water pressure I have it would take forever to do). Today the pool is a little better, but still not there. Also, I would imagine I can get some test strips to test for CYA at the pool store or Walmart? I need to get a better kit.
 
Sure, you can drain at the same time you are filling. This is most efficient if you drain at one end of the pool and fill at the other, but it doesn't actually make a huge difference. Remember that one or the other (draining or filling) will go faster, so you need to keep an eye on things and adjust things so the water level stays more or less constant.

This approach works well up to about a 50% water replacement. Replacing more water this way can be a waste of water, as the higher the total replacement percentage goes the less efficient this process is.

I strongly recommend getting a real CYA test, and not using test strips. Test strips have problem at the best of times, and are especially bad at measuring the CYA level. Getting a top quality test kit is well worth the money.
 

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