In the past, I have followed what the pool place said to do, got all the levels right, and then turned off the filter overnight. Everything would drop, I'd vacuum and it would be perfect. It would only take a couple of days. So easy. This year, however, it's all messed up.
First off, my pH - which is usually low - was too high. No big deal, I just added the muriatic acid and it was fine. I did everything the pool place said - including floc (which I had never used) - got it all balanced. But when I shut off my filter, nothing fell. So, I continued to wait. Slowly, green globs started floating to the surface until it was nearly all covered. I added a lot of shock, it got all foamy, and the globs kinda disentegrated. But it stayed a cloudy green. And my pH fell.
We were having filter pressure problems, and the pool place recommended changing the sand. We did that and the pressure has stayed constant (so far). But, still really cloudy. The chlorine level was staying at 0, though. I was running out of shock (and $$$) so I started looking online for cheaper solutions. I found this place. I decided to use bleach. While my husband went to get the bleach, I added some pH plus. WHen my husband got back from the store, I poured 108 oz in (what the pool calc said) and nothing happened. Later I poured the rest of the 174 oz jug in. I just tested the water using the Wal-Mart hth strips and here's what I got -
TH - 200
FC - 2
pH - 8.4
TA - 120
CYA - 30-50
It's now a cloudy greenish color.
Any suggestions?
First off, my pH - which is usually low - was too high. No big deal, I just added the muriatic acid and it was fine. I did everything the pool place said - including floc (which I had never used) - got it all balanced. But when I shut off my filter, nothing fell. So, I continued to wait. Slowly, green globs started floating to the surface until it was nearly all covered. I added a lot of shock, it got all foamy, and the globs kinda disentegrated. But it stayed a cloudy green. And my pH fell.
We were having filter pressure problems, and the pool place recommended changing the sand. We did that and the pressure has stayed constant (so far). But, still really cloudy. The chlorine level was staying at 0, though. I was running out of shock (and $$$) so I started looking online for cheaper solutions. I found this place. I decided to use bleach. While my husband went to get the bleach, I added some pH plus. WHen my husband got back from the store, I poured 108 oz in (what the pool calc said) and nothing happened. Later I poured the rest of the 174 oz jug in. I just tested the water using the Wal-Mart hth strips and here's what I got -
TH - 200
FC - 2
pH - 8.4
TA - 120
CYA - 30-50
It's now a cloudy greenish color.
Any suggestions?
Sounds like you had a lot of leaves and debris, so this could take some time, but it will clear. I wouldn't shut off the filter at all. You should be leaving it run 24/7 while shocking. Whatever isn't heavy enough to fall to the bottom, your filter should be able to get. What are your latest numbers? As far as bleach, I would check the local pool store if you have one. They'll usually sell bottles of liquid "pool shock" which is the same as the groc store bleach only it has a higher concentration, usually 12% instead of 5 or 6%. You can use the bleach calc to figure accordingly. Like I said before, it will GREATLY help you to get a test kit that can test for higher chlorine levels. You will never know for sure what your nightly FC drop is otherwise. A consistent FC level is the KEY to a quicker cleanup.