Water Cloudy - Was getting clear - Chlorine got too low...

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kkhill34

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May 9, 2012
12
Athens, Georgia
Hi everyone. My name is Kerry and I live in Athens, Georgia. I've been lurking around this forum for awhile. Excellent info here! Well, this is my second year with the pool. Last year, I had the water crystal clear and sparkling. This year, I haven't got it to that point yet. I was using trichlor pucks and dichlor shock. From now on, though, I'm going to stick with liquid chlorine. I wish I had found this forum sooner. Because now, my CYA is way too high, so I'm having to add an excessive amount of chlorine. I just received my new TF-100 test kit in the mail today. I love it! I got the speed stirrer with it and I couldn't imagine doing the tests without it. Anyways, here are my test results -

CYA - 130
FC - 26
CC - 1.5
TC - 27.5
Alkalinity - 150
Calcium - 150

So my combined chloramines are at 1.5. Those need to be at zero, correct? I shocked it the other day. And I brushed all of the green spots off of the liner. Today when I looked, I can kind of see the green trying to come back. Tomorrow, I'm off work and I'm going to shock it again. I also want to try the borax this year. I keep hearing good things about it. Should I do the borax last or if I go ahead and get the borates up now, will it help to inhibit algae growth?
 
Re: Water Cloudy - Was getting clear - Chlorine got too low.

Welcome to tfp, kkhill34 :wave:

Butterfly beat me again :rant:

Yes, your cya is very high, how did you measure 130? The tf100 only measures to 100?

To get a better idea of how high your cya is you can do a diluted test as follows:
If your CYA level is 90 or higher, repeat the test adjusting the procedure as follows:

Fill the mixing bottle to the lower mark with pool water.
Continue filling the mixing bottle to the upper mark with tap water.
Shake briefly to mix.
Pour off half of the contents of the mixing bottle, so it is again filled to the lower mark.
Continue the test normally from step 3, but multiply the final result by two.
Click to expand...

You are going to need to do a partial drain and refill. Do you have a high water table?

I will answer the rest of your questions, but you need to get cya down before you do anything else.
kkhill34 said:
So my combined chloramines are at 1.5. Those need to be at zero, correct?
Click to expand...
We want to see them below 0.5 ppm.
kkhill34 said:
I shocked it the other day. And I brushed all of the green spots off of the liner. Today when I looked, I can kind of see the green trying to come back. Tomorrow, I'm off work and I'm going to shock it again.
Click to expand...
Make sure you read and reread the shocking process. Again, get cya down first then do the shocking process.

kkhill34 said:
I also want to try the borax this year. I keep hearing good things about it. Should I do the borax last or if I go ahead and get the borates up now, will it help to inhibit algae growth?
Click to expand...
Wait to do borates until you have your pool under control.
 
Re: Water Cloudy - Was getting clear - Chlorine got too low.

MAN ... I am way slow on this one apparently ... here are my thoughts that seem to mimic the previous responses.

:wave: Welcome :wave:

Good choice on the test kit!

I do not see your pH. That is pretty important to make sure it stays in range.

So how did you arrive at a CYA of 130, thought it maxed out at 100? I would suggest you use a 50/50 split of pool water and tap water and retest CYA and double the results to get a good feel for the CYA ... that is the most # to know to keep your pool under control. Given that it is too high, your best option is to do a partial drain and replacement of water to get the CYA in the 40-50ppm range. Keeping a clear pool with CYA > 90ppm is extremely difficult.

I would not add anything to your pool until your CYA is at a reasonable level, since you may end up draining it anyway.

Also, it does not sound like you are following the shock process ... it is not just a 1 time addition of chems. Review Shocking Your Pool
 
Re: Water Cloudy - Was getting clear - Chlorine got too low.

My pH is about 7.5. The way I came up with 130 is by visually seeing where the level on the CYA test was below 100 on the cylinder. I'm gonna try the half tap water, half pool water CYA test tomorrow, though. My pool doesn't have a drain on the bottom, so I can only drain to the bottom of the skimmer, then refill. So, I have to drain a little at a time. I'm gonna spend a lot of time tomorrow draining and refilling over and over. And yes, you're correct, I haven't been following the shocking process outlined here, but I'm gonna go to Sam's Club tomorrow to stock up on bleach, so I can get the CC below 0.5. Thanks for the advice guys!
 
Re: Water Cloudy - Was getting clear - Chlorine got too low.

Many people without a main drain use a submersible pump to lower the water. At cya of 160, i would get a pump. Just draining to the skimmer will take a ton of water, since it will be many drain and refills and will take you more than 1 day. Do you know your water table?
 
Re: Water Cloudy - Was getting clear - Chlorine got too low.

linen said:
Many people without a main drain use a submersible pump to lower the water. At cya of 160, i would get a pump. Just draining to the skimmer will take a ton of water, since it will be many drain and refills and will take you more than 1 day. Do you know your water table?
Click to expand...

About how much money would I be looking at spending for a submersible pump? Any recommendations on where to buy one from?
 

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Re: Water Cloudy - Was getting clear - Chlorine got too low.

jhever said:
I rented a submersible pump at Home Depot for about $45 for the day. It pumped about 3,000 gallons per hour.
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Thanks. I ended up getting a 1/6 hp utilitech pump at Lowes. I paid $82 for it. It pumps about 1500 gallons per minute. I've got the pump in the shallow end pumping water out of the pool while simultaneously refilling with fresh water at the bottom of the deep end. I did it this way so I won't have to worry about liner damage. My CYA has already dropped a good bit, sitting at around 100 now. I'm just gonna keep going like this and test it every few hours til I get it down to 50 or 60.
 
Re: Water Cloudy - Was getting clear - Chlorine got too low.

That is a good approach :goodjob: I am assuming you are keeping your pool pump off while doing this? That should help keep the two different cya concentration areas from mixing as much, which is what you want.

Keep up the good work, it will be well worth it!
 
Re: Water Cloudy - Was getting clear - Chlorine got too low.

I saw this in another thread, made a lot of sense to me.
JamesW said:
What you might want to try:

1) Put a small submersible pump in the deep end with a garden hose connected to carry the water out of the pool.

2) Cover the pool with a large sheet of plastic.

3) Begin adding water on top of the sheet of plastic, and begin pumping water out of the deep end using the submersible pump.

4) Adjust the fill speed to match the drain speed.

The plastic sheet will slowly descend into the pool as the water fills on top and drains from below. Make sure that the plastic is large enough to accommodate the full surface area + the depth + a little extra. Once you have exchanged enough water, turn off the pump and fill hose, and pull out the plastic.

If you fill and drain at the same time (at the same rate) without the plastic, it will still work, but it's less efficient.
Click to expand...
 
Re: Water Cloudy - Was getting clear - Chlorine got too low.

macgulley said:
I saw this in another thread, made a lot of sense to me.
JamesW said:
What you might want to try:

1) Put a small submersible pump in the deep end with a garden hose connected to carry the water out of the pool.

2) Cover the pool with a large sheet of plastic.

3) Begin adding water on top of the sheet of plastic, and begin pumping water out of the deep end using the submersible pump.

4) Adjust the fill speed to match the drain speed.

The plastic sheet will slowly descend into the pool as the water fills on top and drains from below. Make sure that the plastic is large enough to accommodate the full surface area + the depth + a little extra. Once you have exchanged enough water, turn off the pump and fill hose, and pull out the plastic.

If you fill and drain at the same time (at the same rate) without the plastic, it will still work, but it's less efficient.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
linen said:
That is a good approach :goodjob: I am assuming you are keeping your pool pump off while doing this? That should help keep the two different cya concentration areas from mixing as much, which is what you want.

Keep up the good work, it will be well worth it!
Click to expand...

Thanks! Yes, I've got my pump off. That sounds like it would work really well with the plastic. I just don't have any plastic to use and I'm too lazy right now to go and get any. :)
 
Re: Water Cloudy - Was getting clear - Chlorine got too low.

I just thought about something else. I've got my water level just below the skimmers. To get a correct reading on CYA, I'm going to need to turn the sump off, refill to skimmer level, and start my pool pump to let it recirculate for a while, right?
 
Re: Water Cloudy - Was getting clear - Chlorine got too low.

If I understand your question, yes, you will have to add water to change your CYA concentration. However, if you add water now it will only take longer to get to your goal. Drain the amount of water you think you need to get to your target CYA level before mixing in the fresh water.
 
Re: Water Cloudy - Was getting clear - Chlorine got too low.

macgulley said:
If I understand your question, yes, you will have to add water to change your CYA concentration. However, if you add water now it will only take longer to get to your goal. Drain the amount of water you think you need to get to your target CYA level before mixing in the fresh water.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply, but I was asking basically after I refill with water and start recirculating, how long do I need to recirculate before I take another cya reading.
 
Re: Water Cloudy - Was getting clear - Chlorine got too low.

Okay, I've got the CYA down to 80. I think the level was a little higher than I thought it was originally. One more partial drain and refill should do it. I'm dreading the water bill for next month. :|
 
Re: Water Cloudy - Was getting clear - Chlorine got too low.

Getting better! Yes you use a lot of water with the method you chose. You might want to check with your utility and see if they would wave the sewer charge on the water you used. Of course you would need to know how much you used.
 

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