Still helping BBB newbie

[RobbieH]

ph=7.5
FC=5.0
CC=0 - .5
TA=120
CH=350
CYA=less than 20

He's adding more CYA today.

Short story - Water is cloudy after a swimmer got in. Can see bottom but whitish cloudy.

Long story - I helped him open his pool this year. It was completely drained when I got there. He sprayed the inside of the pool with straight bleach and brushed with a wire brush to rid the pool of what appeared to be black algae from last year. Resprayed straight bleach after brushing, twice. Filled the pool, brought the pool to shock level with CalHypo (he got a little carried away as evidenced by the CH number) and held it there until we passed the OCLT. Pool came down quickly off shock level, which was no surprise given it's in Texas with zero CYA (at the time) but a little surprising given I hooked up my now unused Liquidator to his pool and filled it with bleach. He added enough stabilizer to bring it up to 20, adding more today (I know, that's repetitive), but his concern was the cloudiness after a swimmer got in. I told him today that the bottom of the pool was full of silt and such and that it would take a while for the pool to clear. I think they just stirred up the fine silt sitting on the bottom and sides.

Thoughts?

This is an 11,000 gallon DiamondBrite pool, cartridge filter. Brand new carts, just rebuilt the filter housing, and of course we installed the LQ.

He is using a TF-100 to test.

 

[Butterfly]

Well, prob silt. However, you can do the OCLT and rule out (or in) oragnics.

 

[duraleigh]

I agree with BF.....likely silt. Swimmers can cloud a pool but one swimmer in an 11k pool is not much of a load so i think there was something on the bottom.

 

[Richard320]

It sounds like someone needs to vacuum more!

I know if I get lazy and just suck up the big stuff, my water will be sparkling. And then I'll make a few passes with the wall whale and raise clouds of dust...

 

[BoDarville]

The cloudiness is likely silt since it was noticeable when the swimmer entered the pool. It's also possible that there is some residual calcium from the CalHypo used when shocking the pool, especially if the shock process was performed within the past few days. CalHypo is slow to dissolve, especially if it is dumped into the pool dry. After using CalHypo (especially for shocking), it is quite common for the pool to appear cloudy for a while, perhaps days, regardless of whether there are any swimmers or not. The CH is on the upper bound of ideal for a plaster pool, so I would continue using liquid bleach exclusively as your chlorine source going forward.

If you pass the OCLT as Butterfly suggested, then I would let the water settle and then vacuum the pool and see if that helps improve the water clarity. That should remove the larger particles. After that, the pool filter should take care of any remaining smaller particles.

 

[RobbieH]

Good point on the residual from the CalHypo. I've only ever used it when I am shocking, so the water was green, not clear. Glad I don't have to do that shocking thing anymore! Butterfly, it passed the OCLT. I didn't figure with pH that dead on and CH at 350, that there would be a problem. Going over Saturday for a visual inspection, if there's still any clouding I'll get pics. Need to get his TA down a little, then I think he will be golden. He fought this pool all year last year, and it ended up being a swamp by the end of the year. He discovered his use of tablets and shock powder raised his CYA to unbearable figures, that's the other reason he drained and started over.