Can't solve cloudy issue

[Chewbubba]

Hi, and sorry if this is a redundant topic, but my daughter's best friend is coming to town in 2 days, and she wants the pool to be clean so they can play in it. And Daddy is desperate.

The problem is the water is quite cloudy (difficult to see the bottom). We were out of town for a couple of days (and it finally rained after a couple months of waiting), and when we came back, we turned the pump on and the next day the whole pool is a grey cloudy color. I was afraid that it was algae, so I immediately added some algae killer (it's an alkyl ammonium chloride) and used the Pool Calculator to bring the Free Chlorine up.

That was Friday. It's still cloudy today, in spite of the large quantities of bleach I've put in over the weekend. It's cloudy enough that I can just barely make out the leaves at the bottom, but just barely. This has happened before (not quite as bad), but proper chem levels seemed to take care of it right away in the past. This time, I can't seem to resolve the issue (like I said, this has been going on since Friday). Plus, I ran out of testing drops for CYA, so I just went to Lowes a few minutes ago and got some strips to get by for a bit.

Here's the specs and the chem levels:

It's a 1800 gallon above-ground vinyl pool that's about 30 in deep. I've been using the BBB method successfully and loving it! Well, successful until now... :/

TC - 1
FC - 0.5
pH - 7.6
TA - 110
CA - looks like 0 on the strip

I'm thinking that I just drain the pool, and start over (besides, I've been putting chemicals in it all summer), but I thought I'd ask the experts first.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[jblizzle]

Forget the strips ... worthless.

Quickest option is a drain and refill since time is a factor here. I am guessing your filter may take awhile to try to clear the pool even if everything was dead.

Check out the Temporary Pools article in Pool School for a method of starting up the smaller pools.

Posted from my Droid with Tapatalk ... sorry if my response is short

 

[Butterfly]

Yep, what Jason said

 

[Richard320]

I second that motion. It's a smallish pool, dumping and refilling is probably the cheapest option. And the fastest.

But order up a test kit now anyway, so this doesn't become a habit! She'll outgrow that pool in no time, and you'll be ready to tackle the chemistry on a pool 10X that size.

 

[Chewbubba]

Just in case anyone was wondering, I took your advice and hooked up the hose to the pool drain to drain the pool. 8 hours later, it STILL had about 20% of the water left in the pool. I just couldn't wait anymore. It was already after 7pm, so I started refilling.

Now, the pool is full and the water looks great! I checked the pH (7.2) and added some dichlor (per "Beginners Guide for Seasonal/Temporary Pools"), since I figured chlorine would be zero or close to it. However, I couldn't get it all to dissolve in a bucket of water, so I decanted the water into the pool and scooped the dichlor sludge into some pantyhose that is dangling in front of where the pump puts water back in the pool.

Anyway, thanks for the advice! I'm eager to see it in the morning and test the water again.

 

[Butterfly]