Washing soda = cloudy water??? new numbers

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Is there something to do about the hardness? Its well water...no water softener installed.

There is still alot of washing soda residue on the bottom of the pool. My kids get in and splash around and get it all mixed up...so its getting filtered...but with that little pump...it will take forever. I"m rinsing out the filter since its getting clogged with the residue. The water is sparkling clear in the morning until they jump in. Is it okay for them to be swimming in it? Their not complaining about anything.
 
yes, it's just calcium carbonate that precipitated out by the reaction between the high calcium in your water and the washing soda (sodium carbonate) you added. Calcium carbonate is the main ingredient in antacids like Tums!
 
I needed to shock the pool tonite after having a heavy bather load yesterday and today. My CH is still high at 500 and TA is still high at 300. Water is still cloudy. What can I do? Even if I drain part of the water and replace with new water...its still going to be with well water...and its still going to be hard. Our water is hard out here. I'm tired of seeing the water so sparkling clear in the mornings until my kids jump in and stir it all up and they swim in cloudy water all day long. I'm rinsing out the filter about 3 to 4 times a day, but its not filtering fast enough. I'm getting frustrated.
 
Try dropping your pH to about 7.0 and see if it that helps. It might dissolve some of the calcium back into the water.
The high calcium will not be a major problem if you do two things:
First lower your TA to about 60-80 ppm--there is a sticky on it.
Keeping the TA very low will help compensate for the very high calcium levels.
Second, watch your pH very closely and don't let it EVER get above 7.8. Try to keep it around 7.5 once the TA is down. This will help prevent the pool from clouding again.
There are calcium hardness reducers you can buy but they really don't remove the calcium, they just make it unreactive so it doesn't cause problems. These products take several weeks and repeated doses to work but they eventually do. You have to keep adding maintenance doses however. They work in exactly the same way as metal removers. (calcium IS a metal and these products are more specific for calcium than coper or iron but otherwise the same.)
 
New numbers up! I added 15oz of muriatic acid about 10am and checked the numbers about 11:30am:
TC-5-10(as I shocked the night before)
pH 7.2
TA 250
CH 550(I think I didn't do it right the day before)



Added 8oz of muriatic acid again at 2pm and tested at 3pm:
FC 4
TC 4
CC 0
pH 7.0
TA 220
CH 550

off to see if fil will let me use his air compressor to make some aeration in the pool.
 
Did u ever beat it? Iam having the same problem. Pool lovely and clear in the morning, get in the pool within 30secs so cloudy. I wished i had never put in this PH+ I have been empyting half the pool, hovering the pool cleaning the filter still no luck, Pool is in shock so iam hoping this might help?

My test strips are showing PH at 7.2 but reading your posts I bet they are high.. if I upgraded the pump would this help?
 

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Wow! What a story! I KNEW you were in trouble when I saw you were putting SO much washing soda in a little 4000 gallon pool!

Your T/A was already high and your pH was dangerously low. I would have added Borax--for your size pool I would have used one box and waited a few hours, checked the pH and added another if it was still in the mid 6's. If it was close--like 6.8, I would have added a half box.

I never recommend adding ANYTHING in large amounts other than chlorine for just this reason. Always add slowly and have a target you don't want to overshoot. With a super-high T/A and a high calcium level, milky water is hard to avoid. Add to that a dangerously low pH and you have to get pH to a safe level FIRST before you can fix the other problems.

With 4000 gallons, you probably would have been better off just refilling. My first 3 years as a pool owner I had a 15'x3' Intex donut and made a lot of mistakes there. In the 2nd year I found PoolForum (SeanB was years from starting TFP) and changed my approach. The 3rd year I NEVER had a water problem.....unless you consider coming home from vacation and finding a solar panel hose was leaking and the pool lost over half its water.... :rant:
 
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