cloudy pool for 5 weeks

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J

jma2013prob

0
Jun 24, 2013
10
Baltimore
Have had metal issues since I opened the pool. Now its phosphates. Its been cloudy since I opened it 5 weeks ago. I never had these issues. Today my water test is
Fc 0.2
Tc 0.3
Ph 7.4
T.alk 110
Cya 25
Phosphate 2500
Pool place said everything else was good. Just can't clear it up no matter what they tell me to do.
 
Your problems are certainly not phosphates and almost as certainly not metals. Mostly you lack chlorine in your pool. You are being "pool-stored"

If you are interested in what we teach, you will, at some point, need to buy your own good test kit and take charge of your pool. We'll help you get it crystal clear but you are going to have to stay out of that pool store.

read "The ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry" up in Pool School.....that'll be a good start.
 
The Sustain tablets are calcium hypochlorite. It adds calcium to the pool, and can cause clouding. I used Power Powder Pro (basically the same thing, just Leslie's brand) when I first moved in to bring calcium up. It clouded my water too.

I don't see a CH number in your test results. If you've been using Sustain, you may have very high CH which will be trouble to keep clear. You'll have to really stay on top of pH and TA.
 
Also, every 'shock' product is primarily some form of chlorine, whether liquid or powder, with additives you may or may not want in your pool. Powder costs much more.

Chlorine is bleach, and is available at different concentrations. Higher = stronger.

You personally can't keep chlorine in your particular pool because most likely it is being used up by killing the algae.
Algae can make your pool cloudy, too. And if not killed, it will grow make your pool green.
Right now, the algae is growing just as fast, or faster than you are killing it. That's likely another reason why you're not seeing improvement.

In a virtually unused, perfectly clean and chemically balanced pool, a Free Chlorine level of 3 is pretty much the absolute minimum. A Free Chlorine level of 5 is much better.

And you post that you are at .2. Are you sure it's not 2 rather than .2?

If it is .2, that's 1/25th of the amount of chlorine required to maintain.

If it's really 2, that's less than half necessary to maintain a clean and used pool, and as the level for killing algae is 15, approximately, you are around 1/8th the amount of chlorine required for the shock process.
Please Read Pool School. Several times. You might start with The Shock Process.

Don't let them sell you products for Phosphates. While it's true that algae feeds on phosphates and other 'debris' in your pool, if you kill the algae, it won't be there, eating and growing at all.

You can keep your pantry full of food, but if no one is home to eat it, it just stays there. Right? Same thing with phosphates in your pool.
 
The problem is too low a chlorine level for too long. Go study up on the shock process in pool school, buya whole bunch of bleach, and have at it. You aren;t too late to have a crystal clear sparkly pool that will be the envy of all who see it by Fourth of July, if you start now and follow directions.
 

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That doesn't sound like much to me at all, but my pool is kind of large.

Keep in mind, for the shock process, you'll need enough bleach to HOLD the shock level. You will likely need many bottles, not one.
 
Don't willy nilly dose here and there either. The pool does not need a break. It needs a steady diet of chlorine to shock levels. It's called a process. Don't let up until it's complete.

Please, do yourself a HUGE favor and buy a TF-100 or a K-2006 test kit. You will need it to complete the shocking process.

Welcome to TFP! We won't pool store you! We don't own a pool store... just a pool! :mrgreen:
 
jma2013prob said:
I am now up to 4 bottles of bleach in the pool. Isn't this gonna be a problem on skin or clothes that gets in the pool?
Click to expand...
Probably not, but how big is your pool? You can safely swim with your pool at it's Cl shock level.

If you complete your signature block with some details about your pool, it'll help folks give you some more accurate answers. Check out my sig block for an example.
 
JMA2013,

According to the Pool Calculator, you've about 10,400 gallons of water in your pool. Once you get the algae killed and the pool cleared, you'll probably be using around a quart of 8% to 10% chlorine bleach per day to maintain safety and cleanliness, just to give you a ballpark idea.

Getting the algae cleared out will require MUCH more. So we hope you are reading Pool School and using the Shock Process to do so.
Good Luck!
 
If your pool store or hardware or big box store sells chlorinating liquid, then that's also OK to use. You can easily compare them to determine which is most economical by dividing the price by the fluid ounces (volume) and divide that by the percent (as a fraction) of sodium hypochlorite in the ingredients. As an example, you might find 121 fluid ounces of the newer concentrated Clorox bleach that has 8.25% sodium hypochlorite selling for $3 and want to compare that to 128 fluid ounces (one gallon) of 12.5% chlorinating liquid selling for $4. The Clorox bleach is $3.00/121/0.0825 = 0.30 while the chlorinating liquid is $4.00/128/0.125 = 0.25 so the chlorinating liquid is more economical (and is less weight to carry).
 

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