need help with chemicals, cloudy green forever

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poolcrazy1979

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Jul 18, 2013
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Hi, I'm new to the forum and need some help with my chemicals. We had a pool party about a month ago and it's been cloudy green ever since. It's inground 12,500 gal (about 4 yrs old) and we're in Texas with 100+ temps and sun all day. I've been shoxing it and adding algae killer and just now learned that the CYA level was very low. We just put liquid conditioner in it 2 days ago. I'm heading to the store for a better water testing kit today but have been using the regular chlorine/ph drop kit plus aquachek test strips. Now the CYA is low normal and it's still cloudy green. We shoxed it yesterday (powder) and no change. The drop kit says we have good total chlorine and ph, but the strip says we have no free chlorine at all. I've been reading online and I'm just not sure who to listen to and in what order to do the steps. We've been running the pump (not a salt filter) at least 15 hours a day for a month. What i'm getting from online is that I need to add liquid bleach and some kind of oxidizer to break up the mixed chlorine but I'm pretty sure we have algae since it's a light green cloudy color. So what do I do first and do I have to wait before adding different chemicals or just dump them in all at the same time? Just today the strips said the alkalinity is on the high normal side but i'm not sure if that has to do with the added CYA or the fact that it just rained last night (the 1 time of year it will rain here). We rarely ever cover it and have an automatic cleaner. Also while I'm doing all this chemical balancing, how should I use the cleaner, not use it at all and run skimmer/main drain all the time or both?

we've never had the water cloudy for this long before and I hear horror stories about asking pool supply stores, so I'm reaching out... Thanks for any help you can give. I really appreciate it!
 
Welcome to TFP.

You've come to the right place. The first thing to do is order a good test kit. There's a link in my sig to the best place to get one from.

What are the ingredients of the powder you've added?
How much of it have you added total?
How do you normally chlorinate your pool?

Ultimately what you need to do is SLAM your pool. You can't do that without the proper tests. You have to have the correct kit to get them. It's very rare that a pool store will have them. They will however, tell you that the one they have is the same. It's not unless it has the FAS-DPD test. It uses powder and drops. If the kit they have doesn't use powder it isn't the right kit.

With some time and patience you can get and keep your pool perfectly clear.
 
Welcome to the forum.

First off, the answers to a lot of your questions are in pool school. Upper right corner of every page. We will be happy to help you with your pool specific questions, but there's too much to retype here. There's a lot of information, so don't expect to get it on the first time through. Reread it several times.

If your pool is cloudy green, you aren't holding FC because it's all being used up killing the algae in your pool. You need to follow the SLAM process (see pool school) to get rid of it.

In order to do the SLAM process, you need a good test kit. Strips are basically worthless. Most pool stores aren't much better. If you post a complete set of test results we can trust, we can help you take back your pool. Read over some of the "Defeating Algae" threads and that will help you see what has to be done.
 
First step is you need to order a good test kit, which you will not find locally. You can order from the link in my signature. Next step is to read pool school a few times while waiting for your kit. Especially read ABCs of pool water chemistry, defeating algae and SLAM-Shock level and maintain. Once you get your test kit, you will need to follow the SLAM article to the letter.
EDIT: Wow, I need to get faster at typing. At least I have some links, which take time to find and put in my response.
 
Thanks for all the links.

Ingredients of the powder I've added: see below for tabs and shock
How much of it have you added total? Since a month ago have added approx 6-7 bags of shock, 3 gallons algea killer.
Normally chlorinate pool: Three 3" floating tabs Step 2 KemTek (trichlor-s-triazinetrione 95%, inert 5%, 85% available chlorine) and Super shock n swim 3 (calcium hypochlorite 52%, inert 48%, available chlorine 49%) once a week, but have shocked 2x week for a month.

My floater did totally run out of tabs for a couple days while on vacation, but have been replaced for 2 weeks.

I'll post test numbers when I get the right kit.

Thank you all!
 
Here we go...
FC - less than .2 (clear)
TC - 2.0
PH - 7.6
Alk - 150-160 (accidentally added 2 drops the last time at once and it turned clear)
Water hardness - over 2000? (added 40 drops and water was very light blue)
CYA - less than 20

I'm not sure if this will have anything to do with any of the above but it poured over 2 inches through the day and is still sprinkling (very odd for El Paso).

What I get from the results is that I need lots of free chlorine (6% liquid bleach), need to increase CYA (already put in 1 gallon of conditioner from pool store 2 days ago), and I have REALLY hard water so I need to empty part of the pool (please tell me I'm wrong on that part!)

I tried to do the acid test but my PH was 7.6 and directions said to add 1 drop at a time until color "nearly matched PH color standard." I'm not really sure what the color standard color is since I thought 7.6 was almost perfect...so HELP, what do I fix first, etc.? Thanks for any help in advance!
 
Still need some advice... I cleaned out the filter this morning, added a gallon of clorox and tested again tonight, running pump/baracuda 24/7: FC 0.2, TC 0.6, PH 7.4, Alk 150, hardness 800+ (15 drops barely registered blue, didn't realize shade of blue it had to be until later). CYA is 10.

So what do I try to fix first, free chlorine, CYA or hardness. It is still a light shade of cloudy green, so there's also a bit of algae... I read that shocking it increases the hardness (did about 6 times in a month), do I really need to empty part of the pool to get the hardness level down? Please help!
 

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poolcrazy1979 said:
Still need some advice

So what do I try to fix first, free chlorine, CYA or hardness. It is still a light shade of cloudy green, so there's also a bit of algae... I read that shocking it increases the hardness (did about 6 times in a month), do I really need to empty part of the pool to get the hardness level down? Please help!
Click to expand...

I would do what Jason said and start the SLAM process and get your CYA up. The lower CYA means you can SLAM at a lower FC level but yours is a bit low so raise it while your are doing the SLAM. Lots of people manage pools with high CH levels. I wouldnt doubt that your source water is pretty high CH to begin with. Stop going to the pool store and read Pool School.
 
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