Another Cloudy Pool Quest

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R

rhuffjr

0
May 21, 2014
9
Newport, North Carolina
Hello Team, first things first, I would like to say thanks for the wealth of knowledge that is on this website. I have read a lot of threads and all of pool school. I have used the advice on this forum and purchased a Taylor K-2006 test kit and got away from the strips! I have also ditched tabs and shock and I am using the BBB method.

I attempted to open my pool a few weeks ago(3-4 to be honest.) It was full of debris and it was black. I have cleared the debris out of the pool and I have it lagoon blue with about 2' of visibility. My wife is about to kill me because the pool is not ready and she is hounding me. I have been brushing the pool daily and I have backwashed my sand filter according to the pressure rise. When I opened the pool I had a CYA of 150 I did a big refill and got it down to 40 now(I was using pool store methods at the time before I found this great website.) When I refilled my TA was 240 which I have been aerating it now for a week and I have it down to 130.


I am using Bleach, Borax and Baking Soda. I am using Muriatic acid to lower PH and TA during my aeration process.

So long story short, my pool is still cloudy and below are my current levels. I am pretty sure I need to SLAM, I want to confirm that before I start. Thanks in advance for you help!

FC .6
CC .4
PH 7.4
TA 130
CH 90(Vinyl pool, wasn't sure if you needed this.)
CYA 35-40
 
The ultimate decider on whether it's necessary or not is the overnight loss test. Remember, only two things consume FC: sunlight and organics. Eliminate the sun by testing after the sun sets and before it rises and if you didn't lose any, you're fine. But if it did drop by more than 1, then it has to be something growing in the pool.

Congratulations on getting the proper test kit, by the way. Doesn't it make life easier?

Most likely all you need at this point is to improve circulation - maybe point one return at the deep end so it stirs up the sediment so the filter can grab it - and improve filtering by adding DE to your filter.

You DO need to raise your FC to at least 3 now, probably closer to 5 so as the sun destroys it, it stays above minumum.
 
Richard320 said:
The ultimate decider on whether it's necessary or not is the overnight loss test. Remember, only two things consume FC: sunlight and organics. Eliminate the sun by testing after the sun sets and before it rises and if you didn't lose any, you're fine. But if it did drop by more than 1, then it has to be something growing in the pool.

Congratulations on getting the proper test kit, by the way. Doesn't it make life easier?

Most likely all you need at this point is to improve circulation - maybe point one return at the deep end so it stirs up the sediment so the filter can grab it - and improve filtering by adding DE to your filter.

You DO need to raise your FC to at least 3 now, probably closer to 5 so as the sun destroys it, it stays above minumum.
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Richard,
Thanks for your quick reply. I will raise the FC level up right now and do the over night test tonight. I had thought about adding DE after reading that in pool school. I have my jets aimed up at the surface still raising my PH from when I was lowering my TA.

And yes the test kit has helped out a lot!
 
TA is the last thing you worry about. Wait until your pool is sparkling and crystal clear and doesn't need anything and you're bored.

Did you see the warning in the TA article? Most people seem to skip past it.
There are two reasons to lower your total alkalinity (TA) right away, because you want to slow down the rate that the PH rises, or if high TA is contributing to a high calcium saturation index (CSI) which puts you at risk of calcium scaling. You shouldn't lower TA just to reach a target number. Make sure you actually have one of the above issues before lowering your TA.
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I did read that, I was at 240 when I started and had read some post here that recommended it be lowered.

I will correct my jets right now also and focus on the more important things. Thanks again for your help!

Richard320 said:
TA is the last thing you worry about. Wait until your pool is sparkling and crystal clear and doesn't need anything and you're bored.

Did you see the warning in the TA article? Most people seem to skip past it.
Click to expand...
 
This pool is getting on my last nerve!

I am right in the middle of the slamming process and I ran out of my Chlorine drops. This is how my pool opening has gone. I have a refill on order.

Last I know my FC was at 18, it seemed to drop by around 4 in 4 hours. My CC was .2! I am kind of flying blind here. I would like to continue to add bleach and try to keep the slam process going. Judging by my 4 FC drop in 4 hours during daytime and my 2 FC drop over night I can calculate what I need.

I have added DE to my filter as suggested, first time I went overboard and my PSI went through the roof so I had to backwash and try again. I can almost see the floor in the shallow end.

I think as my pool gets more and more healthy it will be burning off less and less chlorine. I know I need my kit to test this and without it I am flying blind. I just do not want to lose the progress I have made already. Any suggestions are appreciated.
 
rhuffjr said:
This pool is getting on my last nerve!

I am right in the middle of the slamming process and I ran out of my Chlorine drops. This is how my pool opening has gone. I have a refill on order.

Last I know my FC was at 18, it seemed to drop by around 4 in 4 hours. My CC was .2! I am kind of flying blind here. I would like to continue to add bleach and try to keep the slam process going. Judging by my 4 FC drop in 4 hours during daytime and my 2 FC drop over night I can calculate what I need.

I have added DE to my filter as suggested, first time I went overboard and my PSI went through the roof so I had to backwash and try again. I can almost see the floor in the shallow end.

I think as my pool gets more and more healthy it will be burning off less and less chlorine. I know I need my kit to test this and without it I am flying blind. I just do not want to lose the progress I have made already. Any suggestions are appreciated.
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What test kit do you have? If the pH/FC tester uses yellow drops for the chlorine, you can stay in a holding pattern and not regress by using this as a rough color guide: Blinding tweety-bird yellow is about 10. School bus (construction equipment) yellow is about 12-13. Hunter orange is around 18, up around 25 it starts to look pumpkin orange. I never went any higher than that, but it's been reliably reported that it eventually will turn brown if you get high enough.

If you ordered from tftestkits, your refill doesn't have far to travel at least.
 
Richard320 said:
What test kit do you have? If the pH/FC tester uses yellow drops for the chlorine, you can stay in a holding pattern and not regress by using this as a rough color guide: Blinding tweety-bird yellow is about 10. School bus (construction equipment) yellow is about 12-13. Hunter orange is around 18, up around 25 it starts to look pumpkin orange. I never went any higher than that, but it's been reliably reported that it eventually will turn brown if you get high enough.

If you ordered from tftestkits, your refill doesn't have far to travel at least.
Click to expand...


Richard, I have a Taylor K-2600 kit.

I use powder I think instead of the drops you are talking about?

I will do the best I can until my refill gets here.
 
rhuffjr said:
Richard, I have a Taylor K-2600 kit.

I use powder I think instead of the drops you are talking about?

I will do the best I can until my refill gets here.
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Right, you have two chlorine tests, don't you? The quick test that's part of the pH tester and the good powder test. If memory serves, the K-2006 doesn;t include the yellow OTO chlorine test, so my advice doesn't apply.
 

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Finally made improvements!

FC 6.6
CC 0
TA 140
PH 7.6
CYA 40-50

I have been fighting with this pool for well over a month. I was having to backwash it every day with my sand filter. The sand filter was under sized for my pool so I ordered a brand new DE filter. I over sized the filter with the advice from this website. I went with the Pentair Quad DE 60 filter. With less than 8 hours of run time I went from a cloudy pool to being able to see to the bottom of the deep end. My sand filter was giving me 14psi clean pressure and now I am at 9psi clean.

I did have to backwash one time already. I have researched but have not found a good answer on how much DE to re add to the Quad De filters after you backwash. The manual only refers to cleaning and recharging all of the DE.


I plan to replace the ball valves with a Jandy 3 way valve. I didn't think about it when I ordered my filter. I got the filter and the Multi Port from Poolsonly.com. This was my first time working on pool pumps so take it easy on me. I did plum up the Backwash/waste line today, I didn't have enough fittings to do it last night when I took the pictures.

The most obvious thing I notice is how much more pressure I have out of my return jets. With a 14psi at clean and now a 9 psi at clean would that mean that I have 5 more psi coming out of my jets or is my thinking wrong? Either way I am very impressed with this filter, it cleared my pool in hours when the sand filter couldn't in weeks.

69CAD055-9D86-4AE4-957E-F70C0020F340_zps8xyfta7l.jpg

3D9E0F67-5DC5-4346-8CE3-A1721F863B43_zps9wamou96.jpg
 
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