Cloudy water for over 2 weeks

[Homewatcher]

We have a 56K gallon commercial pool in our community that was opened about 2 1/2 weeks ago. Upon opening it was a green swamp and the pool service people poured in some chlorine and then it turned to a teal/blue green color. Pool was then refilled since it had been drained down for winter. Sequestrants were added to control some of the iron in the water from filling the pool from the fire hydrant. Water has remained cloudy since to the point that you couldn't even see the pool bottom or the main drains which is an unsafe condition. Water clarity is slowly improving by small increments daily but it has been a tedious process and water is still not safe to really swim in. Pool was tested and has extremely high phosphate levels of over 1000 ppb which I believe are continuing to feed the present algae making the clearing process even longer.

In reviewing the various resources on the site, it seems to me that if the pool had been properly SLAMmed and shock levels maintained relative to the CYA that the water should have cleared up much sooner than this. My question is what should be the time frame to turn a cloudy pool back into a crystal clear pool if the proper techniques and procedures are followed.

Thank you in advance for sharing your experiences.

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

If you have killed all the algae, a big if, the filter can take anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks to clear up the water, depending on what kind of filter it is and the flow rate relative to the size of the pool. DE filters are the fastest, sand filters the slowest.

Phosphates are not an issue at all if proper FC levels are used.

 

[Homewatcher]

Welcome to TFP!

If you have killed all the algae, a big if, the filter can take anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks to clear up the water, depending on what kind of filter it is and the flow rate relative to the size of the pool. DE filters are the fastest, sand filters the slowest.

Phosphates are not an issue at all if proper FC levels are used.

Thanks Jason, I believe the core problem is the fact that the algae was not effectively killed. I did not see anyone taking any CYA readings and shocking the pool with the correct ratios relative to CYA. It looks like the pool service people are thinking that keeping the pool at 2-3 ppm FC will somehow be the magic bullet that will eventually cure the problem. When I asked the pool service guy about the CYA levels he dismissed those numbers as unimportant. We have dual sand filters and when working properly the flow results in turnover ever 6 hours and the pump and filters do run 24/7. With the capacity of this system, I would have thought that this pool would have cleared up by now assuming that FC levels were correct for the CYA.