Newbie here! Really need simplified help! Cloudy pool.

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georgiadawg

georgiadawg

Well-known member
Jul 15, 2014
114
Eastanollee GA
Pool Size
24
Surface
Vinyl
SWG Type
Intex Krystal Clear
Hi, never ever had a pool before, so I'm totally lost and the more I read, the more confused I get!

The problem is cloudy water. Not green or anything. Just cloudy. Can still see bottom, but it's hazy. Here is my info. Please help me.

16' x 48" above ground proseries metal frame vinyl pool. 5060 gal capacity.
Skimmerplus 1500 pool pump with filter cartridges. Changed those three times already. (Pump runs at least 8 hrs a day, but since water turned cloudy have pretty much been running non-stop)
Intex Krystal Clear Saltwater System 15,000 gal
Filled with municipal water, not well.

Here are my numbers:
Alk 210 (I know that's high)
PH 8.4 (I know that's high)
FC 4 (good, right?)
Hardness 100 (low? And is that important?)
CYA 80
Copper is .2

When we started with the pool (bought it three weeks ago) my alk and ph were low, so I added baking soda. PH was perfect to start with, but alkalinity was slightly high. Haven't done any other treatments (other than initial salt and CYA) because I was unsure exactly what to do, and almost everything I read referred to chemically chlorinated pools, so I didn't know how that applied to saltwater chlorinated pools. Now ph and alk are too high and I don't know how to fix it. Please Advise with the assumption that I know absolutely nothing about pools, and probably won't understand abbreviations or industry slang. I've done the boost on the saltwater system but not sure if that even mattered since my FC was ok to start with. Please help.
 
Last edited:
I'll get the ball rolling and welcome you to TFP. To get started lets get started in pool school with some reading of http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/123-abc-of-pool-water-chemistry. Your going to need basic understanding of what's talked about in there.

Second lets get you familiar with pool math. - Link always at the top of the site - http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html

How to use pool math-
1. Enter your gallons in the upper left.
2. There are different sections for FC, PH, TA, CH, CYA, etc.
3. Look at the top, above where you entered gallons, there are 2 columns. One column for your current reading, and another column for your goal reading, what you WANT it to be.
4. Fill in the numbers for what you want to do and it tells you what to add. There are also pull down windows to adjust for various strengths of the same chemicals, like Chlorine and muratic acid.

Example. Entering 5060 gallons, with a now PH of 8.4 and a goal PH, of 7.4, it tells me to add 11 oz of 31.45% muratic acid. If I change the pull down window to 15.7% muratic acid it now tells me to use 21 oz.

Also, at the bottom of pool math there is a section for "Effects of adding chemicals" where you can put in an amount in oz, and select a chemical from the pull down list and it will tell you the estimated effect that will have on your water. Your gonna really really want to learn pool math, don't just brush it off waiting for someone to tell you exactly what to add and how much.
 
Even if you don't do any reading right now, learn pool math....Look at my example and see if you can duplicate my results.

scott.MI said:
Second lets get you familiar with pool math. - Link always at the top of the site - http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html

How to use pool math-
1. Enter your gallons in the upper left.
2. There are different sections for FC, PH, TA, CH, CYA, etc.
3. Look at the top, above where you entered gallons, there are 2 columns. One column for your current reading, and another column for your goal reading, what you WANT it to be.
4. Fill in the numbers for what you want to do and it tells you what to add. There are also pull down windows to adjust for various strengths of the same chemicals, like Chlorine and muratic acid.

Example. Entering 5060 gallons, with a now PH of 8.4 and a goal PH, of 7.4, it tells me to add 11 oz of 31.45% muratic acid. If I change the pull down window to 15.7% muratic acid it now tells me to use 21 oz.

Also, at the bottom of pool math there is a section for "Effects of adding chemicals" where you can put in an amount in oz, and select a chemical from the pull down list and it will tell you the estimated effect that will have on your water. Your gonna really really want to learn pool math, don't just brush it off waiting for someone to tell you exactly what to add and how much.
Click to expand...
 
georgiadawg said:
I read and re-read both of those links before I ever decided to post. I don't know if the sheer volume of info, but I walked away more confused than before.
Click to expand...

Once you do your first test and start adding chemicals everything makes much more sense. I was the sane way a week ago; read everything multiple times but it clicked ounces I got the test kit and started having to apply everything.
 
We know this can seem a bit overwhelming, but so is learning to drive a car and many other things in life, just hang in there and we can help, but there is a certain base of knowledge you need. Chances are you cloudy water is chemistry related, and is likely due to having too low of FC for your CYA level, with an SWG pool your target FC should be 6.0 ppm with a CYA level of 80 ppm. http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/128-chlorine-cya-chart-slam-shock

Having said that thing 1 I would do is get the pH in line, If you don't have one you really need to order one of our suggested test kits, I use the TF-100, see my signature for the link, then I suspect a SLAM will be in order.http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/125-slam-shock-level-and-maintain-shockingl but first you probably should do an OCLT test http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/136-perform-the-overnight-fc-chlorine-loss-test-oclt You need the FAS-DPD drop counting chlorine test included in our suggested test kits in order to perform both the SLAM and the OCLT, then can not be done with color matching Chlorine tests.
 
I don't know what you mean by SLAM.

- - - Updated - - -

I;m not bushing it off! I wouldn't be asking questions if I didn't want to learn. It just has things I don't understand. And doesn't tell me, for example, what I need to address to fix the cloudiness. So, I don't know what chemical or what to add first.
 
Welcome to TFP !
I can see your head is spinning already ! We'll have to take things slow so you don't get info overload.
First I have a quick question for you. Are those test results from a pool store or a test kit ? If they are from a test kit, what test kit are you using ?
 
First, I was using the test strips that came with the Intex saltwater system. But they only gave me FC, PH, and TA. (The 3-way strips) and then a separate strip for copper. After reading all the info here about strips, we tried to get that hth 6 way mentioned at walmart, but they were sold out at our local walmart, so my husband got AquaChem smart strips. They gave me the readings I posted (except for the copper). But I compared the ph and TA with the results from previous strips and they were comparable. He is going to try to find the HTH kit tomorrow at another walmart.

- - - Updated - - -

What does 'shock FC' mean? On that chart, it says for a CYA of 80, the Target FC is 6 like you said. After that it says shock FC of 31. What does that mean?
 

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Ok that's what I thought. Now I'm going to recommend that you consider getting one of the test kits mentioned above. The reason being is that we need good accurate testing that one those kits can provide you. We can fix this for you we just need you to be able to test your water accurately.
Shock level FC means that is the chlorine level to kill algae. That is another reason we need you to have one of those kits mentioned so it can test high chlorine levels.
Also keep reading the ABC's of pool water chemistry. You'll understand it the more you read it.
 
Ok. I really feel stupid now. I went to the link on Isaac 1 signature. But there are so many test kits, my head is spinning. How do I know which one I need. I don't mind the expense as long as I know I'm getting what I really need in the kit, w/o getting a lot of things I don't need.

Also, will it do any harm to add bleach in the meantime? While I'm waiting on kit to get here? (I guess that TF100 would be what I need?) And do I just pour that straight into the pool, dilute it first, or what?
 
Get the TF-100 kit. It's the one I use along with many other people here It's the best value. Get the XL option along with it. You order it at TFTestkits.net.
I don't want you just adding bleach or anything else until you get the kit. You need to know why your adding chem's and the affects of them. You need to learn to use pool math to figure out how much of bleach to add or anything else.
Order the kit and keep reading and playing with pool math till it arrives.
 
I know muratic acid is available at home improvement stores (paint section) and pool stores....I don't think I've seen anyone mention wal-mart.

Bleach, yes you can pour it directly into the pool. Add it slowly with the filter running and pour in infront of your return (the stream of water comming into your pool from the filter.
 
Ok. Just ordered what you suggested along with salt test strips. Will post back when I get kit and do the testing.
Yes, you can see the bottom of the pool with no problem. It's just cloudy clear. If that makes sense.
 
georgiadawg said:
Ok. Just ordered what you suggested along with salt test strips. Will post back when I get kit and do the testing.
Yes, you can see the bottom of the pool with no problem. It's just cloudy clear. If that makes sense.
Click to expand...

Yes that makes sense and congrats on making a big step in learning to maintain your pool.
Just help us out and do your reading until the kit arrives and then post up a full set of test results and we can get this fixed up for ya. ?
 

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