Cloudy Water Issues

[DavidNPro1]

Firstly, I have learned a ton from just reading here.

But my troubles seem to remain so I figured I better get some advice.

My pool is a 24 ft above ground round pool with a depth of 48". It has vinyl liner and is filtered by a sand Hayward setup.

Upon opening this year the water remained cloudy so I bought a somewhat better test kit (still HTH) and discovered that the Alkaline and PH levels were extremely low. I added some washing powder and baking soda over the course of a few days and those numbers seemed to come up. However, a few days ago the alkaline levels increased dramatically in what appears to be over night.

So here is where I am now, with a cloudy pool that you can just barely see the bottom of.

Chlorine : 3
Alkaline : 160
PH : 7.2
Hardness 380
Cya : 90 (Trying to get this back down by just regular water replacement and backwash. Switched to using liquid chlorine end of last year.)


From what I have read on here, aerating the water should help lower the Alkaline levels and increase the PH I believe.

Anything thoughts are certainly welcome, as I thought it would have cleared up a little by now at least.

Sorry for the ramble.

THANKS!

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

The TA is not your problem ... ignore it.

Lack of chlorine is your problem.
The required FC level is a function of your CYA level, see the FC/CYA Chart. Your FC is way too low for maintenance and no where near high enough to eliminate the problem. You need to follow the ShockLevelAndMAINTAIN Process and that is going to require one of the Recommended Test Kits that includes the FAS-DPD chlorine test.

 

[DavidNPro1]

Ok, good to know about the TA levels. Wasn't sure if that was high enough to worry about it or not.

I did a quick search on the test kits and it seems that it will take about a week to get ones. All the good ones that use Amazon Prime are sold out.

Is there anything I should do in the meantime? The pool water is not green, just cloudy with what appears to be tiny white specs all throughout it.

I have some bags of shock and a few gallons of liquid chlorine for now. Hopefully I can get a test kit within the next week and get better chlorine numbers. I do not think its even worth checking my local pool places for one.

 

[jblizzle]

Those bags of "shock" may make your problems worse by raising the CYA even more.

The TF-100 is the best value for a test kit. Ships out of NC same day so you would get it pretty quick. See tftestkits.net

Have you discovered Pool School yet? Start with these:
ABCs of Water Chemistry
Recommended Pool Chemicals
How to Chlorinate Your Pool

 

[DavidNPro1]

Yeah I kind of thought that after learning about the issue of CYA that nobody at the pool store ever talks about.

I did order the TF 100 so hopefully it arrives shortly.

Yes, I have been reading those especially the how to chlorinate your pool one. I started last year using bleach (8.25%) to do my chlorinating at the very end of the year. I have some granules as well which are cal-hypo or so it says on the container. But, from what I have read here those add to hardness buy not CYA.

I inherited the care of this pool from my father, he never had much trouble with it last year but I have no idea how much chlorine he was using to overcome the CYA levels since they appear to have a cumulative affect.

Thanks for the guidance so far!

 

[jblizzle]

Sounds like you have a pretty good understanding thus far.
Getting the test kit will clear up a lot of the confusion and help figure out the path forward.

 

[DavidNPro1]

I just received the test kit in the mail.

Over the past few days until it arrived, I just keep adding chlorine based on basically the look of the pool and by diluting the water at a specific ratio and using my crappy test kit as a guide and multiplying. It started turning swamp green pretty much the day I ordered the test kit and did not want it to get to far out of hand.

The pool water is pretty much crystal clear at this point.

FC: 39
CC: 0
CYA: 90-100 (with new test kit, will be trying to slowly bring that down over the next few weeks with back washing and small draining/refilling)

I did not realize I had brought up the FC that high and I am very happy to have an accurate test kit to use now as a guide. So my question is will that chlorine level ever come down on its own? Or do I need to do something about that so I do not damage the equipment (if I did not already).

Thanks

 

[DavidNPro1]

After looking at the CYA shock chart again my numbers really aren't that much to high I suppose...

Hopefully they gradually fall somewhat...

 

[tim5055]

Tonight try an OCLT to see if you have anything growing I the water

http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/136-perform-the-overnight-fc-chlorine-loss-test-oclt

 

[Azgirl71]

Now that the water is crystal clear and your CC is 0 you have a high FC as you said I would do an OLCT tonight and see what your loss is. Check FC after dark and then in the morning before direct sunlight hits the pool so probably 5-5:30 am.

- - - Updated - - -

After looking at the CYA shock chart again my numbers really aren't that much to high I suppose...

Hopefully they gradually fall somewhat...

No they are not terribly off

 

[DavidNPro1]

Well I did not have time to do the test Saturday night, but I tried it last night.

Looks like the FC still dropped about 6 points over night without the filter running or the sun shining on it.

I will keep up the SLAMing for awhile and try the test again in a day or so. There must be some stuff hiding somewhere. I have vacuumed the bottom and it seems to be completely clean and also brushed the side walls and they do not feel slimy at all.

 

[tim5055]

Look for hiding spots. Light niches, hollow stairs anywhere there may be a place for algae to hide.

 

[pooldv]

While you are at it how about adding your pool info as shown here?

 

[DavidNPro1]

I will have to look tonight for hiding algae.

Also, profile should be updated.