High TA, now cloudy water... suggestions?

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Bah... forgot to post my 1am results, but they were:
FC dropped from 12 to 10.
CC still = 0.5

Added about 11oz bleach.
===============

Home from work now.
FC dropped to 4
CC stil 0.5

Since the FC was low i decided to test the PH to see if its still ok, it's at 7.5 now, raised a little since yesterday's 7.2. (i did read about this not being accurate during slam, but is it accurate when the FC drops to normal like 4?)

Added about 42 oz bleach (per poolcalculator). Brushed sides and will vacuum in about an hour. Still no noticeable difference in cloudyness though, none.

2 questions for you folks:

1. Should I put the cover on the pool in the morning to minimize FC loss from sunlight while I'm at work?
2. Or should I target a higher shock value than 12 since the FC is dissipating so quickly?
3. Or should I raise my CYA level from 25 maybe up to 30-35?

OK, that was 3 questions... since I'm on a roll, how about 4?

4. Would algicide help, hurt, hinder, or do nothing at this point?

Thanks!
 
The pH test is accurate when the FC < 10ppm.

1. That could help some, although you might see the CC build up a bit.
2. You could go a little higher, although at higher FC levels, you will lose more ppm to the sun.
3. Raising the CYA would provide a little more protection.
4. Just lighten your wallet. Algeacides are like insurance against algae starting ... no real help in getting rid of it.
 
Haha.. my wallet is plenty light, so I'll keep algicide as a preventative.
This is my fault for not starting to chlorinate & clean sooner. the water was below 65° all winter, but "spring" here in San Diego was 92° today! Summer is early!

OK, anyway.
Almost dusk, no sunlight on the pool.
FC is 14
CC = less than 0.5!

I could not find a Unicel filter anywhere close by me, but I did find a Pleatco one. The admitted it was not as good as Unicel, but most of the distributors have switched over for some reason.
Still... just by looking at it I can tell it's miles beyond the Intex filter quality. This time, when I vacuumed, i did NOT see a stream of dirty water going back into the pool.
To be fair though, the bottom wasn't as dirty as i've vacuumed the last 2 days... still, I think it should improve things more now.... i hope.

Two things the store folks mentioned to me, is that:
1. If I put the cover on the pool, then the gasses are not being released into the air, but trapped back in the pool... (hence the CC going back up?)
2. If I keep the FC up at 12 too long, it'll damage my vinyl pool. Might be better to just refill.

So my question now is, if I cannot keep my FC above 10 or 12 while I'm at work, will the pool stay cloudy?
Or is it OK since it only seems to be going down to 4 or so by the time i get home?
And... should this process take a week for a pool my size?

Hoping for better results with the new filter, still gonna try to find a Unicel online though.

Thanks!
 
Forget the algaecide, only useful if you neglect the pool.

They are sort of correct about the cover, but wrong about the pool being damaged. It will be fine if you follow the SLAM process.

Eventually the cloudy water just needs filtration time. The process takes as long as it takes.
 
I like my pleatco replacement filters better than my original pentair filters. Easier to clean, clog up less, flow more, last longer and the pool looks the same with either set of filters.
 
Home from work.
FC dropped to 7
CC= 0

i was hoping with the new Pleatco filter there would be some noticeable difference in the cloudy water, but it hasn't even been a day with it yet.... so.. .I'll hurry up and wait.
Gonna add about 30oz to bring FC back up to 12-ish.

So, once the algae is fully dead, what makes the cloudy water turn clear?
I'm assuming it's the filter removing all the dead algae?
In which case, my old crappy Intex filter was just putting it right back into the pool.. so this is kinda like starting over from that sense. No? Yes? Maybe?
 
Eventually it does depend on the filter to remove all the dead stuff from the water.
This is one reason many people upgrade to the Intex sand filters as the cartridges are just so small ... you likely need to be cleaning it pretty often.
 
WOW!

OK, i just went to clean the cartridge, it's been in there for about 17 hours.
It was fully caked with all sorts of slimy gray/greenish scum... the intex filter caught NONE of this for 3 days!!
Hosed it off, added bleach and will repeat at dusk.
Think I might wanna raise my cya to 40 to keep the FC lasting a little longer.
Should I wait until this is cleared up ya think?
 

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Do you have a pressure gauge on the filter? Did it go up? Ideally you want to clean it when the pressure rises 20-25% over the clean pressure. Previously members have found a need to clean carts (especially small ones) every couple hours.
 
Hi JB,

No pressure gauge. My pump is just the little Intex 1000gph standup version.
http://www.amazon.com/Intex-1000-Ga...&qid=1427497077&sr=8-1&keywords=intex+1000gph

I just vacuumed the pool though, and for the first time, I can actually *kinda* see the blue vacuum brush on the bottom.
Granted, it's a very vague, dark, blurry blob... but before I couldn't see it at all... like it just fell into the abyss!
The new filter seems to be helping, I actually have hope now that there is a light at the end of the tunnel!
 
Only dropped about 5 FC from 1am until 11am, so 10 hours, maybe 4 or 5 in sunlight.
I did add a little stabilizer last night to hopefully help the FC burnoff while I'm at work.
I've read this may take a week to show up on tests, does it take that long to affect the chlorine too?
I'm thinking either there is less algae or the stabilizer actually helped... maybe both.

Anyway, I can see perhaps the top 5 or 6 inches of water pretty clear now.
The filter is having much less scum on it each time i clean it.
If it keeps clearing up at this rate, maybe it really could be clean by next week?

Hoping.
 
Adding CYA during a SLAM will require you to increase the amount of chlorine you dose with to maintain. If you added enough (using PoolMath) to raise your CYA to 40, your new chlorine level is 16. You should add enough liquid chlorine to get to that level and not let it fall below that. Good luck to you!
 
jblizzle said:
How are you normally chlorinating? It is VERY unusal for the pH to continually drop unless you are using tichlor or dichlor which we do not recommend as the sole source of chlorine.
Click to expand...

I know the OP's still finishing the SLAM process, but he uses a cover quite a bit on the pool. When I had a cover on my pool in Tucson, my pH always stayed low.

Danimal67, concentrate on the SLAM for now, but when you get done SLAMing, you need to lower your pH quite a bit and aerate to lower the TA. Cover off. With the cover on, you aren't going to get your pH to rise so you can add more muriatic acid to bring down your TA. When I SLAMed my pool a couple of weeks ago (I also love covering my pool to warm the water), I put in a lot of muriatic acid to help lower the TA, since I needed the cover off and water circulating for the SLAM. It helped get down the TA a bit. If you're aerating your water during the SLAM process, you could get away with adding a bit of muriatic acid to get a start with lowering the TA. Your pH readings won't be accurate with high chlorine levels though, so if you're not comfortable with that, don't worry about it.

I would completely stop using any pH UP or anything else to raise the pH until you get the TA down.
 
@North. Yes, i did read about increasing the FC level along with raising the CYA. I didn't add enough to get to 40 though, probably 30-35 (from 25). So i'm targeting FC of 14.
Problem is, I am not home enough to maintain that level. For example, I was gone today from about noon to 8pm, FC dropped from 14 to 8. CC raised from 0 to 0.5 again though. =(

- So what is the effect of NOT maintaining the shock FC level of 14? I suspect it's just making it take longer to kill?
...Or is there a more dire consequence?

@iFlyJetzzz
I'm not using the cover at all during this process, thanks for the heads up though, appreciate any and all suggestions!
I'm not aerating either yet until I get the slam done, nor am i having to add any PH Up since I stopped using the trichlor pucks... i had no idea they were raising the PH and CH levels... live & learn!
I will aerate & use muriatic acid once this algae problem is cleared.

Why don't they make chlorine pucks that don't add CYA/CH or any other junk? Like... a puck made out of pure dried bleach?

Cheers!
 
They can't make dried Bleach pucks because Chlorine has to have a binder. Usually those are Calcium, or Cyanuric Acid.

Not keeping your levels at SLAM specs will cause you to slow down the process, quite a lot depending on how much and how often you let it drop. Algae is always trying to recover too, so if the FC gets low enough, it start growing again. Stay on it, as much as possible and it will come around.
 
Thanks Patrick,
Bummer, they can put a man on the moon but they can't make a chlorine puck without bad binders.
OK, so short of buying a $200 Liquidator, what do the rest of you folks do when you are gone for a week or 2?

Current overnight FC loss was 14 down to 11.
Trying to keep on it best I can. Looks like I might have gained another inch of visibility in the water too.
 
You mentioned algae is trying to recover, so it can actually recover in anything less than the cya/fc level from the chart?
In my case, about FC14.

I had asked about adding algicide earlier, and somebody mentioned it wont kill whats already there, chlorine does that.
But is there any advantage to adding some to keep that new algae from trying to grow while i'm at work for 9 hours or so when the FC drops below 14?
 

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