New owner…Can’t get rid of cloudiness

[Chop999]

Hello everyone, I need some help, please. This is my second year with a pool. After opening it was crystal clear for a couple of weeks. Now I can’t see past about 16” deep in water due to white cloudiness. Pulled auto over back two days later and it was cloudy. Since then I have added liquid chlorine to shock it over the weekend and the next day only had combined chlorine. Then I used Natural Chemistry Pool First Aid for 48 hours to try to attempt to clarify and it didn’t work. Cleaned filters and shocked again yesterday evening and today I show no free chlorine again. The only other item added to the pool was an initial dose of Orenda SC1000 scale remover sometime last week prior to cloudiness. I used it all last season though with no issues. Took a sample to a locally owned pool store today to check versus my test and they suggested adding 3 bags of powdered shock to break the “chlorine lock”, leaving the pump in high, cleaning filters daily. Any help or suggestions is appreciated.

 

[Texas Splash]

The FC of zero is a big red flag (algae). I would recommend adding liquid chlorine ASAP to gain an FC level of about 6-8 ppm. Keep it there all day then do an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test.

 

[Mdragger88]

As pat said, you need to do an
Overnight Chlorine Loss Test at target fc levels
FC/CYA Levels to confirm or deny algae. If you fail the oclt it’s
SLAM Process time.
& stay outta the pool store! Adding “shock” either increased your ch if it was calhypo (too much ch causes scale!)
Or your cya if it was dichlor.
At a cya of 30 you definitely don’t have “chlorine lock” (which is a made up pool store term btw)
Do you have visible scale? If not there is likely no need for the expensive scale removal potion keeping csi in check is usually sufficient for prevention & correction.

 

[Mdragger88]

Also, looking at your poolmath logs it’s hard to believe you’re cya went from 50 to 30 being as you have added liquid cya & dichlor since it was 50 2 weeks ago.
Lets be certain you’re performing the test correctly

CYA - Cyanuric Acid Test

Cyanuric Acid (CYA) is the chemical name for what is commonly referred to as Stabilizer … Read more…

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Chop999]

As pat said, you need to do an
Overnight Chlorine Loss Test at target fc levels
FC/CYA Levels to confirm or deny algae. If you fail the oclt it’s
SLAM Process time.
& stay outta the pool store! Adding “shock” either increased your ch if it was calhypo (too much ch causes scale!)
Or your cya if it was dichlor.
At a cya of 30 you definitely don’t have “chlorine lock” (which is a made up pool store term btw)
Do you have visible scale? If not there is likely no need for the expensive scale removal potion keeping csi in check is usually sufficient for prevention & correction.

@Mdragger88 @Texas Splash

I had a scale issue last year. Using the scale remover stopped the issue after cleaning the salt cell didn’t completely do it. Then I started watching my CSI thanks to TFP educational resources. I’m definitely still learning with it being just my second pool season. I appreciate your advice though. I usually don’t go to the pool store unless I need some salt, liquid stabilizer, or bagged shock. I used dichlor since my CYA has some room to increase and the liquid chlorine didn’t seem to be doing the job. May have been the wrong thing to do but seemed logical at the time.

I read up on the CYA test. I’m still not sure about it though. I used the test bottle of known 50 CYA value and redid the test. But I can still see the dot faintly at the bottom of the test tube. I was doing it until I completely couldn’t see it. So still uncertain on that one.

With the advice you two gave me, I’ve been doing the OCLT, SLAM, brushing, vacuuming, and cleaning filters. My water is now clear. Thank you!!!! I still have some CC though so I am keeping my chlorine high for a while longer. Take a look at my logs and let me know if you see anything else I may be doing wrong. You guys are awesome.

 

[Mdragger88]

Chop,
It’s ok to use dichlor occasionally so long as you know what it will do & desire those effects - use
PoolMath effects of adding to see what effects it has on all the parameters in your pool.
Doing the cya test is a little tricky but if your sample looks like the 50ppm standard then you have 50ppm.
The idea is to know what the endpoint looks like - once you have that sorted you’ll know no matter where it falls.

Have you passed the
Overnight Chlorine Loss Test?
Your fc & cya is all over the place in poolmath so hard to tell if you’re doing the
SLAM Process.
Slam level fc for 50ppm cya is 20ppm.
You want to Maintain that fc level multiple times per day until you pass all 3 end of slam criteria. The more often you test & replenish the faster it goes.
As For the cc’s - clean your beaker before your next test with alcohol then rinse it well to ensure your not contaminating it with old nasties & skewing the test.
For the scaling & ch - with a fiberglass pool & a heat pump you’re kinda in the “do not add” category. Around 200ppm ch is generally sufficient. Too much causes scaling.

Calcium Hardness - Further Reading

www.google.com

What is the ch of your fill water?

 

[Chop999]

Chop,
It’s ok to use dichlor occasionally so long as you know what it will do & desire those effects - use
PoolMath effects of adding to see what effects it has on all the parameters in your pool.
Doing the cya test is a little tricky but if your sample looks like the 50ppm standard then you have 50ppm.
The idea is to know what the endpoint looks like - once you have that sorted you’ll know no matter where it falls.

Have you passed the
Overnight Chlorine Loss Test?
Your fc & cya is all over the place in poolmath so hard to tell if you’re doing the
SLAM Process.
Slam level fc for 50ppm cya is 20ppm.
You want to Maintain that fc level multiple times per day until you pass all 3 end of slam criteria. The more often you test & replenish the faster it goes.
As For the cc’s - clean your beaker before your next test with alcohol then rinse it well to ensure your not contaminating it with old nasties & skewing the test.
For the scaling & ch - with a fiberglass pool & a heat pump you’re kinda in the “do not add” category. Around 200ppm ch is generally sufficient. Too much causes scaling.

Calcium Hardness - Further Reading

www.google.com

What is the ch of your fill water?

That’s a great question. I’ve never actually tested my full water for anything. I’ll do that later today. Good point also on the CC beaker. I hadn’t thought of that. My wife sometimes does the tests so some of the CYA differences could also be accounted for by that. I’ll need to show her the standard as well so we are on the same page.

I have not passed the OCLT. I’m trying to do the SLAM process though. My schedule has been all over the place, so I’m adding and testing as often as I am able to but haven’t been able to hold it high enough. Should be able to do a better job of it this weekend.

 

[clambert1273]

I just wanted to chime in on the CYA test. It was the hardest for me to master until I really dug deep into posts here over the years. The easiest way for myself is I mix the sample then grab my skinny tube with the dot. I go into my yard & find the sun then whichever way it is I move to that spot in the yard & turn my back. I then hold up my dot tube and fill to first line (100 I believe) then I lower it to my waist & look across the yard at something for a sec then glance down to my tube quick and look away again. If I saw a dot, then I raise my tube and fill to next line and so on. There is no guessing this way it is either visible or not "trust me" lol.