Water clarity

[tcat]

Just curious how clear water should look at night near a light. During the day water looks very clear. At night bottom drains look clear, but near the lights water looks like it's full of dust (or microscopic air bubbles). Normal? My CC is testing close to .5, so there's a bit of something in the water.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Your pool light will highlight the turbidity of your water because of the intensity and angle of reflection. In daylight, you don’t see it because the incident light is coming in at all angles and the reflections off of particulates are evenly distributed as well. So it all looks clear.

It’s very hard to get water clear enough so that the pool looks clear at the light. The filters we use just aren’t capable of producing that level of clarity. Turbidity can only be improved with the use of both chemical and mechanical filtration and it is not recommended nor necessary to go to such lengths.

It’s a swimming pool, not a potable drinking water source. It sits open to the environment all day where it is contaminated with everything under the sun … just be thankful for chlorine and move on.

 

[tcat]

Kind of what I figured. Since the outdoor furniture gets a layer if dust once a week, the pool gets it too. I have DE filter with fFiberclear, so it's probably as good as it's going to get.

 

[Newdude]

I use the pool light as my secondary tester. If the water is dusty or has algae, the size of the cloud in front of the light will allude to the intensity.

Here's the tail end of a SLAM



Almost there, notice the slight tail extending out.




Done




In the spring, fall or when it's breezy, it's just impossible to have perfect water with the lights on. It can take a few days for the particles that blew in to find the filter. Some don't move as the water moves around them, they sit there suspended like and take their sweet time finding the filter. When they finally do, chances are more have been added in the meantime and the process repeats.

You won't ever know if its algae or dust/pollen, but if you ever see that little bit of cloud forming, go over your basics.

Water tests good ?
FC holds as expected ?
Have not dipped near min ?

Then either raise your pump runtime and/or RPMs, or have a beverage and wait it out.

 

[tcat]

Yes, slamming is a science! Had my FC at 25-30 for 2 or 3 days (CYA 60), OCLT pass and CC<.5. Turned heater on, water went from 70 to 84, now CC is 1 and FC dropped from 25 to 16 in one night. Going to see if my salt cell at 100% can get FC back to 25. Hate buying chlorine these days!