Pool a bit hazy after rain and Sahara dust cloud

[Orion7319]

Hello, first post. I am relatively new to owning a pool, we bought our house with a pool in July of last year. The pool was a mess, needed a new liner and new steps because the old fiberglass steps were busted and leaking and the water was green when we bought it. We also upgraded it to a salt system (the pool walls were some sort of polymer not galvanized metal) So obviously new water. After two recent rain storms my pool got a bit hazy, the pool has never become hazy after a rain before. We have lots of trees and get lots of pine needles in the pool. Also we had the Sahara desert dust storm come though and the rain supposedly dumped a lot of the dust to the ground. My free chlorine levels have never been below 3 and my combined chlorine levels have never gotten above 0. My question is should I shock the pool, or use a clarifier or something to clear it up? I’m a bit confused as to rather or not I should boost the chlorine levels with shock or bleach. I have used the boost feature on the salt generator to boost the levels a bit. I am pretty sure the haze is due to either the dust from the air or from the trees.
I have a Taylor 2006 test kit and use the pool math app. Levels are as follows.
FC 5.5
CC 0
PH 7.4
TA 80
CH 70 (don’t care about this it’s a vinyl liner)
CYA somewhere between 50-60 (pool gets partial shade most of the day, still kinda trying to figure where it needs to be)
Salt 3300
Temp 85

 

[Msch99]

Welcome to TFP!
Looks like your in pretty good shape.
I would do an OCLT. Overnight chlorine FC loss test To see if you have something going on.

 

[Orion7319]

Welcome to TFP!
Looks like your in pretty good shape.
I would do an OCLT. Overnight chlorine FC loss test To see if you have something going on.

Thanks, will do! I checked it this morning before the system turned on and the chlorine was the same as the day before. I’ll check it tomorrow morning as well. I check the chlorine and PH every day or at least every other day and all the other chemicals at least once a week. Last summer I replaced all the sand in the filter and I backwash it when the gauge tells me I need to or when the pool overfills after a major rain storm. I threw on a skimmer sock today, which I did during the spring for the pollen and it is catching some gunk, but not clearing the haze. What I’m not sure about is rather or not I should I boost the chlorine every now and then for a salt pool for maintenance purposes and to try to clear this haze. I don’t like bringing the chlorine up very high with this pool unless it’s absolutely necessary because it can take days for the chlorine to fall back to a safe level due to all the shade the pool gets. I wonder if I should try to use a clarifier, however I don’t like throwing a bunch of chemicals in the water just because (lessons learned from having kept aquariums for many years). I am contemplating trying to help the filter out a bit with some DE, but don’t have any on hand at the moment. Anyway I suppose what I’m trying to ask is if I bump the chlorine up will this help clear haze from dust and is trying a clarifier a bad idea or should I just give the filter more time to work?
Thanks!

 

[Msch99]

Did you follow the link? See below. The oclt requires checking at night then in morning.

To perform the overnight FC loss test:

1. If you have an SWG, tablet chlorinator, or other chlorine feeder, shut it off completely.
2. After the sun goes down, and at least 30 minutes after your last chemical addition of the day, test your water for FC using the FAS-DPD test making sure your FC level is at least above 3ppm.
3. Record that result. Do not put any more chlorine in your pool.
4. The next morning, as early as practical and definitely before there is any direct sunlight on the pool, perform the FAS-DPD FC test again and record the results.

If your FC level remained the same, or went down by 1.0 or less, the water is clean. There isn’t any living algae or other organic contamination in the pool.

If you lost more than 1.0 ppm of FC, then there is something in the water that needs to be removed and you should SLAM, or continue SLAMing, the pool.

Good Luck!

 

[Orion7319]

Did you follow the link? See below. The oclt requires checking at night then in morning.

To perform the overnight FC loss test:

1. If you have an SWG, tablet chlorinator, or other chlorine feeder, shut it off completely.
2. After the sun goes down, and at least 30 minutes after your last chemical addition of the day, test your water for FC using the FAS-DPD test making sure your FC level is at least above 3ppm.
3. Record that result. Do not put any more chlorine in your pool.
4. The next morning, as early as practical and definitely before there is any direct sunlight on the pool, perform the FAS-DPD FC test again and record the results.

If your FC level remained the same, or went down by 1.0 or less, the water is clean. There isn’t any living algae or other organic contamination in the pool.

If you lost more than 1.0 ppm of FC, then there is something in the water that needs to be removed and you should SLAM, or continue SLAMing, the pool.

Good Luck!

Will do. I couldn’t check the levels last night as I had to work, but it was at 5ppm yesterday morning and at 5ppm first thing this morning, and my CC was at 0. In the meantime I decided to go ahead and boost the chlorine up to around 10ppm with some cal-hypo, for the day and shut off the salt cell. I don’t want it to go so high we can’t swim over the 4th holiday, if it is indeed clean. According to the pool math app where my CYA is, it should be safe to swim in up to 9, so I’ll let it drift down a bit today. I understand what your method is getting at, and I will check it tonight and tomorrow morning and compare, but I’m a bit confused as I thought that CC was an indicator of stuff living in the pool, or is that just an indicator of organic matter in general?
Thanks again

 

[Msch99]

Not an expert but my understanding is that cc measurement is organics attacked by CL that haven’t been burned off by UV yet. (In my simple layman’s mind)

FC loss >1ppm overnight is best indicator that CL attacking and converting something usually algae. If losing CL and increased CC definitely an issue.
An expert may rip this explanation to pieces lol.
BUT in this case the what to do more important than understanding scientific details. Grin wink

 

[MITBeta]

From what I've read many times on this site, it's safe to swim in chlorine levels up to the SLAM value for your CYA. So you should be good to at least 20.

 

[Orion7319]

From what I've read many times on this site, it's safe to swim in chlorine levels up to the SLAM value for your CYA. So you should be good to at least 20.

That’s good to know! Thanks for the info! I won’t worry so much then if I have dump a lot of bleach or shock tomorrow. Right now the pool seems to loose about 2ppm on a warm sunny day when I shut off the chlorine generator which is way more then it did last year when I bought the house and the CYA was over 200

 

[Orion7319]

Not an expert but my understanding is that cc measurement is organics attacked by CL that haven’t been burned off by UV yet. (In my simple layman’s mind)

FC loss >1ppm overnight is best indicator that CL attacking and converting something usually algae. If losing CL and increased CC definitely an issue.
An expert may rip this explanation to pieces lol.
BUT in this case the what to do more important than understanding scientific details. Grin wink

I’m going to do that tonight and tomorrow. I added a bit of clarifier, let the robot run all day and bumped the chlorine up to around 9 or 10 ppm. It’s completely in the shade now and reading 7... will see what it is in the morning. The haze is starting to clear up considerably, and I’m going to run just the pump all night. Hopefully it passes the FC loss test. Only thing is my PH is creeping up... I am always adding acid to this pool....

 

[Msch99]

PH rise may slow down some when use MA to bring PH and TA down.

 

[Orion7319]

Did you follow the link? See below. The oclt requires checking at night then in morning.

To perform the overnight FC loss test:

1. If you have an SWG, tablet chlorinator, or other chlorine feeder, shut it off completely.
2. After the sun goes down, and at least 30 minutes after your last chemical addition of the day, test your water for FC using the FAS-DPD test making sure your FC level is at least above 3ppm.
3. Record that result. Do not put any more chlorine in your pool.
4. The next morning, as early as practical and definitely before there is any direct sunlight on the pool, perform the FAS-DPD FC test again and record the results.

If your FC level remained the same, or went down by 1.0 or less, the water is clean. There isn’t any living algae or other organic contamination in the pool.

If you lost more than 1.0 ppm of FC, then there is something in the water that needs to be removed and you should SLAM, or continue SLAMing, the pool.

Good Luck!

Last night
FC 7
CC 0

This morning
FC 6.5
CC 0.5

I am assuming the CC level now being at 0.5 is because it can’t burn off at night? I have never checked my levels this early in the morning, lol!
The good news is that the pool is clear again! At least as clear as it’s ever been. I don’t know if adding a pound of Cal-hypo or the clarifier cleared it up. At any rate I think I will “shock” (boost the chlorine levels) the pool every now and then and not just rely on the salt cell. Also I’m going to play around with using a bit of DE in the sand filter, as this could just be this filter isn’t as efficient as it should be, and I don’t want to add clarifier to the pool regularly. Thanks for educating me about the FC loss test, I’m glad I apparently don’t have anything living in the pool

 

[Orion7319]

PH rise may slow down some when use MA to bring PH and TA down.

I always keep the TA between 80-90. I know the salt cell is always going to make it creep up though. Would adding borates help? Also part of the problem is that I only have one skimmer and a ton of trees that are constantly dropping leaves in the pool. Because of this, I have to point my returns up and keep the surface of the pool fairly agitated to keep the debris always flowing towards the skimmer. A second skimmer would have been really beneficial to this pool. I am thinking about investing in a solar breeze type robot skimmer so I can keep the returns pointed down and not have the surface of the pool so agitated all the time, but I really wonder how worthwhile that would be...

 

[Msch99]

Sweet! No CL loss and clear pool!

I have never used clarifier, haven’t needed it fortunately!
TA doesn’t have to be that high. As low as 50 is acceptable, before worrying about raising it. I am betting if you quit raising TA your PH rise will slow down, at least some.
Too bad you can’t get water circulation to skimmer without breaking surface, that would help PH too.

Nice job!

 

[Orion7319]

Sweet! No CL loss and clear pool!

I have never used clarifier, haven’t needed it fortunately!
TA doesn’t have to be that high. As low as 50 is acceptable, before worrying about raising it. I am betting if you quit raising TA your PH rise will slow down, at least some.
Too bad you can’t get water circulation to skimmer without breaking surface, that would help PH too.

Nice job!

Thanks for all your help, I do appreciate it! I will probably need to use clarifier every now and then or help my filter out some other way, the pine needles really do make a mess. Thanks for the tip about lowering the TA! I had thought that you need a TA of at least 80 for a pool as that’s about what every site and source says (even my salt cell says minimum of 80). When I think about it, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense though. When I kept aquariums, I never let it get that high with species of fish that needed acidic water. I will let it drift down a bit but not past 50. If my PH doesn’t stabilize entirely I suppose that at least I wouldn't have to add as much acid in the pool....so win either way.. I am playing around with the CYA levels as well. I see that pool math lists 70 as the ideal, and right now I’m somewhere between 50 and 60. However this pool never gets full sun all day, and after last year I know what a problem high CYA levels can be and that was one of my main reasons for switching to a salt system. As far as the circulation, I think I will keep playIng around with the return jets a bit more, before spending money on a robot..

 

[Msch99]

We love our Robot. We didn’t have any kind of vacuum so doing all cleaning manually, with less than ideal results. . Splurged and went to robot and glad we did.
Opening is easier, put robot in 60 degree pool and walk away. During season picks up all fine material, leaves, small sticks etc. Tree hangs over part of our pool too.

 

[MITBeta]

At any rate I think I will “shock” (boost the chlorine levels) the pool every now and then and not just rely on the salt cell.

You shouldn't need to to shock if you test and maintain your free chlorine level above the minimum for your CYA all the time.

 

[bmoreswim]

Where the robots shine is for getting the dust like debris off of the bottom of the pool. Of course they get the leaves too, but most vacuums do that. The dust is caught handily in the pleated filters of a robot. It’s basically like assigning a cartridge filter to clean the bottom of the pool. And it brushes to boot. You should probably hit with a brush some but I can’t say I do often, though I did today.

I never raise my FC level intentionally to sanitize as you are discussing. It shouldn’t be needed with proper levels. As mentioned above, my TA level is usually 50-90. This year it’s been staying higher, but I never adjust it intentionally. I just add MA as needed. Maybe once a week. Super easy. MA doesn’t degrade so it’s easy to keep around unlike liquid chlorine. Which reminds me, I need to check my pH.

 

[Msch99]

Which reminds me, I need to check my pH.

. Did the same the other day, just didn’t say it out loud!

 

[Orion7319]

We love our Robot. We didn’t have any kind of vacuum so doing all cleaning manually, with less than ideal results. . Splurged and went to robot and glad we did.
Opening is easier, put robot in 60 degree pool and walk away. During season picks up all fine material, leaves, small sticks etc. Tree hangs over part of our pool too.

OH yes, I have a dolphin nautilus CC plus. It’s awesome! It cleans the walls up to the water line, gets all kinds of crud out. It by far is probably the best purchase for the pool we made. I couldn’t imagine having to scrub the walls or vacuum all the time. I also got a Ryobi stick vac which I rarely use, but after a rainfall and I get a bunch of sticks and branches at the bottom of the pool it’s great for getting those and I am glad I got that too. Due to the poor skimming and all the leaves I am looking at another solar powered robot that skims the pool. Something like this Haven’t been able to convince the wife though that we really neeeeed it! Lol

Amazon.com : Instapark Betta Automatic Robotic Pool Cleaner Solar Powered Pool Skimmer - White : Garden & Outdoor

Amazon.com : Instapark Betta Automatic Robotic Pool Cleaner Solar Powered Pool Skimmer - White : Garden & Outdoor

www.amazon.com

 

[Orion7319]

You shouldn't need to to shock if you test and maintain your free chlorine level above the minimum for your CYA all the time.

That’s what I thought, but I didn’t quite know how to manage the haze I had. It has only gotten hazy this year after that dust storm and a couple of rains thereafter. I’m hoping it’s not going to be a reoccurring problem.