Hi all, Crystal from Virginia Beach, VA here. First time poster, long time forum stalker. Relatively new to pool ownership, 5th year and never really had any issues I haven't been able to resolve (mainly credited to this site). However, I sadly admit in this moment, I am defeated. I have an Intex 18 x 48 Prism Frame Vinyl Pool, 6423 gallon max, 1500 gph cartridge pump. So...about 3 weeks ago, I took on yellow algae and won (or at least I think I did). Was able to get the water back to clear, chemicals balanced and finally holding free chlorine again. Unfortunately, that was short lived. My chlorine demand started sky rocketing, 2 pounds of shock would be gone in less than 12 hours. I would add shock at night, test before bed and both free/total chlorine would test high & I would test again first thing in the morning - no chlorine loss. But by 6PM, free/total chlorine both tested at 0. I did this for a few days, gradually increasing the shock each time - 1.5lbs, 2lbs, etc. thinking it was just being drilled by the sunlight. Then, it started to smell like 'too much chlorine' and I realized the additional shock was likely compounding the issue rather than correcting it. My guess was that I had ammonia in the pool and while I was increasing the free chlorine, I wasn't getting it high enough so instead of killing the chloramines, I was essentially feeding them. (This was my thought process, at least.) So I drained the pool halfway, refilled & I decided to use 2 pounds of cal hypo and two pounds of chlorine oxidizer. This immediately turned the pool water milky and we haven't been able to see the pool bottom since a week ago, literally. On the upside, I've been consistently holding cc to around .1. I began worrying that maybe my testing wasn't accurate so ran to the local pool store Saturday morning to have the water tested - their results confirmed my own, everything is balanced. I was a little low on chlorine but I also hadn't put anything in the water for a couple of days. Explained this whole story to the guy, and he said to put two more pounds of cal hypo in the pool, run the pump 24/7 & that should have the pool cleared up in a day or two. He also recommended putting on our pool cover because we had a few days of heavy storms ahead. Anyhow, I added two more bags of cal-hypo as suggested, covered the pool & have had the pump going non-stop. Took the cover off last night and - drumroll please - we are still milky as of this morning with no bottom of the pool in site. Oh, and the chlorine is still testing off the charts from Saturday. Also, I clean my filters religiously - twice a day - and I've noticed since the addition of cal-hypo, there is a white residue on my filter cartridges. Whew. I think that about covers it all.
Long story short - I'm lost. Any help would be beyond greatly appreciated.
Right now, I can't get an accurate reading of my chlorine because the test kits I have doesn't go up high enough. On Saturday, FC was 1.09 and TC was 1.22. Otherwise, my other readings are currently:
PH: 7.4
Hardness: 128 ppm
Alkalinity: 116 ppm
CYA: 68 ppm
Test kits: HTH 1273 6 way test kit; Clorox 3 way test kit; Taylor K1001 Basic DPD Pool kit; Clorox test strips for fun.
Long story short - I'm lost. Any help would be beyond greatly appreciated.
Right now, I can't get an accurate reading of my chlorine because the test kits I have doesn't go up high enough. On Saturday, FC was 1.09 and TC was 1.22. Otherwise, my other readings are currently:
PH: 7.4
Hardness: 128 ppm
Alkalinity: 116 ppm
CYA: 68 ppm
Test kits: HTH 1273 6 way test kit; Clorox 3 way test kit; Taylor K1001 Basic DPD Pool kit; Clorox test strips for fun.