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.
Well, you're learning the same way we all did which is why we are here at TFP. Pool store advice is often times wrong. All the effort above was basically wasted time and money. So let's get you back on track:
