Cal-Hypo is the devil!

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lauren_bourgeois

lauren_bourgeois

Active member
May 25, 2019
43
Pineville, LA
Pool Size
19000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Good evening! I have been struggling with my pool this year so far. I finally had it looking pretty good the last few days. A couple of months ago I bought 25 lbs of 68% cal hypo at the pool store for $80. Tonight I shocked the pool with it. I added 37 oz of shock by mixing with pool water and dumping it in. (I know bleach is the preferred chlorine and it’s mine too but I had spent so much money I wanted to use what I had eventually). I put it in an hour ago and it turned my pool cloudy and darker blue. I can no longer see the bottom step. I cannot believe this. What would cause this to happen over 2 lbs of shock? What should I do? Here are my readings before I added it. I backwashed the filter cleaned vacuumed and brushed the pool yesterday.

FC 0
CC 0
pH 7.0
CH 0
TA 120
CYA 30
 

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Hey, no worries! Adding cal-hypo can cause tiny grains of calcium to form that are small enough to get through the filter, and still large enough to cause cloudy water. However, given the test results you posted, those grains of calcium should dissolve back into the water fairly quickly and the cloudiness should go away.

You should ALWAYS follow this chart --> FC/CYA Levels Letting your pool get to 0 FC is asking for algae.

Oh, yeah, and get some LC! Nice pool!
 
PoolStored said:
Hey, no worries! Adding cal-hypo can cause tiny grains of calcium to form that are small enough to get through the filter, and still large enough to cause cloudy water. However, given the test results you posted, those grains of calcium should dissolve back into the water fairly quickly and the cloudiness should go away.

You should ALWAYS follow this chart --> FC/CYA Levels Letting your pool get to 0 FC is asking for algae.

Oh, yeah, and get some LC! Nice pool!
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Thanks! I plan to. That’s what I use. But given this economy I hated to waste the money 🤪 I’ll have to find someone that uses it regularly to give it to or something. If it doesn’t look right in the morning should I go ahead with SLAM?
 
A SLAM won't help. There is noting to kill.

The calcium just needs to go back in solution. Give it time.

Remember, following our program we don't "shock" our pools, we just keep the correct amount of chlorine in the water all the time.
 
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Toxophilite said:
If you can't take it back with the missing amount, you can use to chlorinate in regular amounts and it will add some CH to your water.
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Yes. As long as CH is not too high you can use Cal-Hypo for regular chlorination. Get a bucket with water and dissolve the cal-hypo in the bucket before dosing it in front to the return. (Always add chemicals to water and never add water to chemicals). By dissolving it first you should be able to avoid most of the cloudiness.
BTW, sand filter is the slowest type of filter to deal with this particular situation.
 
AK- said:
Yes. As long as CH is not too high you can use Cal-Hypo for regular chlorination. Get a bucket with water and dissolve the cal-hypo in the bucket before dosing it in front to the return. (Always add chemicals to water and never add water to chemicals). By dissolving it first you should be able to avoid most of the cloudiness.
BTW, sand filter is the slowest type of filter to deal with this particular situation.
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This is the method I used. I’m just worried that now it will take days to weeks to get clear again 😢
 
AK- said:
Yes. As long as CH is not too high you can use Cal-Hypo for regular chlorination. Get a bucket with water and dissolve the cal-hypo in the bucket before dosing it in front to the return. (Always add chemicals to water and never add water to chemicals). By dissolving it first you should be able to avoid most of the cloudiness.
BTW, sand filter is the slowest type of filter to deal with this particular situation.
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We are getting a new pump soon. The sand was just replaced last year. I asked my husband to clean it out before he goes back to work in a couple of weeks.
 

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tim5055 said:
A SLAM won't help. There is noting to kill.

The calcium just needs to go back in solution. Give it time.

Remember, following our program we don't "shock" our pools, we just keep the correct amount of chlorine in the water all the time.
Click to expand...
Yes I let it get too low. I still haven’t figured out my sweet spot, I never have in the years of owning the pool so I haven’t mastered this method yet. The reason I was bringing the FC to slam levels is because I let it get to zero.
 
lauren_bourgeois said:
I’m afraid to use it if it’s going to make my pool super cloudy for days
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It won't cloud the water if you are adding it to normal FC levels. It will just add calcium and raise up your CH. I have a bucket, it's paid for chlorine, just in a different form. I need the CH, so I use it up. It's not going to be preferred method for sure, but it is better than discarding paid for chlorine. BTW, if you added cal-hypo too close in time to adding muriatic acid, that will cause a clouding. I see you pH is 7.0, so was wondering if might be what happened as well as 2-lbs of the stuff.
 
Toxophilite said:
It won't cloud the water if you are adding it to normal FC levels. It will just add calcium and raise up your CH. I have a bucket, it's paid for chlorine, just in a different form. I need the CH, so I use it up. It's not going to be preferred method for sure, but it is better than discarding paid for chlorine. BTW, if you added cal-hypo too close in time to adding muriatic acid, that will cause a clouding. I see you pH is 7.0, so was wondering if might be what happened as well as 2-lbs of the stuff.
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No I didn’t add any. This 2 lbs of cal hypo is the only thing I’ve added since I added a jug of bleach a couple days ago. I was going to mess with the pH after the chlorine addition.
 
lauren_bourgeois said:
Just tested it. FC is now 11. Pool is still very cloudy and greenish.
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You likely have algae. I would start the SLAM Process. You can perform an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to confirm, but better to get started now. While you may have cloudy water from the cal hypo, Letting fc get to 0 is likely the culprit for the current state, not cal-hypo. I let my pool get to 3 and it will bloom.
 
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PoolStored said:
You likely have algae. I would start the SLAM Process. You can perform an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to confirm, but better to get started now. While you may have cloudy water from the cal hypo, Letting fc get to 0 is likely the culprit for the current state, not cal-hypo. I let my pool get to 3 and it will bloom.
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I think you’re right. I lost chlorine overnight so I added more. This is today. Only slightly cloudy and a greenish tint. I just went and bought more LC.
 

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