New owner…Can’t get rid of cloudiness

Mdragger88 said:

As pat said, you need to do an
Overnight Chlorine Loss Test at target fc levels
FC/CYA Levels to confirm or deny algae. If you fail the oclt it’s
SLAM Process time.
& stay outta the pool store! Adding “shock” either increased your ch if it was calhypo (too much ch causes scale!)
Or your cya if it was dichlor.
At a cya of 30 you definitely don’t have “chlorine lock” (which is a made up pool store term btw)
Do you have visible scale? If not there is likely no need for the expensive scale removal potion keeping csi in check is usually sufficient for prevention & correction.

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@Mdragger88 @Texas Splash

I had a scale issue last year. Using the scale remover stopped the issue after cleaning the salt cell didn’t completely do it. Then I started watching my CSI thanks to TFP educational resources. I’m definitely still learning with it being just my second pool season. I appreciate your advice though. I usually don’t go to the pool store unless I need some salt, liquid stabilizer, or bagged shock. I used dichlor since my CYA has some room to increase and the liquid chlorine didn’t seem to be doing the job. May have been the wrong thing to do but seemed logical at the time.

I read up on the CYA test. I’m still not sure about it though. I used the test bottle of known 50 CYA value and redid the test. But I can still see the dot faintly at the bottom of the test tube. I was doing it until I completely couldn’t see it. So still uncertain on that one.

With the advice you two gave me, I’ve been doing the OCLT, SLAM, brushing, vacuuming, and cleaning filters. My water is now clear. Thank you!!!! I still have some CC though so I am keeping my chlorine high for a while longer. Take a look at my logs and let me know if you see anything else I may be doing wrong. You guys are awesome.

Mdragger88 said:

Chop,
It’s ok to use dichlor occasionally so long as you know what it will do & desire those effects - use
PoolMath effects of adding to see what effects it has on all the parameters in your pool.
Doing the cya test is a little tricky but if your sample looks like the 50ppm standard then you have 50ppm.
The idea is to know what the endpoint looks like - once you have that sorted you’ll know no matter where it falls.

Have you passed the
Overnight Chlorine Loss Test?
Your fc & cya is all over the place in poolmath so hard to tell if you’re doing the
SLAM Process.
Slam level fc for 50ppm cya is 20ppm.
You want to Maintain that fc level multiple times per day until you pass all 3 end of slam criteria. The more often you test & replenish the faster it goes.
As For the cc’s - clean your beaker before your next test with alcohol then rinse it well to ensure your not contaminating it with old nasties & skewing the test.
For the scaling & ch - with a fiberglass pool & a heat pump you’re kinda in the “do not add” category. Around 200ppm ch is generally sufficient. Too much causes scaling.

Calcium Hardness - Further Reading

www.google.com

What is the ch of your fill water?

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That’s a great question. I’ve never actually tested my full water for anything. I’ll do that later today. Good point also on the CC beaker. I hadn’t thought of that. My wife sometimes does the tests so some of the CYA differences could also be accounted for by that. I’ll need to show her the standard as well so we are on the same page.

I have not passed the OCLT. I’m trying to do the SLAM process though. My schedule has been all over the place, so I’m adding and testing as often as I am able to but haven’t been able to hold it high enough. Should be able to do a better job of it this weekend.