Cloudy Water after Stain Treatment and CYA Addition

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FloridaMan

FloridaMan

0
Bronze Supporter
Apr 6, 2014
22
Plant City, FL
Pool Size
20000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Hi,

Been following the methods here for almost four years. In that time I've never had a cloudy pool or had any color whatsoever. Liquid, baking soda, acid only. When I had my pool resurfaced in 2020 (concrete) the ground water they used to fill it left a slight yellowing from the tannins. I was given a stain treatment to use and finally ran it a couple of weeks ago. The stain treatment seemed to be effective and I slowly brought my pool back up to normal levels. During this process I also noticed that my CYA was at 0. I added 7 pounds (in the skimmer because I'm stupid) and that brought up my 20k gallon pool to about 50PPM of CYA. Ever since that time, I've had slightly cloudy water, and when I introduce liquid chlorine as usual it immediately forms a cloud in the water. I thought perhaps that the sequestrant from the stain treatment was playing a part but I'm not sure, and I would have expected it to clear up by now. I've tried some DE in my sand filter but it seems to make no difference. It's not oh my god cloudy, but definitely slightly hazy.

I was hoping to get your thoughts and what might be causing this, and if you think its a metal/calcium issue or algae and I should SLAM. My test results are pretty normal.

FC 6
TA 90
PH 7.6
Calcium 300
CYA 50

Really bummed this is happening. I've been on a roll for years with crystal clear water and now I'm all bent out of shape with a long weekend of swimming that was planned.
 
You have to add the de after each backwash as it gets washed away.
PSA * be certain you have used pool grade DE
Sand filters can take a while to clear up any cloudiness.
Have you done an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test ?
That’s the first step to rule out algae.
Did you use a polyquat algeacide before your fc was low during the treatment? If not its possible that something has started brewing. How long has it been since you did the stain treatment? What products did you use? Post pics of the bottle with ingredients.
 
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Thanks for the reply. I've used the DE three times and backwashed 24 hours later each time. It is DE for pools. I have not done an overnight chlorine loss test, but I will. I did not use any algeacide before. I did the stain treatment 12 days ago, and it's been six days since I brought the levels back up. The pool seemed fine after the treatment, but you are right that FC was kept low.

Per the picture. Used were two bottles of #1, four of #2, and 2 of xPH.

IMG_0961.jpg
 
Looking at the chemicals used, the cloudiness is probably coming from the Stain Drop #2. Haviland unfortunately puts no information in their SDS sheets and hides it all under the “trade secret” designation 🙄

If I had to hazard a guess, the Stain Drop #1 is a peroxide or MPS based mixture that oxidizes organic stains. It will cause a false high FC reading in some instances. But it will dissipate over time.

Stain Drop #2 is an organic acid that likely has either sulfamic acid, oxalic acid, and/or citric acid in it. Since you are able to get the FC back up, and assuming the CCs are low, then it’s probably oxalic acid. Your cloudiness also points to oxalic acid because calcium reacts with oxalic acid to form calcium oxalate which is a solid precipitate (and the main component of kidney stones in humans).

Stain Drop #3 is just a metal sequesting agent and likely consists of polyacrylic acid.

If the cloudiness is from calcium oxalate, then all you can do is filter and use DE in the sand filter to increase filtration performance. It’s going to take a lot of time. But I would also suggest doing the overnight chlorine loss test just to rule out (or in) a nascent algae bloom.
 
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Well.. stain drop #1 is 90-100% corrosive trade secret 🤫 must be some sort of acid.
Crazy that they don’t have to say.
No msds on stain drop#2 although it looks & sounds like ascorbic acid by reading the instructions. (May or may not have extra stuff in it.
stain drop phX is a secret also 🤐
although they say it is a sequesterant we cannot assume what type. HEDP or EDTA.

Sequestrant - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
Lets let the oclt decide. Hopefully you just need more filtering
 
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Working Comedy Central GIF by Drunk History
Matt got me!
 
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Thanks for your replies. I'm hoping it's just filtering, too. If so, what is a reasonable timeframe to expect? Days, weeks, longer? Been around six days or so at least.

Of course my DPD powder is expired since I have had a perfect pool for years and never needed it. I'm going to have to hit up TF Test Kits and get some more.
 
In the future if you have metal stains go for the aa treatment with non mystery chemicals

Ascorbic Acid Treatment - Further Reading

www.google.com www.google.com
www.troublefreepool.com

Stains in Your Pool

The stained pool is beyond embarrassing. Our in-depth Guide to remove stains in your pool will help you to remove the stains and prevent them in the future.
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
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FloridaMan said:
Of course my DPD powder is expired since I have had a perfect pool for years and never needed it. I'm going to have to hit up TF Test Kits and get some more.
Click to expand...

If you hurry, test kit refills are on sale at TFTestkits - thru the end of March.
 
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Update. Still waiting on my DPD powder. Hoping it's here today. I've run DE through the filter every day with a backwash 24 hours later. The issue has improved somewhat. Not quite as milky. I also ran my bot with a really fine filter, and it picked up tons of whiteish, sparkly fine particles. Still not there though. I'll run an overnight just to make sure, and I don't have color, so I think cloudiness from calcium oxalate probably makes sense.
 
Hi,

Got my DPD powder and other chemicals from TFTestKits and decided to test my water. I've done this in the past. This time (I repeated three times) it showed my free chlorine at 1 and my CC's at 17. Yes, 17. 35 drops of 0-871. Can this even be possible? My water is clear as day. I can't believe that this is correct. If it is, what the heck should I do? I have no bleach smell at all.

Readings via Taylor test kit

FC: 8
CYA: 40
Alk: 90
PH: 7.2
 

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