Cloudy pool after a whole bunch of problems

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C

Crash138

0
Jul 9, 2015
9
New Orleans LA
We purchased a new house (this is how all the threads start huh!) at the end of last summer.

it was green/black, and we opted to drain, refill, & replace all the sand. at the advice of the local pool store (I've noticed most of the threads also include this nugget) I used dichlor to shock as needed and tabs through the auto feed thing on the motor. everythingwas fine until the end of March.

we have many live oak trees in our yard & March is the start to leaf drop season. Since then I've been fighting pollen & algae. Adding dichlor weekly & added a pool floater w/ tabs because I thought the sun was eating up all my FC, and the pool store recommended it >.<

I finally thought I had everything perfect. And then another algae bloom, because if my inability to keep any FC in the pool, the location, & look, I thought it was mustard algae. So I just finished adding DE to my filter, yellow out & shocked. Since then the pool had been algae free but the FC was still so low. So I start googling and learn about CYA. I assume my CYA must be thru the roof considering how much dichlor & tabs I've been using. I stopped the tabs & dichlor & added liquid bleach and was able to get my FC up to 3 ppm.

when I went to brush the deep end a white precipitate came off the bottom and made my water cloudy. 2 days later I still have not added any more chlorine as my cheap test was showing it staying at 3ppm.

I backwashed last last a couple of days ago and did not add anymore DE just in case that is the precipitate.

My water is still cloudy and my new big Taylor kit arrived today, so as of this evening here is the results:

FC 2ppm
CC 2ppm
PH 7.4
TA 70ppm
CYA ZERO (how is that possible!)
CH: 240ppm

im guessing I need to shock since my CC is at 2, but should I add a stabilizer before I shock? can my CYA results be right?

after I saw that my CH wasn't high, I went ahead and added a clarifier hoping to de-cloud the water, but it did nothing 6 hours later.
 
pooldv said:
Welcome to TFP!

Where did that CYA number come from? If it came from a test strip or a pool store then it doesn't mean anything at all.

Get a good, reliable test kit from this Test Kits Comparison. I use the TF100 from TFTestkits.net. It has helped me keep my pool crystal clear for 3 years.

You will need to SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain your pool.

Take a look at these short articles about pool chemistry
TFPC for Beginners
ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
Click to expand...

thanks for replying :)

it came from the Taylor 2006c kit that JUST arrived today :) I'm shared all the back information in the event that something residual in my pool is blocking the CYA from registering on the test.

my question regarding shocking, is should I add stabilizer before I begin shocking? Should I retest my CYA? I feel confident that I did it correctly, but knowing the amount of tabs & dichlor I've been adding I feel like it can't be zero.
 
Alright, nice kit! It is possible that bacteria have consumed your CYA. There is a perfect storm with low to no FC where that happens. So, if the CYA test was clear and not cloudy at all and you are confident that you performed the test correctly then slam away.

Here is the process to Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain.

Also, please add your pool info to your signature as shown here, Pool School - Getting Started
 
That makes sense then!

I had just purchased a huge tub of 3" pucks last month & I still have 5-7lbs of dichlor left. Should I use those with the liquid chlorine (8.25% I just bought from Costco this week) that I also have on hand to begin the shock process? Because my CYA is at zero and I know I should be at least 30ppm.

I thought they would help add some CYA to my pool while I start the shock process.
 
Okay so I just retested chlorine moments ago. The free chlorine is almost the same as yesterday evening, and the CC has dropped out.

FC -1.8ppm
CC - 0.2ppm

the cloudiness is almost completely gone.

should I still start the SLAM process, or should I just add stabilizer and maintain? Either way I'm going to keep up on some aggressive brushing daily until im sure whatever that was has been filtered out!
 
Just to verify I should up my FC to 10ppm around 7pm

then take an evening final reading at 8pm

test again at 6:30am results show a loss <1ppm great, if not I should use 10ppm as the goal FC to keep the pool at while SLAMMING until my FC can hold overnight.

do you have any thoughts of how long before I should retest CYA levels.

thanks for the walk-thru!
 
If the sun is off your pool by 8, or 9 or 10 is fine.

It depends how you add CYA, granular in a sock in a skimmer basket wait a week to test. Adding with pucks will take a while, they add somewhere around 6 ppm per puck, I think. At the bottom of poolmath is a tool called Effects of adding chemicals you can enter gallons at the top and choose dichlor or trichlor and it will tell you.
 
My last night testing was at -

FC 10.6ppm
CC 0.6ppm

this morning

FC 10.4
CC 0.4ppm

this morning I put enough pucks in the auto-flow canister to (hopefully) bring my CYA level up to between 30-40. So I should be good to just maintain!

in the past I used a pool first aid product that helped control my pollen problem. There's a forest around my pool! It's pollen city!! This product works so much nicer than vacuuming to waste. But is it okay to use once every few months?
 

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I would use straight CYA to raise it from 0 to 30-40......that may take the rest of the summer to do it with pucks but either way is fine. Watch your pH if you use pucks.

How does your water look?
 
Yes, good news. What is the stuff you used for the pollen?

We have tons of trees also. I run the pump 24x7 at 1100rpm during spring and fall to keep up with the trees. My variable speed pump only draws 150watts at 1100rpm and costs less than $12/mo to run 24x7. Running your pump on low extra time shouldn't break the bank. My suction valve is on 80% skimmer and 20% main drain. We empty the skimmers as often as we can, hourly sometimes. This keeps a lot of the debris off the bottom of the pool. I tried skimmer socks one year for when the pollen was falling and not leaves and it helped quite a bit, but they clogged up so fast that I almost had to stand there and wait.
 
pooldv said:
Yes, good news. What is the stuff you used for the pollen?

We have tons of trees also. I run the pump 24x7 at 1100rpm during spring and fall to keep up with the trees. My variable speed pump only draws 150watts at 1100rpm and costs less than $12/mo to run 24x7. Running your pump on low extra time shouldn't break the bank. My suction valve is on 80% skimmer and 20% main drain. We empty the skimmers as often as we can, hourly sometimes. This keeps a lot of the debris off the bottom of the pool. I tried skimmer socks one year for when the pollen was falling and not leaves and it helped quite a bit, but they clogged up so fast that I almost had to stand there and wait.
Click to expand...

its called pool First-Aid and it gets the pollen to be caught by my sand filter! It's awesome!

but I have a feeling my skimmers are a huge part of the problem! It's a 100 year old pool! And although it's been re-done I'm sure a couple times, it still is funky! I did recently purchase those skimmer accelerator hat like devices that are really helping keeping stuff from sinking, but then they were filling up so fast!

So then I added a 3rd skimmer to one of my returns. I can't recall the name but it uses the return stream to collect surface debris. That has really helped make basket emptying a once daily chore.

i tried those socks too but that was before I added the hats... The hats don't seem to work well w/ the socks. And even with better collection the pollen still accumulates, less then before but hard to really compare since I'm not in high oak pollen season anymore either.

duraleigh said:
I would use straight CYA to raise it from 0 to 30-40......that may take the rest of the summer to do it with pucks but either way is fine. Watch your pH if you use pucks.

How does your water look?
Click to expand...

my water is looking great! The cloudiness is gone and aside from some pollen piles the bottom is clear too.

i thought each puck would release 6-8ppm CYA so I thought by adding 6 pucks to the auto feed I'd be at a good CYA level in a couple weeks.

not that easy huh?

- - - Updated - - -

I hadn't thought about reducing the flow to my main drain. All I have is 1/4 turn ball valves though 1 for both the skimmers and 1 for the main drain. I bet that would help though!
 
I can't find any good info on the pool first aid. It just says natural enzymes, etc. If it works and doesn't cause any issues then go go for it.

Yeah, that is an old pool! Need pics!

I think Duraleigh's point is that it might take a long time to get the CYA level up with pucks and stabilizer will be faster.
 
I'll do you one better and give you a video tour, tomorrow. my home was built as a summer country estate for a family, on the opposite bank of the Mississippi River to the French Quarter. As the story goes the lady of the home HAD to have a pool. Well either they couldn't or it was too cost prohibitive to get equipment over here via a ferry to dig in the hard clay riverbed. So they brought in tons of dirt instead, and built an inground above-ground pool! It is so bizarre!

We cut back all of the trees that were overhanging the pool on one side this spring. I still have serious cutting back to do on another side too, but im waiting for slightly less hot weather to take on that kind of yard work!
 

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