Frst time poster with cloudy pool

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T

Tom J

0
Jul 8, 2015
12
Porterville, CA
Hello to all.
I have been reading the forum for a few days and have an issue with white/blue cloudy water. I do not have a FAS /DPD chlorine tester so I am not sure where my free chlorine is at other than over 10% as that is the max my DPD free chlorine will test to. I have an 18' X 48" INTEX metal frame pool with 2500GPH pump and intex skimmer. My tests with the DPD tester gives me a cya of 80 a total hardness of over 500. PH of 7.8 and alkalinity of 180.
I started out with a light green pool and clearish water (I could see the bottom barely) and no fc. I made the mistake of putting in 2 lbs. of shock per leslies rep on one night then another pound in the Am I ended up with a cloudy still green pool. I then found this site and with the pool math proceeded to dump 3 gallons of bleach in each night for a week unfortunately I didn't see where not to use dollar store bleach but my FC did come up to 5. Big mistake. I since started using 2 gallons of 10% chlorine from Lowes for 3 nights and a gallon a night since. The FC now never goes under 10 however the pool is still cloudy. I have not seen any signs of Algae for a week on my filters but they clog with white in about 6-8 hours.
I should drain half my pool but I live in the Town of East Porterville CA. and are on severe water restrictions. I am about the only house in 2 blocks that still has a working well, so I cannot drain and refill. I will let it evaporate down and then refill.
Any Ideas? I have the TF50 kit on order as I have a lot of PH test kits.
 
Welcome to TFP!

Why do you think you want to replace half the water? To lower CYA and CH? If so, evaporation leaves those behind so will not reduce them when you refill.

You need to follow the SLAM process when your FAS-DPD chlorine test kit arrives. You may need to order refills for the FAS-DPD test as well so you do not run out.
 
Dilute the pool water with well water 1:1 and test FC. Multiply by two and you'll get a figure that is more accurate than "over 10" even if it's not precise. You can keep your water, but you'll just need to use more chlorine during SLAM process. If you want an early start clearing pool, dilute pool water with two parts well water and multiply by three, Target 27-30ppm which is 9-10ppm when diluted. Brush daily and filter as much as possible.
 
Yes I wanted to reduce my CYA and CH. I diluted the pool water 1:1 with the well water and still had over 10 FC so I diluted to one part pool water and 2 parts well water and came up with 8 so I figure I am at about 24 -27 FC.
If this is correct I will add another half gallon of bleach tonight to bring it up to 31.
It was clearer tonight I can barely see the bottom now. After I vacuumed that ability(to see the bottom) went away and so did my filter (which is a good thing). Also I am not getting the FC- 50 kit they emailed me saying they are sending the K-2006 kit instead. The pic is from Yesterday.
20150714_181223.jpg
 
I forgot to have you adjust pH before increasing FC. You cannot test pH when FC is over 10, however you can adjust based on your last pH. If it was 7.8, add enough Muriatic Acid to lower it to 7.2 based on Pool Math's pH section. High pH, TA, and CH together can cause some of your cloudiness and also cause scaling so if you didn't already add acid to lower pH from the last time you said it was 7.8 just add the acid now. FC does not contribute to scaling so high FC won't cause additional problems.


Your FC is 21 to 27 ppm right now (24 +/- 3) with your dilution. Adding enough chlorine to increase by 8ppm sounds good. Keep up with brushing once or twice and vacuuming once per day as you've bee doing and keep the filter running 24/7 if possible unless you think you'll be away too long to keep it from clogging up.
 
I just received my K-2006 test . I think I used up most of the reagents just trying to get readings but here they are:
FC=72X.2 =14.4
cc=.2ppm
ch=60x10=600
cya=95
ta=250
ph=purple and 20 drops of R005 did not even start to change the color.

I added 32oz of Muratic acid last night and 32 ounces after taking the test.
From now on I will use the 10 ml level instead of the 25 ML.
 
Lisa I watched the video on the free chlorine level but that is it. I know I will use the smaller measure from now on. Unless I need total accuracy. I work as an electronics engineer so I know about accuracy but you don't always need to be down to the nth degree.
 
Passed the OCL test last night I think. I ended up with more fc in the morning than I had last night. I had 15.5 last night and 16 this morning.
Here are my numbers this AM:
fc=16
cc=.5ppm
ch= 275 (change d to blue just like the directions said
CYA =95
TA =200
I didn't bother with PH but I used a Clorox test strip for sanity sake and it shows at 7.8-8.4, CYA somewhere between 80 and 100, Total hardness At 1000 and fc and total chlorine at 10.
The pool is still very cloudy and the filter going 24/7. changing out the filters every 8 hours now. I clean them with Lowes cartridge filter clean and a hose . I have 3 filters I rotate.
I can now see the top of the brush on the bottom of the pool but not the bottom.
 

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Now that I have a decent test kit I am going to use the slam Process on this site. I think I have used over a box of Clorox pool shock(Costco sized box) and 40 gallons of bleach so far this summer of course 30 gallons were dollar store. This is the 3rd summer on this water I always used tabs and it stayed crystal clear. This year I got an algae bloom and nothing cleared it. It would go away and immediately come back. I did the shock wrong and just made my CYA and CH ridiculous.

Any way Shock starts tonight with 2 gallons of target 8.25 % bleach. I am adding another 32OZ of acid now I found out the Lowes Muriatic acid is 10% so I need another 32 oz to put me in the ball park once the slam is done and I can test the PH again.
 
Get your PH down to around 7.2 then slam away. Don't let up until the water is clear, you pass the 3 tests in the SLAM process. If you stop before it you will have to do it again in short order. Dont forget to keep pump running 24/7 if possible and brush. The main thing is going to be keeping that FC at shock level with your CYA so high. If possible you might think about a partial drain and refill to drop your CYA and CH to save on the amount of bleach you have to use. Way more cost effective for running the pool also since the cost of bleach will be reduced.
Dose your chlorine to around 40-42 to start because your target is around 37. It will chew it up quick in the beginning.
 
Thanks Trev,
The pool now tests at7.2 with my old Taylor DPD test.
I measured the FC before I added chlorine and it was 18.5 and CC was still at .5ppm which is strange since we had a rainstorm and received a half inch of rain between tests. it was at 16 this am
I added 2 gallons of 8.25 which should bring me up to an fc of 241
My ch also dropped to 250
but my CYA didn't change any that I could tell.
.
I may drain some tomorrow My walnut tree's need some irrigation they are showing signs of distress, so I will send them a little love.
 
If you were able to drain 50% (I'm not as good at #'s as some here) you would cut ur cya down to a more manageable 47 and CH to 125 theoretically. CH doesnt matter because of the vinyl liner but the CYA is huge. That would cut ur day to day target FC in half to 5 and your shock target by a little more than half. Which should cut your bleach cost in half. I see ur in CA so that may not be possible
 
I had to go out of town Sunday and Monday but I finally got around to watering my trees yesterday and today. I finished filling it up tonight and my CYA is less than 50 by my Clorox test strips. it was too dark out to use the K2006 kit and I am out of R-0871 reagent so I can't take my fc. The test strips say it is still over 10. Ph is 7.2 My R-0871 is supposed to be here Friday. At over 70 drops of reagent per test I went through it fast. I will keep my fc up until my reagent gets here then start my slam again. The water is still very cloudy but there was no sign of green on the pool walls.:p
 

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