New to this forum, have cloudy water

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rbnbama

0
May 6, 2016
10
Guntersville/Alabama
I have a salt water system with about 13,365 gallons of water. Test claimed I was low on stabilizer and although I could not see how that was so (had already bumped it up) I added some. It then read high and no matter how many times I send out water through waste the stabilizer still will not go down and stay there. It seemed to drop to 100 but then after vacuuming again (given that its cloudy I didn't know the amount of old leaves that were still in there) and letting out a lot of water and refilling it, it now reads higher again on the stabilizer. How is this possible? My only thought was perhaps undissolved stabilizer caught in the debris got stirred as I vacuumed and dissolved, raising my levels. Is this possible? I'm frustrated to say the least. The water is blue but cloudy. FC is 3, TC is 5, PH is 7.6, TA is 180 and stabilizer is 150. My TA nose dived after a bunch of rain to 40. I put less baking soda than recommended and it still went higher than it should have. Waiting for it to come back down with the next rain shower. Now the recommendation is to shock to fix the chlorine. I've done that before with it changing nothing. Should I shock it? Last week had no chlorine but after emptying and refilling to reduce the stabilizer we now have the above chlorine numbers. Salt level is 2990 so it needs a bit more salt. Help?

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This will be something good to read while waiting on more responses Pool School - Water Balance for SWGs

I just got my water chemistry in line and turned on my SWCG for the first time today so I'm not the most qualified pool owner to answer your questions. Is TC the sum of FC and CC? If it is, I think you need to do a SLAM. Getting your stabilizer down to a more reasonable number will make your SLAM easier. The only way to do this is a partial drain and refill. If you don't already have a good test kit, there are some recommended on this site and they can be purchased at TFtestkits.net. The kit I have is listed in my signature. Having the same kit as other on the group is great help because we can get advice on tests from experts in the group. The experts and experienced pool owners will know that your results are as accurate as possible and it will help them give the best advice. While you're waiting if you haven't read pool school yet, you might want to check it out. Good Luck!!!
 
rbnbama said:
I have a salt water system with about 13,365 gallons of water. Test claimed I was low on stabilizer and although I could not see how that was so (had already bumped it up) I added some. It then read high and no matter how many times I send out water through waste the stabilizer still will not go down and stay there. It seemed to drop to 100 but then after vacuuming again (given that its cloudy I didn't know the amount of old leaves that were still in there) and letting out a lot of water and refilling it, it now reads higher again on the stabilizer. How is this possible? My only thought was perhaps undissolved stabilizer caught in the debris got stirred as I vacuumed and dissolved, raising my levels. Is this possible? I'm frustrated to say the least. The water is blue but cloudy. FC is 3, TC is 5, PH is 7.6, TA is 180 and stabilizer is 150. My TA nose dived after a bunch of rain to 40. I put less baking soda than recommended and it still went higher than it should have. Waiting for it to come back down with the next rain shower. Now the recommendation is to shock to fix the chlorine. I've done that before with it changing nothing. Should I shock it? Last week had no chlorine but after emptying and refilling to reduce the stabilizer we now have the above chlorine numbers. Salt level is 2990 so it needs a bit more salt. Help?

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Click to expand...
Welcome to TFP!!:handwave:

First, what test results are you quoting? Yours or a pool $tore? That you say "Now the recommendation is to shock to fix the chlorine" leads me to believe that you are talking to the pool store.

My first suggestion is to stop going to the pool store. Their only response it to sell you something.

I will tell you, it will take a little time to clear. But, we can teach you how to get it sparkling and keep it that was for a lot less money than the pool store.

Not much credence is given to pool store testing around here. While you would think that a "professional" would be the best, unfortunately in most cases it is quite the opposite. Between employees who blindly trust the word of chemical sales representatives and high school kids working in the pool store for the summer you end up with poor results from their testing. But, what can you do?? We base our pool care system on accurate testing and only adding what the pool needs, when it needs it. To do that you need your own accurate test kit. Order a TF100 and at least include the XL option. That will give you what you need while you are clearing the pool, and probably enough reagents for a couple of years normal use.

While you wait for it to get delivered, you have a homework assignment. Start with reading these:
ABCs of Water Chemistry
Recommended Pool Chemicals
How to Chlorinate Your Pool

Now IF (and that is a big IF) the CYA is actually 150 your chlorine is way too low. With CYA 150 your FC should never be below the 12ish range. Any lower you risk algae and cloudy water.
 
I was talking about my test strip results not a pool store. I don't listen to them lol. I'll take a look at the test you recommended but until this year the strips have worked great for me, clean clear pool that stayed that way with little more than weekly algecide after opening it and balancing it. It was awful ugly green when I opened it and I've gotten it pretty blue but with some cloudiness. It has slowly gotten less cloudy but can't seem to get rid of it entirely.

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I have pretty much read those links, not necessarily understanding all of it but I get the gist. I'll read them once again and hope for an answer I missed the first time. If anyone has any ideas for me I'd much appreciate them.

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Please have a open mind because you are about to get good advise from the members. You need to slam, period. Weekly algecide is not needed in a properly kept pool and this site only recommends it 1 maybe 2 times a year and it's only poly 60. Your test strips are inaccurate and you have been lucky so far, sorry but it's true.

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I'm sorry to say that test strips are even worse than most pool store testing. Without accurate testing there is probably little we can suggest.

I think the strange results you are seeing (like your TA) is just a result of the inherent poor results from test strips.
 
Chlorine/CYA chart question for SWG... three columns, 1st is stabilizer level, 2nd is FC minimum the 3rd is FC level where you want to be but what is the number under the 4th column labeled Shock? Is that an amount of something needed to get to the level? What is the something you use that much of to shock with?

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It also says before you SLAM to lower stabilizer down to much lower than mine is now. I've been trying to do that but it keeps going up when I drain and refill....that was part of my initial question, why is that happening? How do I get it down of draining and refilling isn't working. Maybe it's the test strips idk. Meanwhile I don't have any other way to test it unless I go get a different brand as I do not have the test kits referred to here. Depending on its cost I will try and get one of those but cost may be an issue unfortunately.

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tim5055 said:
Welcome to TFP!!:handwave:

First, what test results are you quoting? Yours or a pool $tore? That you say "Now the recommendation is to shock to fix the chlorine" leads me to believe that you are talking to the pool store.

My first suggestion is to stop going to the pool store. Their only response it to sell you something.

I will tell you, it will take a little time to clear. But, we can teach you how to get it sparkling and keep it that was for a lot less money than the pool store.

Not much credence is given to pool store testing around here. While you would think that a "professional" would be the best, unfortunately in most cases it is quite the opposite. Between employees who blindly trust the word of chemical sales representatives and high school kids working in the pool store for the summer you end up with poor results from their testing. But, what can you do?? We base our pool care system on accurate testing and only adding what the pool needs, when it needs it. To do that you need your own accurate test kit. Order a TF100 and at least include the XL option. That will give you what you need while you are clearing the pool, and probably enough reagents for a couple of years normal use.

While you wait for it to get delivered, you have a homework assignment. Start with reading these:
ABCs of Water Chemistry
Recommended Pool Chemicals
How to Chlorinate Your Pool

Now IF (and that is a big IF) the CYA is actually 150 your chlorine is way too low. With CYA 150 your FC should never be below the 12ish range. Any lower you risk algae and cloudy water.
Click to expand...
Yeah...I've been trying to get the stabilizer down as it is def too high.

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Well, testing CYA is one of the most important things you need to do for your water. That's why we are so critical about using either the TF-100 or Taylor K-2006 test kit. It's that important. Anyways, lets say (for example) you have a CYA of 30 and your water is green or cloudy from algae. Then by looking at the chart, if you have a non-SWG pool, you would need to increase FC to "12" to correctly perform the SLAM. If your CYA was 40, the your FC would need to be 16, and so on. CYA is increased by stabilizer. Stabilizer is put into your water either on purpose directly with granules or stabilizer liquid, or as a by-product from chlorine tablets (pucks) or many bags of shock from the pool store. That's why we use regular liquid bleach as our source for chlorine (FC) because it's pure and has NO stabilizer in it. At TFP, once we get our CYA where we want it, it will NOT increase unless we want it to. Make sense?

- - - Updated - - -

To determine how much bleach to add (to increase FC), we use the Poolmath calculator (link below). It is a perfect tool to help figure out how much of something to add.
 
Texas Splash said:
Well, testing CYA is one of the most important things you need to do for your water. That's why we are so critical about using either the TF-100 or Taylor K-2006 test kit. It's that important. Anyways, lets say (for example) you have a CYA of 30 and your water is green or cloudy from algae. Then by looking at the chart, if you have a non-SWG pool, you would need to increase FC to "12" to correctly perform the SLAM. If your CYA was 40, the your FC would need to be 16, and so on. CYA is increased by stabilizer. Stabilizer is put into your water either on purpose directly with granules or stabilizer liquid, or as a by-product from chlorine tablets (pucks) or many bags of shock from the pool store. That's why we use regular liquid bleach as our source for chlorine (FC) because it's pure and has NO stabilizer in it. At TFP, once we get our CYA where we want it, it will NOT increase unless we want it to. Make sense?

- - - Updated - - -

To determine how much bleach to add (to increase FC), we use the Poolmath calculator (link below). It is a perfect tool to help figure out how much of something to add.
Click to expand...
Yes that makes sense.

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But, all of our methods are predicated on accurate testing. Using test strips your CYA could be 30 or it could be 300, their results are just that bad.

As Pat said, CYA is extremely important as it is the key to how much chlorine needs to be added and maintained to clear your water and keep,it clear.

Like you said, your methods have always worked. But my guess is that your CYA finally built up so high that they no longer will.
 
tim5055 said:
But, all of our methods are predicated on accurate testing. Using test strips your CYA could be 30 or it could be 300, their results are just that bad.

As Pat said, CYA is extremely important as it is the key to how much chlorine needs to be added and maintained to clear your water and keep,it clear.

Like you said, your methods have always worked. But my guess is that your CYA finally built up so high that they no longer will.
Click to expand...
Yeah I can see where that makes sense.

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