Foaming won't go away

[AustroTom]

Hello All,
New to this forum and already have a dilemma (sorry for the long post)

after having some slight issues with algae (nothing too bad really), I bought some "Eliminator" by Clorox from Lowes and from that moment my pool started to foam and had a real bad perfume smell. There was also NO chlorine reading on my test strips so I used 2lbs of the "Extra Blue" (also Clorox),
to raise the chlorine level but nothing happened and the foam and smell remained.

So after two days I used 3 qts. of liquid chlorine (my pool is approx. 15.000gal), which didn't raise it either. So I poured one more qt in in the evening which raised the chlorine reading to 3ppm but the next morning it was back to 0.

I took a water sample to leslie's and he said "the water is fine you just need chlorine".
But after I told him the whole story he said that the high amount of sanitizers can only be fixed by draining 1/4 to 1/3 of the pool, refill and then shock.
This I did last night with "Pool Essentials" shock (3lbs.), and now the chlorine is at 4ppm, perfect!
But the water still foams a bit and it's very murky, green (no algae on walls and floor).

Would it help if I treat now with "SeaKlear" Natural Clarifier to get rid of the smell, foam and murkiness??

Please help!

BTW: after reading reviews on Clorox product I will NEVER buy this stuff again

Eagerly awaiting replies

Thomas

 

[max2k]

Welcome!

This forum promotes more scientific approach to pool care which starts from getting reliable data about your water content. We recommend to get yourself TF100 test kit which produces accurate results so you can properly test your water, post results here and this lively community will get your pool cleared up. Moving forward you'll find the pool care is simple and affordable, all you need is patience and attention to details. We also recommend to use chlorine (plain bleach) as water sanitizer almost exclusively, you'll learn later many advantages of this approach.

If you'd like to go this way please add 1 gal of 8.25% bleach to your pool and continue adding 1/2 gal of the same bleach daily until your test kit arrives and you can get actual test readings. Please do not add anything else to you pool for now, it's already too complex at the moment.

 

[AustroTom]

Thank you for your reply.

I've followed your instructions and my readings are as follows:

total hardness - 350ppm
total chlorine - 5ppm
free chlorine - 5ppm
ph - 6.8
total alkalinity - 140ppm
stabilizer - 150ppm

So the chlorine is present, but drops if I don't keep up the refill with bleach. And the water STILL foams when agitated.
On another note. How can a company (bleach), state a product by saying sodium hypochlorite - 8.25%, OTHER INGREDIENTS - 91.75% ?? what on earth are those OTHER ingredients?

Btw: my pool is a 15k, kidney shaped, beach entry, pebble tech pool with in-ground cleaners, Poolvergnuegen pool cleaner, genuine rock waterfall and raised spa.

Thanks,
Thomas

 

[Mr Bruce]

Your pH needs to come up first. This is a good read on what TFP recommends for such things. Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals
I would only aim for 7.2 at first, in case you over-shoot.

Yes, you need to add liquid chlorine everyday (or every other day, once you get a feel for your pool's appetite).

Your test is missing 2 numbers, CC and CYA. CYA is important to know how much FC you should be targeting.

E: Sorry, you posted it as stabilizer. You need to replace at least half your water :/

 

[lightingguy]

As mentioned - we take a much more scientific view of pool chemistry where these kinds of situations never occur. If you are going to come along on this journey you will need to start testing your water yourself and will need to spend some time understanding how this chemistry works.


The short answer to your issues is : You have way too much Stabilizer (CYA) in your pool. CYA takes the "Chlorine" out of solution - protecting it from sunlight and slowly releasing it back into the water. You definitely need CYA in the water or you would loose all of your Chlorine to sunlight - but too much and Algae can grow in the pool even with "high" levels of FC.

In order to properly clean your pool you will need to bring the FC level up to "Shock" level and keep it there - we call this process SLAM. The problem is the proper shock level is 35-40% of the CYA level - so at CYA 150 you are looking at shocking at FC 60ppm - which is just a pain in the butt.


As Mr. Bruce has pointed out - it would be best to replace at least 1/2 of your pool water. It'll bring your CYA down to a manageable level and get rid of a bunch of "gunk" as a side benefit.

 

[borjis]

He's in water restriction territory (CA) though....so you might also look into Reverse Osmosis to get the cya level down.

 

[pooldv]

The other ingredient in bleach is water. It is water, salt and chlorine.

 

[AustroTom]

Hello All,
Thank you for your helpful replies!

No, it's not a good idea to refill a pool in SoCal this time of year.
And, I already dropped and refilled it by 1/3 or so.
Won't Liquid chlorine and or shock raise the solids in the water even further?

I wish I had the time to read up on all your TFP approach and treat my pool more scientifically, but I do have a business and so my time is very limited.
Regardless, I will try to become a TFP "expert" and won't let this happen again

 

[Mr Bruce]

Solids in the water are not a thing we care about. The bottom line is keeping the FC level above the minimum for your CYA. For CYA 150, that's 11. The target would be 17.