Cloudy water

Jump to latest Follow Reply
J

JimmieD

0
Aug 25, 2016
7
Carmel/Indiana
We have a real cloudy pool after adding in ProTeam Shock and Swim oxidizing shock to stop foaming. We found out that our chlorine had dropped to zero. All we were to do was to chlorine shock it back. We added one and one half gallon of chlorine shock; now it is cloudier ! Naturally we have a party Sunday and this is Thursday; Argh ! Any suggestions ?
Thanks in advance ! Jimmie
 
Hello Jimmie and welcome to TFP! :wave: From your description and the looks of things in your signature, it sounds as though you may have an algae bloom beginning. The first thing we would like to see are a full set of results from your TF-100. As you may know from other posts here, we don't recommend the Frog system or any other product that uses minerals to sanitize the water. Being on a well, minerals is the last ting you want in your water. I also suspect the pool store products may only be making things worse.

Let's see those test results and we'll have a much better path forward. Will you be able to fix all of this by Sunday? ... too early to know yet. We'll do what we can to help you. Nice to have you with us.
 
Yep I had forgot to include the test results Sorry. It is depressing to see all of the negative talk about our state of the art system; ARGH ! Should have been here before buying.
TF100 says= Temp= 84, Total Chlorine = 2, Free chlorine = 1.5, CC = .5, PH = 7.2, Total Alkalinity = 90, Hardness = 335, CYA = 29,,, Scotts Pool Store says Temp = 84, All Chlorine = 0, PH = 7.2, Total Al = 100, Hardness = 225, Stabilizer = 80, TDS = 682, Phosphate = 800. Chasing Phosphate is what started this white cloudiness; we put in phosphate remover 32 oz, then needed a clarifier to get rid of the white cloud. then put in oxidizer to get rid of the foam which started after the phosphate chase. then we are back to white cloudy. Now the total chlorine is at 1.2 FC = .8, PH = 7.7, phosphate back to 800.
 
Chasing Phosphate is what started this white cloudiness;
Click to expand...
Phosphates are a bogus parameter and not relevant to pool care but they sure are relevant to pool store profits. Stay out of the pool store.....please. They got you where you are. Confirm that CYA of 29 which normally is only measurable in units of 10 (30, 40 etc.)

Tomorrow AM get some bleach and bring your FC up to around 12-16 ppm....yes, 12-16 ppm. Then get back on the computer back to TFP and look in Pool School fror the SLAM article. That is what you need to do to clear your pool. Ask questions.
 
10 - 4 about the pool store.
We vacummed this am due to Flocking yesterday. While vacuuming I added a gallon of shock chlorine. We also did our weekly pool maintenance and chemicals such as Phos Free 16 oz, Stain & scale 3 oz, Algaecide 5 oz. Taylor kit k2005 says we are at 5 total chlorine. the Pool is about 50% clearer from when it was cloudy white could not see the bottom cloudy yesterday. We are running the pump for an hour then checking the chemicals via TF100 kit.

- - - Updated - - -


We need to decide to continue with the shocking via SLAM or Flock with Chlorine high ?
 
If you want to follow the TFP method, do not add anything else to your pool at this point other than plain chlorine bleach (aka liquid chlorine). Add enough to get your FC up to 16 as Dave said and don't let it drop back below 12. Run your pump 24x7 and you should see a dramatic improvement in time for your pool party. It will still be safe to swim in with FC at those levels, so keep it up and check/add chlorine as often as you can.

NO MORE MAGIC POTIONS!
 
This is a Frog System. There are two pots one with minerals and the other with Chlorine. We are to add once a week; Phos Free, Stain remover and Algaecide as normal maintenance this is from the installer. The pool worked until we started chasing phosphates to lower them. The Flock solution grabs the contamination and you vacuum them up after a 12 to 24 hour wait. That has been working clearing the pool up. Other clearing solutions do add other issues to the pool; that we have stopped. We have cleaned the filters after the vacuuming and kept the chlorine at 5. Thanks for the advise. I have been studying the slam process.
 
Hi Jimmie
You really need to start with the basics up in pool school. This would explain to you that you:
- do not have enough chlorine in your pool
- have been adding lots of expensive and unnecessary chemicals
- many of those chemicals have side effects you dont want, ie the algaecide (which only kinda helps to prevent algae, it wont kill it) and the frog system add metals to your pool, causing staining
- then the pool store gets to sell you metal sequestrant/stain remover, ca-ching
- then tells you to lower phosphates, ca-ching-ching
- the phosphate remover will make your water cloudy, ca-ching-ching-ching
- now you need clarifier, which might work, ca-ching-ching-ching-ching
- oh the clarifier didnt work so now you need to floc, ca-ching-ching-ching-ching-ching (Did they mention that floc wont work on live algae?)
- some of these products create a chlorine demand, so now you need to shock which uses up the metal sequestrant in the pool...........


Here we use chlorine, a bit of CYA and muriatic acid


Read through the forum with users who used the nature system. I cant remember a post about someone who decided to put in the nature cartridges. I can remember lots of posts of people who took out the cartridges though
 
It is your pool to do with as you wish. But I'm afraid you won't get much help on these forums with that witch's brew of stuff you're putting into your pool. That's simply not how we do it.

Best of luck to you.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Jeff,
I was explaining our situation and what we have been told to do. Not bucking y'all advice just getting all of the facts on the table. We are new to the pool world. We are an active family. No room for pool to fail so this last cloudy episode is putting a strain on us. It has been my wife's dream to have a pool but this is crazy about the maintenance. We have fell pray to the Pool Chemical Stores I believe. We trust everyone until we get burned.
We are making progress on the clarity; kept the chlorine up; we have been afraid of damage to the equipment and the liner. Caco has summed up our situation; all of the ching ching out of our pockets.
Thanks,
JimmierD
 
Simplicity and savings are the two greatest selling points of the TFP method. The only things I ever put into my water are bleach, salt, pH down, and stabilizer. I get all of these at Wal Mart.

But if you're going to do it, you need to go all in. Mixing our advice with pool store methods usually leads to disaster. This means you'll need to ditch the frog system, perform your own testing, and stay out of the pool store. If you'll commit to doing that, the experts here will fall over themselves to help you. And you'll have the most sparkling pool at the least cost imaginable.
 
Hi Jimmie
I hope I didnt come over too harsh, but as I was reading your story I got madder and madder at the pool store and what they were telling you to do. But in the end it is how most of the members got here, because they got pool $tored too :brickwall:

If only to give you hope about the savings I just went and brought all my pool chemicals for the season (seeing as mine is about to start). Grand total for 2x carboys of liquid chlorine, 2kg of stabiliser (actually had to order this in via a pool store so pricey), muriatic acid and 3x bags of salt. It came to $124 dollars. This is all I used last year so I am confident it will be the same this year

Now my pool may be smaller than yours, but you pay a lot lot lot less for chems than I do. The best price I can find is $10 gallon for bleach!!! I often see posts from the US saying $3 a gallon :grrrr: I so wish I could get that

As we are all pool owners we never recommend anything that will damage your pool or shorten the life of the equipment. If anything we are a bit cautious and there is plenty of advice on how best to save money while still having a safe and crystal clear pool

Use and trust your test kit. Ask away with your questions and leave that pool store behind with the money staying in your wallet :-D
 
Caco and Jeff,
Thanks for the encouragement.
I noticed you both listed salt. I need to continue with the pool school to which I have been reading this site's. We will finish out his season with the Frog I suspect. We have to decide as to approach next season. Even staying with the frog system we are not listening to the Pool stores any more that was crazy. We were doing fine until we trusted the pool store and tried to make it perfect. A close friend had said to go to this site and listen to you guys. We listened and just tried to let you know all of what we were into. This last few weeks has not been fun with the pool. No work my behind !
Well we pray this finds y'all well,
JimmieD
 
Some people add salt because they like the silky feel of the water, some add it because they have a SWG. SWG = Salt Water Chlorine Generator.

Once you stop the Frog stuff, you will be miles ahead. From there we can help you get the rest of the way.
 
Hi Jimmie
I have had bad excema in the past. My partner also has bad psorasis (think cracked and bleeding hands, feet or anywhere else the skin has folds)

Three years ago he got hit by a b-train, I think you call similar a canadian double over there, bigger than an 18 wheeler
As such we use our pool as a therapy pool and spend at least an hour a day in the summer either exercising to regain lost muscle or to ease stiffness in the joints
Therefore I run a pool high in water softeners, like salt and borax, to mollify the effects to our skin. Our skin clears up over summer now we follow TFP
I also need to be on top of the chlorination as my partner is really susceptible to skin infections. The one two months back had him in hospital for three weeks and into the operating theatre

I find salt at 3000ppm awesome
 
Hi, Jimmie, I wanted to add my 2 cents worth - I am in Greenwood, IN. I saw in your post that you "need to decide your approach to next season." I have been following the recommendations on this site for quite a few years. I don't post much but certainly do a lot of reading. I will admit that initially I was skeptical of the recommendations for maintaining the pool, but I am a firm believer now! My pool is sparkling and it takes very little effort to maintain it. I buy bleach (or "pool shock", depending on price), borax, and muriatic acid. The few times I have had to SLAM, I put in the recommended amount of chlorine and have not had any problems with my liner. The times I have had to SLAM have been due to my laziness with testing and sweeping.

My husband is even onboard now with the process and remarks how good the pool looks. The only time we go to the pool store is if we need parts. I encourage you to think about using the recommendations from the folks on this site for next year. There is no going back to the "pool store" way for me!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply