Cloudy Water

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PastorNick

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Sep 14, 2016
6
Hudson, NC
I recently purchased a house with an IG pool. After getting rid of the algae from the previous owner, the water is still cloudy and I'm having a hard time keeping my FC level up. I've tested the water and the levels are below. I replaced the pump motor due to it going out on me. I'm not sure if the cloudiness could have been because of poor circulation due to the weak pump motor. Any suggestions on how to clear up the water?

FC 1
CC .5
pH 7.6
TA 150
CH 280
CYA 50
 
Pastor,

Welcome to TFP, it is a great place to be... :lovetfp:

I would suspect you have never gotten rid of the algae. That is what is making your water cloudy.

Your first step would be to run an OCLT test.. Right after sunset, add enough liquid chlorine, or plain bleach, to bring your FC level up to at least 5 ppm. Record the FC level about an hour after you added the chlorine. Then set your alarm and get up just before sunrise and retest your FC level. If overnight, you lost more than 1 ppm of FC, you more than likely still have algae present in your pool.

Suggest you read the following:

Overnight FC Loss Test

SLAMing Your Pool

Jim R.
 
Thanks for the input. I plan to do the OCLT tonight. This raises two questions for me.

1. Do I need to just test the FC or do I need to test everything else?

2. What do I do if I do lose more than 1 ppm of FC? (Although the water is blue with a white cloudy tint I'm guessing it is algae. The pool store had me use Yellow Treat a few weeks ago and I've used some Clorox brand Eliminator as well.)
 
Not sure if Jim is up and had his morning java jet, :) .... but to quickly answer your questions:
1 - For your OCLT, just focus on FC for now
2 - SLAM as noted in Jim's link above. A CYA of 50 would required an FC SLAM/Shock level of 20 to be maintained 24/7 until you pass all 3 SLAM criteria.

Bonus info - Don't add anything else to your water other than regular bleach, and stay out of the pool store. :)

Good luck, and have a nice day.
 
So I need a little more guidance. I ran the OCLT and my FC dropped from 7.5 to 5.5 and the CYA was at 60. I added the recommended amount of liquid chlorine (bleach) to the pool to get it to the shock level of 24 per the Chlorine/CYA Chart. I just now checked the levels and the FC is at 22.5 and the CYA is at 45. What now? Do I try to push the FC level back up to 24 per this morning's CYA level of 60 or do I allow the FC to adjust down (somewhere around 18) to match the new CYA level of 45? Thanks in advance for the help!
 
Are you testing CYA in the same way every time? Full sun to your back, tube waist high holding with 2 fingers at the top, not staring into the tube but glance, squirt, glance, squirt?
 
I'm sure there was some variation in the way I tested it but I will have the opportunity to test it again in about 2 hours. I'll test it as you've suggested.

- - - Updated - - -

If the CYA is higher, say 60, would I need to add bleach to get the FC back up to 24? If the level is at 45 would I need to allow the FC to come down and then maintain it at 18?
 
Maybe this will help:
Proper lighting is critical for the CYA test, so you want to test for CYA outside on a bright sunny day. Taylor recommends standing outside with your back to the sun and the view tube in the shade of your body. Use the mixing bottle to combine/gently mix the required amounts of pool water and R-0013 reagent, let sit for 30 seconds, then gently mix again. Then, while holding the skinny tube with the black dot at waist level, begin squirting the mixed solution into the skinny tube. Watch the black dot until it completely disappears. Once it disappears, record the CYA reading. After the first test, you can pour the mixed solution from the skinny view tube back to the mixing bottle, shake, and do the same test a second, third, or fourth time to instill consistency in your technique, become more comfortable with the testing, and validate the CYA reading.
Click to expand...

Once confirmed, simply adjust/maintain the FC accordingly. Either add bleach to increase or let the FC drop a little if the new CYA is found to be lower than you previously thought.
 

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I've been working to keep the chlorine level up as part of the slamming process. Any idea how long this should take? The pool is sky blue with a white haze to it. The CYA has been at 60 so I've kept the Chlorine at 24 as per the Chlorine/CYA Chart. Just curious if I'm looking at a few more days or a week. Any thoughts would be helpful. Thanks!
 
Very hard to pin down. From your description, it sounds as if the algae is beginning to die and turn white which will take some time to filter-out. At the same time, you continue to maintain the FC level and brush often to remove any residual algae still trying to cling to pool surfaces. Remember that your pool is not closed and you can go in the water as long as you don't exceed your SLAM FC level. But definitely stick with it until you pass all 3 SLAM criteria. Depending on your consistency, it may be a 3-4 days, or may be a week or so. We just don't know from our end, but you'll definitely see the transformation.
 
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