Cloudy water in Endless Pool

[Caitiekay]

Hello,
I'm new here. I have an original endless pool that is approx 3000-3100 gallons; vinyl liner with a manual roller cover. I did not use it for many years for a variety of reasons, but I have kept the water level up and the pump running twice a day for about an hour each time. No chemicals, no cleaning, heat no other maintenance for at least 3 years; spotty maintenance for 2 previous. I finally decided it's time to clean and use it, or get rid of it.
I live in a very water restricted area, so refilling is not on the top of my list since we quickly jump into tierred expensive pricing over baseline water usage.

About 1-1/2 weeks ago I started cleaning. Installed a new cartridge filter, added shock started to adjust chemistry. Complete disclosure, I just kind of hacked at the chemistry for the first few days. My test kit and strips were old, but I mostly just had cleaning. Water has never been green, just alot of debris and cloudy. I had zero CYA reading and then ran out of that test; reoredered, but was not able to test.
The only supply store available to me is Home Depot. I got 1 packet of 10,000 hdx brand of shock, 4 gallons liquid 6% bleach and a new test kit from them, then ordered Taylor K-2005 refills from Amazon, also purchased Clorox Chlorine Stabilizer 10004CLX and waited.

I've been running the pump (not 24/7), but at least 6-10 hours a day sometimes without the cover, got the pool to 78-80 degrees and balanced - I think.
Aside from the fact that we get a lot of fog, I also have a partially shady back yard, so sunlight is not always present when I have the cover open

My problem - the water is still cloudy and I don't know which tests to trust anymore. Cleaned the filter yesterday and the day before. Just brownish, nothing alarming. No organic material, no algae.
do I just wait this out?
It's been getting incrementally better, but feels like I've reached a plateau on cloudiness.
Also, HDX test kit on chlorine is hughly different than Taylor kit. Both are brand new chemicals. New test strips come in at different readings too.


Today's current stats from Taylor: I had to use the 1.8ml test method.
water temp:78
FC Chl: 7-10 (had to use the 1.8ml and multiplier)
TC: ~10 (color is slightly darker than FC, but not much)
Alk: 110
Ph: 7.5
CYA: 40
Cal hard: ~300 (this is sketchy as the chem's are old and it seems so subjective on color change)

HDX kit shows:
Chlorine at 2-3 (this kit feels a bit like using a hammer to install a tack - no subtly at all)
Ph: 7.6
Alk: 120

Thanks for any advice.
Caitiekay

 

[jblizzle]

First throw away the test strips because no one here trusts them at all.

Second it does not appear that you got one of the recommended test kits. The chlorine test that you need to add to your kid is the fas-dpd chlorine test. This allows you to count drops to determine FC and CC and not try to guess at a color match.

 

[Caitiekay]

Thank you for the response.
I had the Taylor K-2005 kit already; I added fresh reagents. Honestly my intent was to not drop a lot of money into this until I can see if I'm going to use the pool enough to make the gas/elec/water/maintenance costs worth it.
Are you saying that I won't be able adjust my pool accurately until I get a FAS-DPD chlorine test? My Taylor DPD test kit seems to have been useful in the past. I had the Aquachek already also; though I'm not convinced about that product.

Aside from the various test result discrepancies, is this most likely a wait it out situation for cloudy water to clear up? Assuming I base this my Taylor K-2005 test results. The only difference I see is that I don't have the FAS part of the FAS-DPD. Is this going to make a big difference in my results? Am I missing something in that test kit that will help me significantly?
Thanks,
Caitiekay

 

[jblizzle]

You need to follow the slam process to clear up your pool. Right now your chlorine level is not nearly high enough for your cya level to be following the slam process. That is why you need to add the fas-dpd chlorine test to your kit, so you can accurately test high enough FC levels. You can get just the fas-dpd chlorine test from TFtestkits.net

 

[Caitiekay]

Thank you again.
I will get the FAS-DPD kit. Looks like Amazon has them too for less, and I'm prime member, so free shipping. But they are out of stock until end of next week. I'm going out of town at the end of the week for a week, so will have to take this up when I get back. Even if I ordered from TFtestkits.net, it takes 5 days to get to CA from NC (ironically, that's where I'm traveling to)

In the meantime. I have a question on the Chlorine-CYA Chart. I opened my pool this morning and have been running the pump after posting my first question. I retested the CYA just now and got a reading of 30. I know this is a difficult test to accurately gauge, but I feel like I'm being fairly diligent. Given that I've been getting between 30-40 ppm with recent tests, if I use either 30 or 40 cya on the chart is shows that I need a Target FC of 4-6 (30ppm) or 5-7 (40ppm). My chlorine level is consistently much higher than either of these targets.
I think I understand you telling me that I can't accurately gauge the FC levels because the tests I have are not accurate enough. Is this correct?

The tests I do have, have shown that the TC is not significantly different - almost the same - than the FC color comparisons. TC may be slightly darker in both the Taylor and HDX kits; but only slightly. I realize these are not the FAS-DPD test, but I would think I would see more difference in color if I had a real disparity between FC and CC. Is my logic correct here. I have read the Pool School, but may have missed something or just not getting it yet. Are these tests so inaccurate to be useless?

If they are somewhat accurate, wouldn't that mean that I am within target range? My chlorine levels were previously much higher (when I shocked it before) and I had essentially zero CYA. I added cyanuric acid a few days ago.

At this point I have to wait anyway since I can't get the FAS-DPD test delivered anytime soon. Should I add more liquid chlorine between now and 2 weeks from now when I can do the SLAM process? I purchased 2-gal of 10% when I was at Home Depot last time.
Thank you,
Caitiekay

 

[jblizzle]

The test you have is ok at roughly estimating you're FC level in the Target range. But since you have cloudy water and need to follow the slam process you need to maintain the FC at the shock level for your cya level which is much higher than your test will read

 

[Caitiekay]

Okay. Thank you. At least it looks like I'm all set up for doing a slam process when I get the FAS-DPD test kit; everything on hand, debris cleared and ph good - for now at least.
Thanks for your help!
Caitiekay