I have cloudy water.
I do have a fine deposit of dust on the bottom of my pool each day. It is the same color as the dirt surrounding my new pool, a clay color. We have not seeded around the pool yet and with all the rain, we can't completely avoid muddy feet on the deck. I have felt the dust and it does not feel slimy. I have had this dirt since we first put the pool in about a month or so ago. We have had about 4 inches of rain the last 3 days and about 2 weeks ago we had at least 4 inches of rain. Also, this dirt got on the top of the solar cover, along with lots of rain. We couldn't get the solar cover off without it going into the pool.
I have a sand filter. I'm thinking it is possible I need to add DE to it. I have put panty hose on the skimmer baskets and panty hose in my Polaris 280 bag (Saturday morning). It does seem to be catching some of the fine dirt. I have never had to backwash my filter, but I have had to drain water from the pool (rain) 3 or 4 times since we got the pool finished. I did drain through the filter.
I have a SWG, but I have not turned it on because of our numbers.
Recent numbers (I had planned to turn the SWG on with these chlorine levels, but water was so cloudy, I didn't).
Friday night:
FC 3
CC 0
PH 7.5
TA 150
CYA 50
CH 190 (maybe 200)
Borates 0
That night we added Borax and Acid
On Saturday Night my results were:
I did not add any Chlorine at all and no SWG running. It rained on and off with clouds, but the pool was not covered. I ran the Polaris that day for 4 hours. I ran the pump all night Fri night and all day Saturday. I had fine dirt on the bottom of the pool Saturday morning.
FC 2.5
CC 0
PH 7.8 (I had added Borax and acid the night before, so this rise is probably from not putting quite as much acid as need? This test was less than 24 hrs after that addition).
TA 160
CYA 48
CH 200
On Saturday night, after running the pump all day, I got concerned that the dirt was algae and decided to shock. I got the chlorine level to 20 (I'm not running the SWG yet). It started pouring rain and I was out of bleach, so that is what it got to.
Later on Saturday night:
FC 20 (see above)
CC .5
PH 8.0
I added acid to reduce PH.
This morning (about 2 hours after Sunrise, cloudy conditions and uncovered pool). I had the dirt on the bottom of the pool, after running the pump all night, again. There was a little more during the night.
FC 9
CC 0
PH 7.8
I added some acid and brought PH to 7.7 (now).
I know I need to get more CYA. I looked at it at Lowes and it was $16.00 (DuPont) for 3 lbs. We had bought some at Walmart for $8.00, so I thought I would look there but they were out.
I am thinking of bring the PH down more and aerating to bring TA down, but my pool was clear before with TA of 150-160.
What should I do about the numbers and the dirt? I really don't think it is algae.
I feel I am overthinking everything and making mistakes. I have the FC lower so I can start up the SWG, but I want the pool clean.
Thanks for your help!
I do have a fine deposit of dust on the bottom of my pool each day. It is the same color as the dirt surrounding my new pool, a clay color. We have not seeded around the pool yet and with all the rain, we can't completely avoid muddy feet on the deck. I have felt the dust and it does not feel slimy. I have had this dirt since we first put the pool in about a month or so ago. We have had about 4 inches of rain the last 3 days and about 2 weeks ago we had at least 4 inches of rain. Also, this dirt got on the top of the solar cover, along with lots of rain. We couldn't get the solar cover off without it going into the pool.
I have a sand filter. I'm thinking it is possible I need to add DE to it. I have put panty hose on the skimmer baskets and panty hose in my Polaris 280 bag (Saturday morning). It does seem to be catching some of the fine dirt. I have never had to backwash my filter, but I have had to drain water from the pool (rain) 3 or 4 times since we got the pool finished. I did drain through the filter.
I have a SWG, but I have not turned it on because of our numbers.
Recent numbers (I had planned to turn the SWG on with these chlorine levels, but water was so cloudy, I didn't).
Friday night:
FC 3
CC 0
PH 7.5
TA 150
CYA 50
CH 190 (maybe 200)
Borates 0
That night we added Borax and Acid
On Saturday Night my results were:
I did not add any Chlorine at all and no SWG running. It rained on and off with clouds, but the pool was not covered. I ran the Polaris that day for 4 hours. I ran the pump all night Fri night and all day Saturday. I had fine dirt on the bottom of the pool Saturday morning.
FC 2.5
CC 0
PH 7.8 (I had added Borax and acid the night before, so this rise is probably from not putting quite as much acid as need? This test was less than 24 hrs after that addition).
TA 160
CYA 48
CH 200
On Saturday night, after running the pump all day, I got concerned that the dirt was algae and decided to shock. I got the chlorine level to 20 (I'm not running the SWG yet). It started pouring rain and I was out of bleach, so that is what it got to.
Later on Saturday night:
FC 20 (see above)
CC .5
PH 8.0
I added acid to reduce PH.
This morning (about 2 hours after Sunrise, cloudy conditions and uncovered pool). I had the dirt on the bottom of the pool, after running the pump all night, again. There was a little more during the night.
FC 9
CC 0
PH 7.8
I added some acid and brought PH to 7.7 (now).
I know I need to get more CYA. I looked at it at Lowes and it was $16.00 (DuPont) for 3 lbs. We had bought some at Walmart for $8.00, so I thought I would look there but they were out.
I am thinking of bring the PH down more and aerating to bring TA down, but my pool was clear before with TA of 150-160.
What should I do about the numbers and the dirt? I really don't think it is algae.
I feel I am overthinking everything and making mistakes. I have the FC lower so I can start up the SWG, but I want the pool clean.
Thanks for your help!