The water looks slightly murky and distorted

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ac130loadmaster

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May 13, 2010
64
Mountain View, Arkansas
It has rained pretty hard for the last couple days and has been cloudy for three days. I have switched over to the BBB method and have actually found it pretty simple and keeps me on my toes on what my pool chem needs are. The problem I am having now is I can get crystal clear water. The water looks slightly murky and distorted and can barely see the main drain 8 feet down. The shallow end looks much clearer though. I leave my pump running 24 hours a day. Here are my pool chem levels:

Total Cl = 4.0 (Not sure of CC) but pool only had slight chlorine smell.
pH = 7.5
TA = 110
Hardness = 225
CYA = Not sure what to use. Pool place tested it at 50. My tester comes out at 32-35
Temp = 70

I have shocked it once before with no clearing of water. I just shocked again using 5 and half gallons of 6% liquid bleach based on a CYA of 50 to raise my shock level to around 16 ppm. I am using the BBB method. I have bleach, borax, baking soda, and bought stabilizer and algae poly 60, and ph down (dry acid) at pool store. These are the only chemicals I have. Does anyone know why my water would still be cloudy? Pool has been brushed and vacuumed and no visual algae in pool.

Thanks.

Al
 
I don't have a very good kit. I plan on ordering one of the kits on here very soon. I am using a 6-way aqua chem tester right now. The drops not the strips. So I am only able to measure total chlorine. The chlorine reading is way above the 5.0 indicator on the tube. It usually stays a reddish yellow color all night before starting to drop. By the end of the next day I am getting a reading of 2.5 to 3.0 total chlorine. Is it possible that I still have CC even without a strong chlorine smell?
 
You can use 3:1 ratio of distilled or chlorine-free water to pool water, mix this together and use it as your test sample, that way you can test TC up to 20, but you do lose some accuracy.

yes, it is possible.

If you are letting the chlorine drop down to 2.5-3 in between bleach additions this will take you longer. The more frequently you test and add bleach, up to hourly, maintaining your shock level, the faster the water will clear. :)
 
Are you running the filter 24/7? If you are filling algae, you still have to filter out the debris. Clean the skimmers and check the filter pressure.

I'll offer a guess that if you smell ANY chlorine you do have CC issues. I never smell chlorine in my pool, even when I shocked recently, and CC's were unmeasurable.
 
I will get some distilled water for now and try the 3:1 ratio and try to keep my chlorine level up for a day. I know I need the good testing kit soon to measure more accurately.

I run my filter 24/7. The skimmers aren't getting dirty, but I do check them daily. Including the one in the filter pump. My filter pressure has maintain around 10 to 11 psi without no noticeable increase. But I do have a very very slight smell of chlorine if the wind blows, but it isn't very strong.

I had a friend that told me to get a flocculant because my sand filter won't filter the small particles. I am new so don't know whether to disagree with him or not. I will just continue to keep my water at shock levels for now.

Thanks
 
I also got the hTh 6 way test strips that says it checks the free chlorine levels. Are the strips accuracy close enough to use as a gauge until I get a better test kit? The test strip read I had approx 10 ppm of free chlorine. And I will not be adding floc to my pool. Thanks for all the help. I have this site saved in my favorites now.
 
For some reason my CYA dropped down to 20 to 25. I suppose it is probably from vacuuming to waste and backwashing a lot. I was curious if I just added a couple 3 inch trichlor tabs to my skimmer if that would help the CYA increase over a week. I have about 10 tabs left over from my last bucket since switching to the BBB method and figured this might be a good way to get rid of a few of them.
 

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At the bottom of the Pool Calculator is a space that shows you what different chemicals will add to your pool. You can just tally the result and know when to test again to confirm what happened.

In my pool one puck adds about 1.3 CYA or something like that, so since my CYA is low now I am adding 7 pucks very very slowly to get to near 30.I am trying to save some CYA room for my big vacation when I will rely on pucks for the most part.
 
I have just one tri-puck in my skimmer now. I will save them for when I have to go out of town for more than a few days. And I thought the strips read FC levels up to 20. But just figured out that is for the Bromine level and that it reads only up to 10. So I have just keep putting about a gallon of 6% bleach about every hour or so since this morning. Hopefully it has kept the pool water up to shock level most of the day. I just poured my last gallon of bleach in about an hour ago. Guess the only way I will tell is if my water starts to clear up. I'll be ordering the good test kit tomorrow. I want my pool to be crystal clear by tomorrow, but figure it will take the filtet a day or two to catch up. Thanks for everyone's help today. Hopefully I will have some clearing of the water by tomorrow or so.
 
I also did a brushing and vacuuming job today while adding the chlorine. I ended up just vacuuming to the filter. There wasn't a lot of stuff on the bottom and it came right up. Did I just waste my time with all the chlorine since I vacuumed through the filter? I just thought about this and wasn't sure if I should have vacuumed to waste. Thought that may be for when there is a lot of big stuff and loose debris sitting on the bottom.
 
Most people only vacuum to waste when there is a lot of algae to clean up. In your case vacuuming to the filter is the usual procedure. You don't want to vacuum to waste all the time since you will loose a lot of water that way. Just be sure you watch the pressure gauge and back wash the filter when you have a 10 pt rise in pressure or your return flow is diminished.
 
Thanks. I did backwash a couple times during the vacuuming. I checked the chlorine level this morning before the sun came out and it is still reading above 10ppm, the same from last night after my last dose of chlorine, according to the HtH FC test strip anyway. But I have not a bit of water clearing at all. It is still cloudy. Could it be possible that the sand in my filter has been stirred up so much from backwashing that it isn't working as effective? Do I need to change out the sand media? Pool bottom is clear of debris. I'm am slightly frustrated, but am in for the long haul to get my pool looking sparkling clear.
 
AC...you really need a good test kit. Unless you are at shock level or above, your water will not clear. Also your filter should be running 24/7 while at shock levels.
 
May want to get your FC up to about 10 for a few days. Sometimes a little clarifier (the cationic type) helps- it'll consolidate the gunk and it'll clump on the bottom and can be vacuumed up. If that doesn't help, sometimes I add a couple of cups of DE to the skimmer to boost the filtration of my sand filter- just have to watch the pressure and backwash after it climbs more than 10 psi.
 
ac130loadmaster said:
Thanks. I did backwash a couple times during the vacuuming. I checked the chlorine level this morning before the sun came out and it is still reading above 10ppm, the same from last night after my last dose of chlorine, according to the HtH FC test strip anyway. But I have not a bit of water clearing at all. It is still cloudy. Could it be possible that the sand in my filter has been stirred up so much from backwashing that it isn't working as effective? Do I need to change out the sand media? Pool bottom is clear of debris. I'm am slightly frustrated, but am in for the long haul to get my pool looking sparkling clear.
Click to expand...

Have some POP - how long has it been? This thread began on Sunday... :wink:

Now I want to clarify, you have already stated that the filter is running 24/7
And you are maintaining a FC of 10 (according to strips). YOu stated you have the 6 way drop kit- have you tried the shot glass method? I'd suggest trying a target of 12, and use the shot glass method with the drop kit, rather than strips.

You should not have to change out the sand. If you like you can open it up, gently move the sand around with your hand (careful around the laterals) to try and resettle the sand.

Clarifiers and other additives are not a good idea unless one can confirm with an FAS-DPD test that the FC is in fact holding overnight, so I'd hold off on trying that. And since we can't confirm if the organics are all dead - I'm not sure the DE in the filter trick would work. But if you like, after you check the sand manually - you can try that option. Instructions for adding DE are in pool school.

But focus on your chlorine levels - 95% of the time that is the source of the problem. :)
 
Thanks for everyone's advice and help. I woke up to much clearer water and can actually see my main drain without straining. Took my pool water to have it tested and here are my new pool chem levels:

FC = 3.7
TC = 3.7
CC = 0
TA = 101
pH = 7.6
CH = 81
Copper and Iron = 0
CYA = 14
TDS = 0
Guess I need to increase my CYA and CH some.

I went and got borate test strips and am going to add borates to my pool as discussed in the Chem 201 forum. I have all the muriatic acid i need, but only have 13 of my 23 boxes of 20 mule borax. Stuff is hard to find. I hope it works. Thanks again

Al.
 

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