Very Cloudy Pool

[Ejay]

We just purchased a home with an AG pool which has been left uncovered and utouched for a year or more. It was dark green, I pumped the water out until it was about a foot deep and refilled with clean water. Prior to reading this website I began shocking with bags of shock and used a 5$ test kit, this was 2 weeks ago I ended up adding 10 bags of shock which changed the water color from a rather dark green to a cloudy/milky blue. I found this site about a week ago and armed myself with a k-2006 test kit, ipod pool calculater, 12 jugs of walmart bleach (186 oz) some borax, muratic acid and baking soda. So friday I checked the water:
fc - 2
ph - 7.5
cya - 40
ta - 100
I brought the fc up to 15 and have held it between 12 and 20 for 3.5 days,(9 jugs of bleach) it seems to drop about 4 ppm overnight. I checked cc and it was 1. My problem is that I have seen no change in the water at all . Is this normal? Am I being too impatient? Thanks in advance for any help and this seems to be a very informitive web site. Will try and send a pic.
Ej

 

[Ejay]

I also tried adding DE to my sand filter (about a cup in the strainer) a couple times , it did not seem to help.

 

[PaulR]

With CYA 40, the recommended shock level is 16, so you're in the right ballpark there.
pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock
Yes it can take a while. As long as you are losing FC overnight, or you see CC over 0.5, then there is still crud in the water to kill off with chlorine.

What kind of filter? How frequently are you cleaning it?
--paulr

 

[Ejay]

Sand filter, have not changed sand, backwash daily as pressure creeps up . Crept up faster when I tried the DE.

 

[dmanb2b]

I must say that is a milky blue...as paul R said it can take well over a week for a sand filter to filter out dead alage. Have you tested your CH level?

 

[Ejay]

No did not bother to check ch, will later this week.

 

[whoozer]

It can take a while to clear algae, just keep plugging with your shock levels as long as you have FC loss, I am on week six of shocking so sometimes you need some serious POP (pool owner patience) to clear it.

 

[Ejay]

If I were to raise the shock level to 20 - 25 ppm fc would it probably clear quicker?

 

[dmanb2b]

It may, but prob not, as long as you maintain shock level. The reason I ask about CH is I'm wondering if it is really high, it could be clouding the pool water...other than that it seems like dead algae that just needs to be filtered out.

 

[JasonLion]

You may have already done this, but if there is anything you can pick up off the bottom with a leaf net or vacuum you should get as much of it up as you can.

 

[Ejay]

I was wondering about that the problem is working in the blind, I really don't know whats down there (could be monsters) if I try to net the bottom it usually comes up empty but it sometimes causes gunk to float up. I have never seen my the bottom of my liner and am kind of curious what it looks like.
Thank so much for the help !
Ej

 

[mkenyon2]

If you have a sand filter, what can you do to speed up removal of dead algae?

 

[dmanb2b]

use a skimmer sock or add DE (instructions in Pool School)

 

[JasonLion]

Depending on how adventurous you are feeling, now might be a good time to re-settle the sand bed.

 

[Ejay]

I will try settling the sand this weekend, my wife checked th CH and said it was 50. Fc went from 17 to 14 overnight still no clearing.
Ej

 

[dmanb2b]

yup...17 to 14 overnight would indicate you are not done shocking. Keep it shock level, it will clear...your looking for an overnight FC loss of 1ppm or less.

 

[Ejay]

It seems as though it would start to look a little better, I think I am going to switch from sand to Zeobrite friday and see what happens.

 

[Ejay]

Finally got it clear last weekend, after flocking we were able to see the bottom and vaccum out the remaining crud. It seemed like as soon as I got the bottom vacuumed clean the chlorine level began holding (<1ppm drop) overnight. We did switch to zeo also, not sure if it was needed but we had good luck with it in another pool. Does our bleach use seem a little high at about 90 oz a day to maintain 4 ppm ? The cya dropped after vacuuming to waste and I just now got it back to about 45, kinda overshot. Anyway heres a pic.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Yes, that's a lot of bleach compared to my use. Do you use a solar cover at all?
When is the last time you did an overnight loss test?

 

[Ejay]

No we do not have a solar cover, we are in the process of moving and may only be at the pool every other day, if its at 4 ppm and I add a big jug of bleach (182oz?) about 48 hours later it is back at 4 ppm. The overnight loss friday was < 1. Thanks for the help everyone this site has been great.
Ej