Please Help - Cloudy Light Blue Water

[PappaBear]

The weather in California recently turned warm and our plaster, 20,000 gallon pool turned green. Implementing retail store advice including Yellow Out the pool is now cloudy and a light blue color. I have been cleaning the filter cartridge daily - the material in the filter changed from a green color to a white color. The chemistry is:
PH < 6.8
CYA > 100
TA = 200-250
FC = 22.5 ppm
CC = 5 ppm
Any help will be much appreciated.
Thanks! PappaBear

 

[woodyp]

I assume you are in the shock process with the FC that high? Raise PH to 7.2 when you're done and FC falls to below 10.

 

[JasonLion]

You have several problems if those test results are correct.

You want CC to be zero. You need to shock, presumably continue shocking, the pool until CC is 0.5 or lower.

You never want the PH below 7.2. Worse, when the FC level is that high the PH will read as higher than it actually is. That means that the PH could be really really low. I hope this test result is incorrect and that isn't the problem. But if PH really is that low, you need to get the FC level down to a level where the PH test works and start raising PH back up to something reasonable.

CYA over 100 is very problematic. Try doing the CYA test again, but this time mix equal parts of pool water and tap water together, do the CYA test on that, and multiply the result by two. Hopefully CYA is closer to 100 than it is to 200, because even with CYA at 100, you don't have FC high enough to reach shock level (which is 25-39 when CYA is 100, and higher still if CYA is over 100). It will be much simpler to clean up the pool if you replace water until CYA is down to something more reasonable.

 

[Voodoo_Pool]

Welcome to the Forum!

Let's start with a couple of basic questions, so that we can get you that troublefree pool you are looking for:
1) What is your source of chlorination (pucks, liquid chlorine, SWG)?
2) How do you test your water (pool store, test kit - type)?

Next, I recommend reading these articles:
pool-school/pool_water_chemistry Great primer.
pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock The relationship between CYA and chlorine.
pool-school/recommended_levels Your 'target' ranges.
pool-school/pool_calculator Easily determine amount(s) of chemical(s) to add and how it affects other parameters.
pool-school/shocking_your_pool You will definitely want to do this with a CC of 5 ppm. I will point out that shocking is a process, not a product. It is a verb, not a noun...as Richard says. :lol:

This will get you well on your way! :-D