Cloudy Water Help

[marshmc]

This is my first season with a pool. I opened the pool this spring and everything was great, in the past two weeks, the water has become cloudy and tonight I thought it may have a green tinge. Here are the test results from tonight:

FC 2
CC 0
TC 2
PH 7.8
TA 100
CH Didn't test, usually about 160
CYA 80
Salt 2870

I was running the filter 24/7 and the water was clear, then I cut back to 6 hours per day at night, increased to 8 per day and tonight switched it to 12 per day. I don't know the flow rate for my pump, but 6 seemed liked enough with only 7200 gallons. We have also received 2-3 inches of rain the past two weeks.

I would appreciate any help you can provide on clearing up the water, and an approach to maintain it.

 

[crek31]

You will likely need to add bleach, and possibly turn off the SWG until the water is balanced again. You'll need to wait for others to tell you more as I'm new to SWG. But I'm pretty sure your FC is too low. With a CYA of 80, and a SWG, your FC should be between 4 and 6.

 

[duraleigh]

Yes, you have inadequate chlorine. Bring your FC up to at least 8-10ppm and see if that doesn't clear your pool. If it's not clear in 24-48 hours I would bring it up to shock value. Read How to "Shock your Pool" up in Pool School and follow that process specifically. I suggest you use only Clorox or liquid chlorine .

 

[benavidescj]

After you get rid of the cloudiness per Dave's instructions you need to maintain your FC between 4-6 ppm. You might lower you TA a bit as well to around 60-70. This will help keep your pH in check.

 

[marshmc]

Thanks for the help. Here's an update. The temperature here has been 100+, I brought the chlorine level up, but the conditions continues to deteriorate. Tonights test values:

FC 16
CC <.5
TC 16 - 16.5
PH 8.2
TA 110
CH N/A
CYA 80

Based on the results, I'm bringing the FC up to 21 (shock), and I've added 16 oz by weight of dry acid to bring the ph down, this should also bring the TA down. Pool calculator called for 19 oz of dry acid, but I thought I'd do this and retest in the morning and re calculate since I'm so far off on PH.

Does it make sense that the PH would have gone up from 7.8 to 8.2 in two days?

The color is turning more green, but there are no algae clumps.

Does this plan make sense? anything else I should be doing?

 

[Butterfly]

Don't test pH when FC level is above 10 as it will give a false high reading. When the FC level drops below 10, test and adjust pH to 7.2, circulate about 30 mins., and then retest to confirm target. Once your pH is set, continue shocking til done and don't retest or worry about pH while shocking.

Shock level for 80 CYA is between 21 and 31. I think you should aim somewhere in the higher range and see how that works for you.