Hi, I'm still pretty new to pool care, so please bear with me and my long story. We started helping our neighbor clean/shock his pool about 2 and 1/2 weeks ago. We started from a green sludgy pool that was full of leaves and other debris and had brown slime on the bottom when you swept the bottom of the pool. For a few weeks before that, the neighbor had been dumping whatever additives the pool store said he needed, from calcium to loads of salt with an occasional bag of shock.
After 40+ jugs of bleach, we finally passed the OCLT a couple of nights ago and run from 0 to .5 CC when testing. The pool is clean, but the water is still cloudy. I think it's still slowly getting better, but it's going so slowly that I wonder if I have another problem. Here are my latest test levels:
FC 26.0 (This is what I'm trying to keep it at, but it does fall below that during the day when I'm at work and the sun is shining)
CC .5
TA 150
CH 250
CYA 65 (lowered from 80 by draining and refillling a bit)
PH 7.5
One other thing to mention. Once we passed the OCLT and the CC dropped to .5 or less, we started getting in the pool. The side walls and steps were extremely rough. After cleaning parts of it off and examining it, I am almost positive it is sand that has adhered to the sides of the pool. I'm able to get it off with a scrubby sponge, and we've have removed almost all of it. After cleaning off a section of the wall, the floor feels sandy and the polaris cleaner usually has a little sand in it. Maybe this is causing the cloudiness still? I was concerned at first that it might have been calcium scaling. I found a few pictures of what calcium scaling looks like though and I don't think that's what it is. It sure looks and feels like sand.
Also, I wonder if the salt level is too high. I thought I had read that the salt level in pools was low enough that it couldn't be tasted and I can definitely taste the salt in the water. Could too much salt be a problem? If so, how would you lower it? I have the Aquacheck salt test kit, but haven't tried it yet.
Thanks in advance for any help, this site is such a great tool.
After 40+ jugs of bleach, we finally passed the OCLT a couple of nights ago and run from 0 to .5 CC when testing. The pool is clean, but the water is still cloudy. I think it's still slowly getting better, but it's going so slowly that I wonder if I have another problem. Here are my latest test levels:
FC 26.0 (This is what I'm trying to keep it at, but it does fall below that during the day when I'm at work and the sun is shining)
CC .5
TA 150
CH 250
CYA 65 (lowered from 80 by draining and refillling a bit)
PH 7.5
One other thing to mention. Once we passed the OCLT and the CC dropped to .5 or less, we started getting in the pool. The side walls and steps were extremely rough. After cleaning parts of it off and examining it, I am almost positive it is sand that has adhered to the sides of the pool. I'm able to get it off with a scrubby sponge, and we've have removed almost all of it. After cleaning off a section of the wall, the floor feels sandy and the polaris cleaner usually has a little sand in it. Maybe this is causing the cloudiness still? I was concerned at first that it might have been calcium scaling. I found a few pictures of what calcium scaling looks like though and I don't think that's what it is. It sure looks and feels like sand.
Also, I wonder if the salt level is too high. I thought I had read that the salt level in pools was low enough that it couldn't be tasted and I can definitely taste the salt in the water. Could too much salt be a problem? If so, how would you lower it? I have the Aquacheck salt test kit, but haven't tried it yet.
Thanks in advance for any help, this site is such a great tool.
