Over a week and still have cloudy water!

[ridgeway]

A bit about the pool. Its roughly 17' x 35' roam style pool. Cartridge filter. I am a new pool owner trying to gain as much knowledge I can about maintaining my pool. This site helped tremendously. I am currently using test strips and know I need to get a high quality Taylor test kit. Right now, I need to clear it up so I can close it. I can't keep the leaves out of it fast enough!

I pulled the retractable cover off last week and was greeted with extremely cloudy water. It was so cloudy, I could not see the bottom in the shallow end.

My PH and TA are balanced, according to the pool store water test(strips also). However, my CYA is sky high(200 according to pool store) and they did not mention one thing about it, other than sell me chemicals that was supposed to clear it. The previous owner used 3" pucks exclusively. The free chlorine level was zero at this time. After 3 days without seeing an increase of free chlorine, I found this site and started doing some research. I then went to Sams and purchased several cases of bleach. Within a couple hours of adding bleach, my test strip started showing chlorine and started to see a tiny change in clarity.

Anyhow, I have been constantly shocking it and keeping the chlorine levels high. My test strips are indicating 10, but i'm sure that is not accurate, but regardless its showing high free chlorine.

The picture below is showing some clearing, but the process has been pretty slow so far.

1. My question is, am I on the right track of shocking with a combination of bleach and powdered shock?
2. How long is this going to take?
3. Would it be OK to close the cover to keep the leaves out?

Also, I hosed out the large cartridge filter several times. The first time, the water used to rinse the filter was very milky colored. The other times, not as much. The filter was new last year and looks OK to me.

4. Do you think it needs replaced?
5. Can I close in the current state of clarity?

Pump has been on 24/7 since this happened.

Sorry for all the questions, i'm just running out of time to get it closed! I'm afraid to return to the pool store and have another several hundred dollars in stuff I don't need!

 

[Bama Rambler]

You have a decision to make. You can get a good test kit and properly shock it to get it clear and then close it. Which will most likely mean draining a lot of your water in order to get the CYA down. Or you can close it now and deal with it on opening.

 

[lewistonpool55]

Ridgeway,
The first thing I would do is get that test kit. Really the test results are what is used to determine what your next step should be. I converted to bleach at the beginning of this season after a two year battle with the powdered shock. I would stop using that stuff as well. Mostly because I am pretty sure there is CYA in that stuff and if your CYA really is that high you don't want to add more.
1. Get the right test kit
2. Post your test results
3. Keep skimming the leaves man.
I wouldn't think of closing my pool without the right water balance. Our winters are harsh here in Buffalo and I don't see my pool for months. You never know what it's going to look like after all that time.

 

[cood60]

Having just been through an algae ordeal, I will give you my two cents:
Buy the TF100 kit now, and get at least two extra xl kits, also the speed stir thing is a huge time saver (the xl kits will enable you to do the many OCLT tests you MUST do.)
Read and re-read the pool school items on "The Shock Process" ( be sure to study about the OCLT and the CYA Chart), "Defeating Algae" and "Mustard Algae". There is no sense in doing anything til you get the kit and extra supplies and digesting the pool school articles.

My pool took 7 full days to be free of algae....it was totally clear 3 days after starting the shock process yet the algae kept eating chlorine until the 7th day. It was frustrating and took over 100 gallons of Bleach, but worth the wait...I am not a real patient guy but am massively persistent

 

[PAGirl]

Don't be afraid of the BBB method, it really works!

And Howdy from DuBois!

 

[ridgeway]

Thanks for the tips! I will head out Saturday and hope I can find a decent test kit.

Just going by the test strips...I added seven 1.4 gallon jugs of bleach over the past week. I'm guessing clairity improved 50%.

Right now, I want clairity so I can close. The CYA issue will be addressed in the spring. Maybe ill get lucky and it will all oxidize by May, lol.

 

[PAGirl]

Thanks for the tips! I will head out Saturday and hope I can find a decent test kit.

Just going by the test strips...I added seven 1.4 gallon jugs of bleach over the past week. I'm guessing clairity improved 50%.

Right now, I want clairity so I can close. The CYA issue will be addressed in the spring. Maybe ill get lucky and it will all oxidize by May, lol.

I got an HTH kit from the local True Value, but I hadn't needed to shock. For shocking you need the powder stuff. The local kits only go to 5, and if your CYA is that high, you'll need something better to measure it.