Cloudy Pool

[janetlr]

Hello. This is my first post on here, just joined today. I have a 9,000 gal above ground pool. I NEED HELP!!!! This is my first time taking care of it, my dad bought it for my son and maintained it for me, but he has passed away so this is my first shot at it. When we opened it, it was green. I have gotten it passed that and it is cloudy/clear/cloudy/clear. I've spent about $300 in chemicals in the past month. I have a test kit, not sure of the name but I'm not very good at judging the colors so I have to go to the pool store to have it tested. Everytime I do....$50 + later. Here are the readings from yesterday.

FAC - 0
TAC - 1
PH - 7.2
Total Alkalinity - 90
CH - 120

They sent me home with some clarifier and the process they want me to use is
clarifier, vacuum 2 hrs later, shock, then tomorrow put CH chemical in the pool. The girl told me we're not holding chlorine. I have a floater in the pool with tablets. Last week we had too much Chlorine. This is driving me crazy. I can't get it straight and I don't know what to do. One other thing is the water smells like liner not chlorine and someone else mentioned it to me as well when they stood by the pool they said they don't smell chlorine all the smell is liner and I hadn't said anything to anyone that the water smelled like that. PLEASE HELP!!!

 

[Charlie_R]

First thing, Your pool is a vinyl lined pool. You DON'T need CH raised at all. What you have in there is ok.

Next, you need to buy a good test kit. I'm not talking about a Walmart type, You need a "professional" type. You can order one here:
http://tftestkits.net/

Once you get your kit, you can post results here.

While you are waiting for it to arrive, be reading Pool School, linked in the upper right corner of the page. This will give you the basic understanding of what your pool really needs, and free you from the pool store's sales tactics.

Get several bottles of plain household unscented bleach. This is what you will be using most of for clearing and sanitizing your pool. Bleach is sodium hypochlorite, the same active ingredient in most of the pool store's sanitizers. Pour 1 bottle into your pool, in front of the running return (where the water comes back into your pool from the pump).

You will learn in pool school that shock --what we call SLAMing your pool-- is a PROCESS, not a product. You will also learn that unless there is a problem, you won't need to "shock" your pool at all.