cloudy water condition...

[Ray-Dean]

I'm new here, as you can tell by post count of 1, and I have an issue with my water. I've read and read, but not finding quit the answer I'm hunting. To start, as stated in my sig. line, I have a new 18'x4' AG with a cartridge filter and skimmer, 1000 gph pump.

Upon setup, water was perfect for slightly over a month. Then we had a freak un-seasonal wet period followed by all the trees in the area pollinating at the same time. My water went from perfectly crystal clear to milky gray over night and has not come back.

Now I have read enough here to know that you are going to want hard numbers from a respectable test kit, but I can not give those at this time. I have a TF100 on order, however I live in a geographical oddity where I'm three weeks from everywhere. So for now a former co-worker is testing the water at work (town water treatment plant lab). I used to work for the city and still have a few hookups there and within DEQ.

So while the tests are being done, I'm not the one with the results and therefore can not provide the numbers until my kit gets here.

So onto my question, I had believed that I needed to SLAM my pool. I shared the info from this board with the guys doing the tests for me, and they agree and are using the methods listed here to advise on the amount of bleach to add each time to maintain shock level.

We've been at this for over a week now with little to no improvement to water clarity. The pool never turned green, and my FC never fell below 2ppm (low I know, but never 0). So I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't an organic issue I'm fighting and a chemical imbalance instead.

We have really hard water here, so 120 lbs of pool salt was added to the water at startup to soften it some. The pool sees direct sunlight for only two-three hours per day and it has relatively low FC loss during the day and over night. (FC is the only thing I can really test on my own at this time).

Does this (obviously with out #'s it's hard to say) sound plausible?

Thanks and sorry for the lack of data. I'm working on correcting that.

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! What are you using to chlorinate your pool at this time? What where you using before you began the slam process?

 

[duraleigh]

I live in a geographical oddity where I'm three weeks from everywhere

????? About the longest delivery time ANYWHERE is 5 working days. You should have a tracking number emailed to you. Please PM me with your last name if you didn't get that email.

Meanwhile, you can put your pool in a sort of holding pattern until you can get us some numbers by putting in 1 quart of Clorox each evening until you can post results. I'm sure you need to SLAM but we really need those results to confirm and you'll need the accuracy of the kit to perform the SLAM correctly.

 

[Suziqzer]

How can you say you SLAMmed your pool when you don't know all of the test results? Or at least you didn't share them with us. Were they about to test for CYA.
Without knowing your accurate test results, we can't tell you where to start or what to add.

CYA tells us how much chlorine to add to clear your pool, and then maintain it.. w/o that value, we can't tell you what your shock value should be or your maintenance level should be.

My guess is that 2 is too low for even maintenance for your pool, and if you have a cloudy pool, holding your FC level at maintenance level won't clear it.
A cloudy pool can be dying algae or the start of algae.


Get your test kit ordered and do as duraleigh suggested and hold your FC until you can get us some accurate results.

 

[Ray-Dean]

Thank you for the replies. I may have been unclear. I DO have results, I just don't have them on my person at the moment. Sorry for the confusion.

My pool only dipped to 2ppm on a few occasions and was not there for long. Not being argumentative, just trying to clear a few things up.

I am holding the FC level at 15 until my kit comes in. And being three weeks from everywhere was a pun. I do live out in the sticks, and the typical 5-7 business day shipping takes more along the lines of 10-12. Not a big deal as you get used to it.


EDIT: Sorry, I am using 7.86% chlorine bleach to chlorinate at this time. I was previously using the 1lb packets of HTH "shock-n-swim". The switch to liquid bleach took place Saturday evening and I chlorinate at 6:00'ish a.m., noon'ish, 5:30'ish, and again at 10:00' ish.

 

[GuinnessPhish]

To reiterate:

You need to have an accurate reading of your CYA level. Without that number, no one can help you determine what your next step is.