First Post...Trying to get clear water consistantly...

[henny]

Hello all, this is my first post and I have had the pool in my sig for almost two months now. I have been lurking and reading the stickies but am still having a few issues...

My issue is I cannot get my pool clean and clear for very long. If we do not swim in the sucker everything seems to drop down to the bottom of the pool (greenish/yellow in color) and the water is clear. Once I manually vac the pool the water becomes cloudy as heck (5-7 foot viability cloudy). Here are my test numbers:

FC: 5
TC: 5
CH: 220
CYA: 60
TA:90
pH: 7.6
PHO: 300

my numbers seem to be pretty steady at these readings but the dang thing just does not want to be clear.

I for example just vacced it and it became super cloudy. I put some clarifier in from the pool store so we shall see how it is in the coming days.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

It sounds like you have a lot of dust on the bottom of the pool that easily gets stirred up into the water. Careful vacuuming, move the vacuum very slowly so it does not stir up dust should take care of that.

It is also possible that something is wrong with the filter, allowing the dust to go right through the filter and get back into the pool. How has your filter pressure been behaving? A tear in the filter that is fairly difficult to spot could cause this. A torn filter will catch some debris, but not nearly as much as a good filter.

 

[henny]

Thanks for the welcome and reply...I will take a pic of the pool to show the condition tomorrow morning when it is light out. The filter is only about two months old and the pressure stays around 10-12lbs through out the week and when I vac after about 2/3 of the pool it spikes to around 18-20lbs. The filter element is usually caked green so I take about 5 minutes to wash it off.

Next time I vac the pool I will try to wash off the filter before the spike as I think some of the junk is passing through it back into the pool before I clean it off.

For what its worth do my chemicals sound on point? Do you think it could be any type of algae?

Thanks again!

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

For what its worth do my chemicals sound on point? Do you think it could be any type of algae?

Hard to say. Based on the CYA/FC chart: pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock

For you CYA of 60ppm, the minimum you should ever allow the FC is 5ppm ... has it dropped below that? Are you sure it is staying above that? Does your test kit test above 5ppm?

 

[henny]

Welcome to TFP!!!

For what its worth do my chemicals sound on point? Do you think it could be any type of algae?

Hard to say. Based on the CYA/FC chart: pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock

For you CYA of 60ppm, the minimum you should ever allow the FC is 5ppm ... has it dropped below that? Are you sure it is staying above that? Does your test kit test above 5ppm?

I have a basic test kit and it is alwasy on the 5+ side (I know I need to get a better test kit) along with when I take the pool water into the store they always have a higher reading of 5-6.

Would the easiest way to decrease the CYA is to just backwash some water out and then replace?

 

[FamilyGuy]

Yes the best way is to do a partial drain and fill

 

[jblizzle]

Your CYA is not really high enough that I would worry about it and try to actively lower it.

If you want to, better to use the WASTE function if you have a multiport valve ... not really a good idea to run that much water backward through the filter.

 

[henny]

Your CYA is not really high enough that I would worry about it and try to actively lower it.

If you want to, better to use the WASTE function if you have a multiport valve ... not really a good idea to run that much water backward through the filter.

Will the CYA eventually bleed off through people going in and out of the pool, splashing and what not?

Do you think the best course of action is to just keep the FC around 7 per the CYA/FC charts?

 

[jblizzle]

The CYA come down VERY slowly due to just splashout. It is a % game ... do you really splash out 25% of your water? that would get you down to 45ppm.

You certainly need to keep the FC up around 7ppm until you get the CYA lowered.

 

[henny]

Ok thanks for the advice...the family and I will have a cannon ball contest asap!

Also I was reading about return jets. Ours are pointed basically straight up (the way it was when we purchased the house) and I'm reading we want to have them in a circular orientation. Is it difficult to change the direction of the jet? I know this is not the correct forum for that but it help might solve the cloudy issue.

 

[Smykowski]

There should be a collar around the eyeball. Unscrew it a bit to loosen it, adjust the eyeball, and retighten. Do all of that with the pump off.