Cloudiness help

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buzzforb

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Jul 2, 2010
12
I have recently had to shock my pool after an extended vacation and while it is a nice blue color, it is very cloudy. I have an SWG but it is not currently hooked up, as we are monitoring things daily. We will be closing it down for the winter and I wanted to get in clean before doing so. It would also be helpful if you could point me to a link that will help me prepare for winterization.

I have an Intek 18' pool
FC=5.2
CC=1
PH=7.6
TA=130
CH=50

We are out of CYA tester, but i am pretty sure it is high, as we have added what is a normal amount to maintain it and we are also mainting chlorine levels failry easily after a couple of sunny days. I have inlcuded a pic of the ladder in the pool to show the cloudiness.
 

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Welcome to TFP! !

You need to know the CYA in order to know the required FC levels to SLAM the pool. You FC is certainly too low for any amount of CYA. Review the links provided above.
 
I do have the test kit. Just recently added 2/3 bottle of stabilizer and them two more gallons of Clorox 2. Will order replacement cya test chemnicals as well as add more chlorine. Will also try the overnight test tonight. Thanks for the help.

BTW, with cheap little test strips, the stabilizer looks good to high. It will have to do until i get replacements.
 
We added granules yesterday afternoon and this morning. I cannot test it due to needing to replace chemicals in kit, but strip test shows it as being high and based on how much we have used, i would expect it to be in the 60ppm range, based on history. Since adding the CYA, we have only added about 2 gallons of chlorine. Before that, it took about 10 gallons to kill the algea. Now its just about the cloudiness.
 
There is no way to be sure you have killed all the algae unless you pass the 3 criteria listed above.

If you would be more specific with the amount of stabilizer you have added, you can use the poolcalulator to determine how much CYA it should have added.
 
Saying it was high was a poor choice of words. I believe for a vinyl pool, it is recommended to be 60-80. I believe it to be in this range as it shows high on the test strips whcih would be looking for a smaller number in general, from what I understand. I will try the over night test tonight. I have orderd more reagant for the CYA. It will be here Tuesday. I will post numbers from tonight and and the morning, tomorrow.

As for the amount of stabilizer added, I added appx 1/2 to 2/3 of a bottle of the granules you buy at Walmart. In truth, until the reagant comes in and i can get some numbers, it is all guessing. I appreciate you guys pointing me on the right path. I feel more confident about where I am and the possiblity of fixing the issue now. It was Hunter Green just a day ago, so at least moving in the right direction.
 

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If your swg was on your pool and being used and you didn't have algae, then 60-80 ppm would be right. Since you are shocking it would have been better to keep the cya low. Make no more decisions about cya using strips, they are very unreliable for cya (and also for some of the other tests). Focus on getting more cya reagent, then when you know your cya level, you can start the SLAM process correctly. See: http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/shocking_your_pool
 
I checked FC levels last night before going to bed. I was over 20ppm after adding 3 bottles of Clorox. This afternoon, it had dropped to 10. Not a real sunny day. CC was 1.5 this afternoon. May have been slightly less, but i was using the .5ppm/drop level.
 
OK. Sorry for the delay. Long week. Found out my wife added more CYA. Ugh!. ITs at around 120ppm. FC is 9.5ppm and CC is 1ppm. I can add water to the pool if this will help lower CYA. We are going to have a couple of sunny days, so perhaps that will help as well. I will check levels again tonight. THe CYA has been steady for a couple of days, but it has been cloudy and rainy.
 
I can add water to the pool if this will help lower CYA. We are going to have a couple of sunny days, so perhaps that will help as well.
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Adding water will not help. Drain/refill in increments is about the only way to lower CYA. Reading between the lines, I think you are assuming CYA is consumable or variable....it is not. Generally, once it's in there, it's in there.
 
Having been through pool school, I would highlight a few of the recurring issues that I have seen. First, since you have a pool and this is not a fresh install, your first issue is CYA/stabilizer. What level is it and where should it be? You should think of the proper CYA level as a zone; if it is too low or too high, it does you no good. So you have to get it into that zone where it will help and not hurt you. You add stabilizer to raise it, but the only way to lower it is to replace water. When you get your reagent, test your CYA. If it is 100, then retest using 1/2 pool water and 1/2 tap water. You would then multiply the result by 2 to get the real result. If it is STILL 100 (x 2 would be 200), then redo test using 1/4 pool water and 3/4 tap and multiply results by 4. The reason why CYA is so important is that it allows the water to hold back chlorine in reserve so that the sun does not use it up immediately. If you do not have enough then the sun just burns the chlorine up very quickly; too much and the water holds most of the chlorine in reserve and you have to use more and more chlorine to have the same effect. So assuming your CYA is very high, you would drain and replace in increments.

Second, once you get your CYA into the zone, then you would I think with your results, I would lower Ph to 7.2 because your TA is high. Third, you would go into the SLAM procedure and stay there until you meet the three requirements set out previously.

Once you meet the three requirements which means that you can end the SLAM, then you would fall back to the recommended levels for everyday use. I would suggest that you add one or two points to the recommended chlorine level and use that as your everyday target so you will have a little more wiggle room if you forget are get otherwise busy.

Good luck and welcome to TFP!
 
Thank you all. THe CYA number shown above is the tested number, taken with the kit from the forum, so it seems I have to drain/fill and get it back into place. Once i do this, I will start to bring other things back into line.
 
buzzforb said:
Thank you all. THe CYA number shown above is the tested number, taken with the kit from the forum, so it seems I have to drain/fill and get it back into place. Once i do this, I will start to bring other things back into line.
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I assume the number you're referring to is "120". When you got that result, how did you perform the test?

Do you intend to use the SWG, or will you be leaving it not hooked up?

I'd still like to know if you added "Clorox 2" to your pool.
 

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