Cloudy swimming pool water

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Morne

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Jan 25, 2014
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Moderator Brushpup- Topics Merged, please keep the same subject limited to one post to eliminate confusion.

Ph of pool is high 8.4 plus, total alkaline 240 plus the rest is spot on. Battle to get ph and ta down. Problem ,I just cant get the water clear.Cant even see swim lines on floor a 1 m deep, even while pumps is running 24/7.I do hafe to add a lot of chlorine granules to keep the chlorine levels right with pumps running full time. Some advise whould be appreciated. Thanks
 
Hi, welcome to TFP! You will need to use muriatic acid or dry acid to bring the pH and TA down. We need to know the exact values for CYA and calcium. One or both of those values could be the problem. Our site will be offline today while we upgrade the software, so I will tell you what I think is going on with your pool.

You say that you use chlorine granules and those either have CYA or calcium as a stabilizer. Too much CYA will buffer the chlorine to the point that it becomes ineffective and you must use more and more to get the same amount of effective chlorine. The only way to reduce excess CYA is to drain and replace some of the water. If your CYA is over 50 ppm you need to drain and refill a percentage of the pool water. Go to www.poolmath.com to find out how much you need to drain.

If your calcium (CH) is greater than 350 ppm it is to high and needs to be drained to reduce it as well. Use the poolmath.com tool to determine how much.

Once your CYA and CH are at the correct levels you can slam the pool to clear it up. We recommend using liquid chlorine, either from your pool store or plain unscented bleach from the grocery store to slam the pool and as the regular source of chlorine for your pool. The poolmath tool will tell you how much to use.

Copy our pool school article how to slam your pool so you can use it while our site is down if you plan to work on your pool today. We should be back online by Monday morning.
 
This sounds like a commercial pool, is that right Morne?

I would try getting the pH down before and only because it is so high. It, combined with your granules may be causing your cloudiness or contributing to it.

Can you provide a full set of numbers in addition to those above? Readings for: Free Chlorine, Total Chlorine, Cya, Calcium?

Depending on a few factors, a pool that size may take a large amount of bleach to SLAM it, if that's what it needs.
 
Than you very much for your reply. You are right, the pool is not private. I stay in a remotely situated Air force base, the pool was in neglect and I offered to take over the maintenance of the pool, ,wich I must admit, is a mammoth task.I painted the entire pool with a epoxy pool blue paint, redone all the pumps filters and pipes. The pool with water looks great and everyone is swimming, but it is not clear, wich frustrates me, seeing the amount of time I put into this pool, mostely my spare time.I do not have the right testing kit, but will source one.I will send all results asp. I just dont know how to give the results back to you.
 
Good day. I have added the amount of acid calculated as by the pool calculator. Hp 7, 2, fc10, ta120, cya30. As I added the acid the water emidiately cleared up in that part of the swimming pool, but 25 seconds later all went cloudy again. I left the pumps running for 24 hours but on bypass, just to sirculate the water and also added a lot of chlorine granuals (slamed it).This morning it was still cloudy.I also want to ask, if I slam the pool, fc to over 10 and turn the pumps on bypass only , say 12 hours during the night ,I still get a reading of about fc 10. But as soon as I run the pumps on filter as it should, the fc reading goes from fc 10 to basically 0 overnight. Is that normal for a pumpsystem to remove the fc from the water as well.?. Lastly I must state that our groundwater (our base get out water from a riverbed groundwater) have a very high calsuim content. Advices would greatly be appreciated.
 
No, it is not circulation that is getting the FC, but it sounds like something in the filter could be consuming it. This would be an unusual situation, but based on what you are saying it might be the case. Pumping the water alone will not do that. Did you re-do the filter, or did it sit with water in it for a long period?

It sounds like you need to SLAM the pool and kill whatever is consuming all that Chlorine. SLAM is taking the FC up to a high level and keeping it there. You can't just do it in 12 hours. When you SLAM, you should be filtering the whole time. I would also suggest backwashing the filter too.

These granules are the only source of FC you have, and are able to get I presume? Being remote like that I would guess so. They are likely adding Calcium to your pool and that isn't good based on what you say. If it is possible to get some liquid Chlorine (bleach) I would sure recommend it instead.
 
Once again, thank you. When I overhauled the pumps ect, I also replased all the sand in the sand filters.I will continue to slam the pool for the next 3 days, I hope that would be enough?.I use around 4 kilogram (+-8 pounds of chlorine granuals each day and still my fc reading reads 0 in the morning, (pumps running 27/7).About your advice on the chlorine, iam going to make a great effort changing to bleach.Greetings from South Africa, Limpopo bushveld.
 
I'm sorry I can't say with certainty if three days will do it.

Can you look on the label and see what the strength and ingredients are on that granule Chlorine?

Bleach is better because of the reduced side effects, but do be aware it will take a lot for a 55k gallon pool in summer. Hopefully you can aquire 10-12% strength when you find it.
 
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cloudy pool

Good day once again. I had some good advice from your site about cloudy water and the possible causes, but I still batteling.The hth test kit I got can only determine the following so here goes, fc 2, ta 80, ph 8, cya 30.The pool in attending to is a pool on a military base so al the chemicals is bought on goverment order, so ill have to use this bio chlor plus granuals for at least another 2 months before getting any liquid chlorine. I have been informed that using chlorine granuals as well as groundwater with a very high calcuim content it would be impossible to get clear water, here is my question, in the pool chemical store I found aluminium powder, I was told that this is spread on the pool surface and actually bonds to all the particles in the water and accumulate at the bottom to be removed. Is that so and if so would it also bond to the calsuim particles, and sort out my problem. Thanx.
 

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Re: cloudy pool

Morne said:
Good day once again. I had some good advice from your site about cloudy water and the possible causes, but I still batteling.The hth test kit I got can only determine the following so here goes, fc 2, ta 80, ph 8, cya 30.The pool in attending to is a pool on a military base so al the chemicals is bought on goverment order, so ill have to use this bio chlor plus granuals for at least another 2 months before getting any liquid chlorine. I have been informed that using chlorine granuals as well as groundwater with a very high calcuim content it would be impossible to get clear water, here is my question, in the pool chemical store I found aluminium powder, I was told that this is spread on the pool surface and actually bonds to all the particles in the water and accumulate at the bottom to be removed. Is that so and if so would it also bond to the calsuim particles, and sort out my problem. Thanx.
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I've heard of Alum being used as a flocculent, but never Aluminum. And it won't work on Calcium, because Calcium is water soluble. It's not microscopic particles that need to be clumped together.

Your problem is that the FC is too low for the CYA and the pH is too high. It might also be the sand filter is channeled. Low FC is easy enough to fix - add more. pH is also easy to fix, add acid. My pool has climbed to 4 figure CH and never looked cloudy, so I don't think that's your problem. If you try the search box for channeling or sand filter cleaning, you'll find directions on breaking up the clumps inside with a hose.

A better test kit would also be a major help.
 
Re: cloudy pool

Actually, Aluminium based Coags/Flocs have been around for a long time for water calrification.

That said, we seldom suggest them for use in pools because they can be very unpredictable and instructions usually target a one fits all target approach. Another important reason, is that you can create a worse situation by using them in an attempt to clarify pool water. If it were my pool, I would only experiment with using them as an absolute last resort.
 
You have two posts on this which causes some confusion. I think that there are probably multiple issues causing the cloudiness. Some possible causes:

1) Based on the clearing when adding acid, calcium carbonate clouding is definitely a factor.
2) Paint chalking.
3) Insufficient water flow rate (turnover). 153 gpm will give you a 6 hour turnover.
4) Undersized filters. 10 square feet of sand surface area would give you 15gpm per square foot of sand surface area.
5) Excessive bather load.*
6) Fouled sand (scale and/or organic)
7) Insufficient chlorine levels allowing algae and/or bacteria to grow.
8) Use of cal-hypo while CSI is way too high.
9) Insufficient, or ineffective, backwashing.
10) Insufficient water replacement.*

*Humans introduce quite a lot of contaminants into the water. Bodily fluids, such as blood, sweat, saliva, urine, etc. and other products, such as hair, skin and fecal matter. These bodily products can contain bacteria, viruses and chemicals such as urea, creatine, amino acids etc.

People also introduce personal care products such as lotions, hair products, insect repellant, deodorants, makeup etc.

Many contaminants can be rather persistent. Replacing contaminated water with fresh water can help dilute the concentration of contaminants. I would suggest about 10 gallons per bather hour.

If the water is too cloudy to see the bottom, the pool should be closed until the water quality can be brought up to acceptable levels
 
Re: cloudy pool

Good day. I have 2 x5 bags sand filters, if I can measure would be about 1 meter sphere in size. If I run the pumps 24/7 should be on the borderline but be cuffisiant, according to the guys with the thick glasses.
 
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