Help!! New problem. Company coming over soon!

[Kristy121]

Hello everyone!

We have lived with our pool for about a year now. Dumb mistake by me I guess the chlorine ran out. Not sure for how long maybe a few days. Now the water is cloudy with 0 free chlorine & we are having a pool party this afternoon!,

Is there anything I can do to help it clear up and still be safety swim in? I started adding shock (burnout) yesterday. This is what I've done since yesterday afternoon.

- added 3 cups shock
- added3 bio guard pucks
- 1 cup shock few hrs later - chlorine still at 0
- drained 10% of pool and refilled
- added another cup of shock

Just this morning it's still cloudy and 0 chlorine!!! Just added two more cups, I know your supposed to add all at once but I'm trying to slowly bring up to a safe swim level. Of course I should have shocked it yesterday but usually when I do shock it takes about 2 days till it's safe to swim. What should I do now?

My readings:
Free Chlorine 0.5
Total chlorine 1
Alk between 120-180
Ph 6.8-7.2
Th 450

Im using those darn test strips which are so hard to read.
Thanks everyone!!!

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to TFP!

Once the water goes cloudy, the pool will consume chlorine rapidly as the chlorine is being used to attack the algae. You should test hourly and add more as needed. The chlorine may be nearly gone at the end of an hour.

Without knowing your CYA/stabilizer level, we can't tell you what level to shoot for or what level is safe for swimmers.

Using burnout will tend to cloud your pool and raise your hardness. You already have high hardness.