New to this pool stuff, cloudy water!!!!

[Lori777Mack]

Hi!
This April was my first time caring for my swimming pool alone. I haven't been able to see the bottom yet. Started with a very green pool, killed it. Used the BBB, not really sure what I was doing. Found mustard algae under my steps, killed it. Black mold was hiding inside the rails and step casings, killed it. Then had to eliminate the chlorine and lower the pH to kill water mold with more chemicals. Started all over to restore the chlorine and pH. Chemicals, chemicals, chemicals! Went around and around with them, overdosing some, reversing them with others. May have overdosed with clarifiers as well, flocking did absolutely nothing, nothing ever settled. My numbers have been fine for over a month now and holding chlorine (according to pool store) with no clarity at all. Can't see my second step but color is pretty anyway (blue/white).

These are my readings from a few days ago from the pool store's computer test
FC 2.32 ppm
TC 2.41
CC .09
pH 7.3
Hardness 74
Alk 94
CA 38
Copper .8
Iron .1
Borate 33

I've even disassembled the pump and filter, cleaned everything out, flushed sand, used a DE type additive to filter, and 3 weeks later, not a bit of clarity. My last hope was to replace my 4 yr old pump, 10 yr old filter, and 1 yr old sand, pool store had nothing left for me to try. One week later with new system running 24/7, still cant see second step. Psi runs at 17/18 and has never budged (zero when off), same exact readings as the old one.

What am I missing???? Is my water contaminated with too many chemicals that just wont filter out? I'm reduced to tears here.

Wasn't sure where to put this other stuff but I have a 1 yr old, 24ft above ground Turtle Bay steel pool,
1 week old Hayward Pro series 18" filter with new 75lbs Zeosand, 1 week old 1hp Hayward Power Flo Martix pump. I shock once a week and keep a 3" tab in my strainer basket at all times.

Thank you!
Lori

 

[Abigail K]

Welcome to TFP!

Unfortunately, it seems like you mixed the BBB method (now known as TFPC method) with the pool store advice, which has left you frustrated, confused, and in tears.
Some of the products you added may have interacted with each other to create a cloudy/green mess.

First, you need to decide whether to follow our advise, or the pool store's advice.

Second, if you decide to follow our advise, then you will need to make the investment in a good test kit. With your pool the way it is, I'd recommend the TF100 test kit with XL option.

Third, you mentioned always having a tablet in your skimmer basket - tablets add cyanuric acid and chlorine. The chlorine is used up, but the cyanuric acid remains in the water.
In this case, I believe the cyanuric acid reading (we use the acronym CYA instead of CA to prevent confusion) of 38 is inaccurate. Others have reported similar CYA readings when it was actually 200!
If your CYA is high like I suspect it is, you will need to do a partial drain and refill of your pool.
Very likely, if you continue following pool store advise, they would have you do the same thing in the future, except they may mention something along the line of "chlorine lock" or "high TDS".
If you get the recommended test kit, we will be able to tell you whether you really need to do a partial drain and refill, and how much water you will need to drain (if any).

Fourth, these are some success stories collected by Richard320, some of them started with a pool much worse than yours is currently. You just need to do what they did:
http://www.troublefreepool.com/threa...-to-Clean-tale
http://www.troublefreepool.com/threa...ool-is-winning
http://www.troublefreepool.com/threa...glorious-swamp (see post#256 on page 13 for the end result)
http://www.troublefreepool.com/threa...28-TFP-Success
http://www.troublefreepool.com/threa...ark-Green-Pool

What they did was study pool school, get their own test kit, and perform the Shock Level And Maintain process (SLAM).
What you've been doing is beating the algae back (your water turned from green to the blue/white it is currently), but never killing it all completely. That lets it reproduce. You need to knock it down and kick it while its down until it's dead.
If you follow the SLAM all the way through, you water will be so clear you will be able to throw a quarter into your pool and tell whether it's heads or tails.

Finally, you should add the details about your pool to your signature. To do that, you go to "Settings" (in the top-right corner), and then hit "Edit signature" on left side of the page which loads. Then add the details in the text box which appears, and hit "Save Signature".
Also, we encourage members to add their rough location (City and state) to their profile ("Edit profile") (which can also be found under "Settings") as climate affects some of the information we give.