Milky water and FC too high to measure!

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otter86753

0
LifeTime Supporter
Sep 26, 2013
717
Charleston, SC
Pool Size
5900
Surface
Fiberglass
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Hayward Aqua Rite (T-3)
This is my first post and I want to start by saying thank you! I have had a pool for two years and with your excellent website, I have never had an issue with my pool. I don't drain my pool in the winter as we don't have freezing issues. I maintain the chlorine and PH chemistry in the pool over the winter and am gearing up for the season.

I tested (Taylor FAS-DPD) the water on Friday and here were the results:

FC 5
CC 0
PH 7.6
TA 50
CH 180
CYA 60
Borates 30

I added baking soda to increase the TA to 80 and it indeed was that on Saturday. Sunday morning, I added what I thought was Calcium Chloride (I work at a university and a colleague in the science department ordered calcium carbonate instead of calcium chloride and I didn't look at the label carefully) to raise the CH 70 ppm to 250. Instead I added Calcium Carbonate and the water immediately turned milky white so I couldn't even see the top step.

I ran the pump all night and now I can see the bottom step but still not anywhere close to the bottom of the pool.

I tested the water again Monday evening and here are the results:

FC I stopped and repeated the test when I got to 30 thinking something must be wrong. I repeated an cannot even measure the FC endpoint.
CC I obviously can't measure this either.
PH 8.1 I added the correct amount of Muriatic Acid
TA 80
CH 200
I haven't retested CYA or Borates.

I see the recommended treatment for cloudy water is to slam my pool to get rid of algae, but I don't think I have algae as I truly have maintained a good water balance.

Please advise if this is just Calcium Carbonate floating in the water or if something else is going on and what I should do to resolve.

Also, what could cause the FC to elevate that much???

Thank you in advance.
 
If the clouding occurred right after adding calcium carbonate, then yes it is almost certainly calcium clouding. If you lower the PH down to 7.5 the cloudiness should go away in a few hours.

You ran the pump all night, and the SWG would have been running during that time as well. I'm not sure why that would get FC as high as you report, but it does account for at least part of the increase, more so if the percentage setting is higher than it would normally be.
 
Something's not adding up. If you added a lot of calcium carbonate, the pH, TA and calcium would have increased much more. How much did you add?

The high fc makes me suspect that you added calcium hypochlorite.
 
That much should have raised both the TA and CH by about 140 ppm each. It would have put the ph over 11.

Maybe the product is mislabeled? Can you post a picture of the label and product?

Another possibility is that the calcium carbonate did not dissolve. If that's the case, I would suspect that it will precipitate out, scale out, get filtered out or dissolve over time. If it dissolves, you should see the ph ta and ch increase as indicated.
 
Here is the photo of the label.Calcium Carbonate label.jpg

I checked the PH again this morning and it is 7.5. FC is still above 40 (I stopped trying agin). Obviously I have turned the SWG off and have the pump running at maximum. I can see the bottom of the pool by the steps, but just barely.
 
I agree with JamesW, despite the labeling, that couldn't have been calcium carbonate. The effects it had just don't match up with the effects you would expect from adding calcium carbonate. The effects it had are a much better match for calcium hypochlorite.

It will likely take two to four more days for the FC level to come down to normal.

Given the FC level, I am worried that the PH test results are not correct. The PH test is thrown off by very high FC levels. It may be best to wait out the FC level coming down before continuing to work on the cloudiness issue.
 

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I just tested again and I stopped at 200 on FC! PH is 7.6. I can now see the bottom halfway the length of the pool and there is a lot of what I am assuming is Calcium Carbonate on the bottom, should I vacuum to waste?
 
I think that there has to be some sort of test error happening for the fc test. Are you sure that the test reagents and procedure are correct? Try an OTO chlorine test.

The label does show calcium carbonate. I would hope that they wouldn't get that wrong. I'm not sure what's going on with all of your tests. Maybe the labeling is wrong or the calcium carbonate didn't dissolve.

Yes, vacuum to waste.
 
I am using the same reagents that I have been using all winter long and have gotten very accurate results. I don't know if this is pertinent, but when I rinse the testing tube, it turns a green/brownish color and I have never had that happen. I did vacuum to waste and it stirred up a lot of the white powder again and now the pool is milky again.
 
I was just trying to figure out if it is a false reading because the calcium may be acting as a buffer agains the reagent? And it is not even changing slightly. It remains bright pink even up to the 200 level.
 
I think there might be some sort of interference. However, I haven't heard of calcium carbonate being a cause of interference. I can't imagine that your fc could be over 200. The colors while rinsing are a concern. I would suggest trying an OTO chlorine test.

Try testing the fc of your tap water. If you have city water, there should be some fc and cc. That could help verify that your test works.

Also, try this: get your 10 ml sample, add 2 drops of R-0009, swirl for 60 seconds, add 2 scoops of R-0870 and then add R-0871 until the red sample goes colorless counting the drops.
 
I took matters into my own hands and vacuumed to waste to get rid of some of the white substance (assumably calcium carbonate) and replaced with fresh water to a level higher than I normally keep the pool. New test results this morning:

FC 20
PH7.6
TA 90
CH 180

I didn't test CYA or borates, but will.

At least I am heading in the right direction.

The water is still milky, but I did stir up a lot when I vacuumed to waste.
 
Well, it seems that you're back on track. Just keep vacuuming any precipitate as it falls. Keep filtering and clean the filter as needed. I'm not sure exactly what happened with the chlorine test but it's good that you're getting a reading now.
 
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