Help me get clear water in my new pool!

[linusb212]

Hi, I'm in South Carolina and just had a gunite pool built. Water has been in pool for about 25 days. I've yet to get the water crystal clear. I'm a former pool owner having had a previous home with an existing gunite pool. Keeping water crystal clear was always easy with old pool using bleach and DE filter. New pool has cartridge filter. Am using bleach as well as pucks in chlorine feeder now.

I notice when I brush the pool....there is always a very fine layer of sediment. And brushing it just clouds up the water more...also, paver deck is still in construction phase which has been ongoing for too long...but sand is being spread and sprayed around the pool which isn't helping my efforts at crystal clear water.

I've been using bleach to sanitize...my ph is very high...haven't been able to get it below 8 yet

I have chlorine feeder on max setting.

Water chemistry:

I've been testing daily for about a week with a Taylor's kit.

Chlorine hovering between 1 and 5
ph 8 or higher
alk is 90
calcium hardness 220
Stabilizer level too low to be readable - I need to add some

The water isn't awful cloudy...but it's cloudy enough that I know it's not clear. Is this normal for a new pool during cure process. I thought I could add a high amount of chlorine and expect it to clear up but that didn't work, unless I didn't add enough. I brought it up to about 6 ppm. I expect my high ph is leading to the cloudiness too. I poured about 3 gallons of acid into it inside of about 48 hours last weekend and that still didn't seem to budge the ph. It did lower my TA which had been in the 120 range. I've added a bit of baking soda tonight to bring the TA back up some so that I can add more acid in the coming days.

I'm getting a bit anxious about this. I want clear water!!!!!

 

[duraleigh]

Your description is very common for a new plaster pool. Your PB would have served you better if he had instructed you on what to expect.

The cloudiness is almost surely plaster dust coming off the floor and walls as the plaster cures. It will get less and less noticeable as time goes on but you should copntinue to brush and keep your pump running 'til it starts to subside.

I would suggest you get your pH into the mid 7's right away. You really don't know how high it may be and you are inviting some other problems.

Secondly, you need some stabilizer in the water to make the chlorine more effective. You will soon be able to reduce the setting on your feeder as the CYA increases.

Recheck your CYA in a week or so. You should see a measurable amount in your pool soon.

There are some good articles in "pool school" up in the header of this page that will give you some more insight.

 

[waste]

1 other thing I'll mention is to clean the carts weekly (not weakly :lol: )

Waterbear wrote a very good set of instructions for this here.

Please follow Dave's advice, and mine, to help get the pool to the crystal clear state you want and are used to

Welcome to TFP!!



Ted