After opening pool, 3 days later still not clear water, though blue?

[Newdude]

*also, volume and rainfall play a big part of it. With 35k gallons I would be able to use a lot more of the tainted bleach than you. But we both get about 3 ft of off season rainfall to dilute the accumulations so we may be fooled into thinking it doesn’t matter. Possibly for years. Our mileage will be different than those that don’t get our rain, so the recommendation that it’s not a good idea stands for the good of everyone.

 

[theskyisthelimit99]

Every pool has its limits to where the polymers in modern laundry bleach will affect the water quality and/or foam up. People panic when they add a jug by accident but one jug will never matter. From there it gets different for everybody. Does 5 jugs cause problems ? 25 ? 50? The unknown is unknown, of course, but what is known is that it will eventually cause problems.


Higher FC will not cause cloudiness. Ironically if the polymers cause cloudiness, only more bleach will solve the problem.

So there is a small chance that the bleach (this year for whatever reason) has lead to this cloudy situation due to the polymer change perhaps?
Well, at least from today forward i have the pure chlorine jugs to work with.
My fc spiked after it was low last night (low as in 21 not 24-26), i overshot, now its around 32 mid day. Will check later in the day to see how much of a drop.

I went to check the robot and found these nasty worm creatures, so i guess im still aways away from being clear/clean, anyone know what they are (wouldnt these high chlorine levels rid the pool of these things?)

 

[Newdude]

How’s the pollen by you ? Us northerners were late to the pollen party this year and mine always took 2-3 weeks to clear after it was done falling. There is a very good chance that at least some of the cloudiness, if not most of it, can be pollen at this point.

 

[kellyfair]

You haven’t been SLAMming for 15 days though. You started following true SLAM protocol after you were about 10 days in, correct?

 

[theskyisthelimit99]

You haven’t been SLAMming for 15 days though. You started following true SLAM protocol after you were about 10 days in, correct?

Well, there was the initial one, but probably not constant checking slamming until day 3, around the 28th, so thats probably about right actually, but sure seems longer Running out of reagent too, for FC, turns out i dont have any left to check the CC either. Looks like the R0871 only comes in combo kits for $20 via amazon (fastest)

 

[mariane]

No new words from me. Good luck in your endeavor.

 

[theskyisthelimit99]

How’s the pollen by you ? Us northerners were late to the pollen party this year and mine always took 2-3 weeks to clear after it was done falling. There is a very good chance that at least some of the cloudiness, if not most of it, can be pollen at this point.

It was bad till about i dunno, 1.5 to 2 weeks ago i think. Could be it as well

 

[theskyisthelimit99]

I ran about 24 hours with the deep cleaned sand, then read countering info that suggests that the crystals and parts of the sand do in fact wear down over time and get less effective. I take in everyone's advice overall, however, running out of ideas i swapped out the sand to eliminate that variable.

It ran for about 24 hours on fresh sand, still with leftover "bad" store bleach (no new added).
I must say as far as the cleanliness of the water goes it got significantly better (less things floating by). It was still cloudy though.
Early in the day FC at 28. End of day in eve it was 17. I added pure chlorine (about half a jug or so, to boost towards the 24-27 level again).
I assume this implies the chlorine is working its magic even if it was bleach style before.

Here on forward its all pure chlorine jugs via walmart.

Here are some shots mid day, its slowly getting there. I've also left the solar turned off, so more water flows through the system quicker. I did notice the flapper on the backside of the skimmer, has a small amount of green algae on it, clearly its just not all gone yet. I've worked the brush/vac in addition to the robot running all day as well. I have the reagant replenishment for CC coming tomorrow, so i can test that as well.

 

[kellyfair]

Well, if you feel better about your new sand, good, but no. Sand does not wear out. I’ve gone 5 years without opening up my sand filter, at all.

How often are you testing FC and bringing it back to SLAM level? And yep, you definitely want to check all the places algae can hide.

 

[theskyisthelimit99]

Well, if you feel better about your new sand, good, but no. Sand does not wear out. I’ve gone 5 years without opening up my sand filter, at all.

How often are you testing FC and bringing it back to SLAM level? And yep, you definitely want to check all the places algae can hide.

Im checking it at least 3 times a day and trying to maintain that 24ish for FC.

 

[Texas Splash]

You're getting close. Hang in there. Who knows about the sand, perhaps someone added junk to it at one point that you didn't know about. Catching that green was good as well. As long as your CYA is still accurate, and the FC properly balanced at SLAM level, it won't be long. Keep inspecting and doing all your daily SLAM chores. You'll wake up one morning and POW, it will be a new pool.

 

[kellyfair]

If you can throw in a 4th round of testing and dosing, it will help.

 

[Pv2]

Im not the first person or the last that has used standard bleach as a substitute (even noted in many threads here too), i really dont think that was the issue either. I've done that for 5 years without any issue, ever. I tested the CYA, it was in fact a 62, so i've been slamming now for 15 plus days keeping at around 24 on the FC, no issue there either.
The only missing link was the sand pump. Old dirty sand. Last night i spent nearly 30 mins flushing it out, there were still a few particles coming out after 30 mins but it was clear. Left it run all night again, woke up checked the situation, still cloudy. Again this sand was never deep cleaned in 4+ seasons.

I guess at this point the only thing left to do is physically change the sand (or keep hoping the slam wins). I did also order some of the "walmart" chlorine gallons suggested above.

What are the odds if i just let the fc drop to more normal levels it will clear (due to the chlorine being high its cloudy or is that not a thing)?

Someone else here has the same exact issue but no word on if it was resolved or how.
EDIT: i do some notes that it can take up to 20-30 days in worst case, thats a long time but could be the case here

how do you get a 62 CYA? is that a typo?
if your pool was swampy enough to grow dragonfly larvae, it will likely just take TIME to filter out.

 

[LoneWolfArcher]

Especially with a sand filter.

 

[theskyisthelimit99]

Updates:
about 4 days ago when things were still iffy.. i rechecked the cya, it was actually an 80 at that point (it was around 60 before, i added a tad of cya stabilizer to bring it up a hair).. i then re-adjusted for 30 FC and rolled with that for 2 days.

In the end after i dunno 16 days or so, crystal clear water.
Kudos to all the tips, in the end it was mostly waiting and hitting that proper FC level (also checked CC, it was zero)

Now its waiting for the FC to drop to lower levels (5-6ish) to be able to swim i guess. Im still sitting at 16 or so as of today but very clear water (now for 3 days clear).

 

[mknauss]

to be able to swim i guess.

You can safely swim in a pool as long as the FC is above the minimum and at or below SLAM level based on your CYA. You must also be able to see the bottom of the pool in the deep end of the pool.

 

[theskyisthelimit99]

You can safely swim in a pool as long as the FC is above the minimum and at or below SLAM level based on your CYA. You must also be able to see the bottom of the pool in the deep end of the pool.

Ah ok I always just waited till normal but that is great to know it's at least half of slam mode