Hi guys,
Just bought a house with a pool and this is all new to me. I've been at this for about a month and am at my wits end. I cannot get rid of this cloudiness and I've been doing the SLAM method for the last week using just 10% liquid chlorine. All testing has been done via the TF-100 testing kit. The chemical levels are as follows:
FC: maintaining 15 as much as I can
CYA: 30
Alkalinity: 90
CC: .5 or less
CH: 325
PH was brought to less than 7.8 before SLAM
It's a 33K gallon vinyl pool with a very old sand filter (neighbor of previous owner took care of the pool for the elderly man who lived here before and didn't have problems with clarity last year). I put a skimmer sock on and it's catching these tiny blue particles, which I have no idea what they are. I have a feeling they're going right through the sand filter and recirculating back into the pool. I attached of picture of both the water and the skimmer sock with the blue particles. Note that this was just a few minutes of the sock being on. If I leave it on too long the particles build up and almost completely blocks the water flow.
I also took a sample to a friend who's family owns a pool store just as a screw it why not. Their test said copper level is .10 (who knows how accurate that is considering their test also said I have an FC level of 3.23 even though I tested the same water and it was at SLAM level). I have a feeling I'm going to need a new filter very soon, but I was hoping to at least get through this season. Plus the fact the neighbor didn't have issues last year leads me to believe it's user error.
Any help would be appreciated because I'm getting to the frustration level of just wanting to permanently close it altogether.
Just bought a house with a pool and this is all new to me. I've been at this for about a month and am at my wits end. I cannot get rid of this cloudiness and I've been doing the SLAM method for the last week using just 10% liquid chlorine. All testing has been done via the TF-100 testing kit. The chemical levels are as follows:
FC: maintaining 15 as much as I can
CYA: 30
Alkalinity: 90
CC: .5 or less
CH: 325
PH was brought to less than 7.8 before SLAM
It's a 33K gallon vinyl pool with a very old sand filter (neighbor of previous owner took care of the pool for the elderly man who lived here before and didn't have problems with clarity last year). I put a skimmer sock on and it's catching these tiny blue particles, which I have no idea what they are. I have a feeling they're going right through the sand filter and recirculating back into the pool. I attached of picture of both the water and the skimmer sock with the blue particles. Note that this was just a few minutes of the sock being on. If I leave it on too long the particles build up and almost completely blocks the water flow.
I also took a sample to a friend who's family owns a pool store just as a screw it why not. Their test said copper level is .10 (who knows how accurate that is considering their test also said I have an FC level of 3.23 even though I tested the same water and it was at SLAM level). I have a feeling I'm going to need a new filter very soon, but I was hoping to at least get through this season. Plus the fact the neighbor didn't have issues last year leads me to believe it's user error.
Any help would be appreciated because I'm getting to the frustration level of just wanting to permanently close it altogether.
At first I was indeed thinking copper, and it might still be since there's no telling what was added to the water previously. But I also wonder if that pieces of the liner flaking off? Any old pool chemicals laying around to give you some clues?