Can't get water clear

[invertere]

I've been trying to SLAM my pool for 5 days now and while it originally improved (green to blue, but still cloudy) I've been stuck with cloudy water and can't get past it. I bought the K2006 kit today to get better CYA numbers. I last put in liquid chlorine last night.

FC: .8
CC: .4
CYA nonexistent. I put the entire liquid sample in the tube and the black dot was still visible.

My pool is 24,000 gallons. It has a salt cell but I've had to backwash the sand filter so much since I opened it in March I have been using chlorine tabs so I don't need to keep dumping in salt. I'd like to go back to salt water eventually but wanted to get the pool clear first since my salt cell might need to be replaced and I wanted to take that potential problem out of the picture in case that was contributing to the imbalance in the water.

The calculators seems to have a minimum of 20 CYA. Should my first step be to add that in? I have struggled to maintain CYA in this pool forever and I'm not sure why. I thought it was due to the test strips being unreliable but it seems not. Would the recommended number of CYA still be 20 since it is being maintained with chlorine instead of the salt cell system?

 

[PoolGate]

Is your chlorine 8 or .8? How long does chlorine last when you put it in? Add a gallon and take a reading 15 minutes later.

 

[invertere]

.8 unless I'm reading these instructions wrong. It says 1 drop = .2 ppm for the 25ml sample. It took four drops for the sample to turn clear.

I added the chlorine and I'll check levels in 15 min.

 

[PoolGate]

What test kit are you using?

 

[invertere]

Taylor K-2006

 

[invertere]

FC is 10ppm after 15 min.

 

[PoolGate]

Continue with your slam then. Increase cya to 30 until done with the slam. My pool opened to green this year as well. I had it blue within a day but then took over a week for the cloudiness to finally go away.

 

[invertere]

Ok, should I take the chlorine tabs out of the pool? I see them not recommended due to the CYA they add but that doesn't seem to be an issue here.

 

[PoolGate]

If you have 0 cya you're fine. They add like 2 parts per puck. Tabs are bad as the primary source for chlorine. Used occasionally like vacations and such they are fine.

 

[Gotta Pool]

Ok, should I take the chlorine tabs out of the pool? I see them not recommended due to the CYA they add but that doesn't seem to be an issue here.

The tabs are a good way to keep chlorine in the pool AND add CYA if and only if you need the CYA. You also need to check your pH as a high pH makes the chlorine less effective. In fact, posting a full test result is helpful as there is a somewhat low probablility that other situations are contributing to cloudiness.

As noted, patience is a virtue. The green is gone a lot faster than the cloudiness. Just keep enough chlorine in the pool to continue killing any unwanted organisms. At a CC level of .4, you've made progress, but could quickly have a relapse if the chlorine level drops.