Cloudy Again - Tests Results Included

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Oakstone

Oakstone

0
Aug 30, 2017
77
Victoria, BC Canada
Pool Size
11550
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Heya all,

Last year I had this "haze" in the pool, especially after heavy use. I was using test strips and then an OTO kit, but was planning on getting a K2006 this year, which I did. The old thread is here for reference, as the pics show pretty much exactly what I'm experiencing again.

Slight Haze?

Heya, I have this perception that my small 10ft 1100Gal pool has a white-ish haze to. It doesn't feel "crystal clear" to my eye, but I don't really know how clear to expect the water to be. I opened (setup and fill, no over-winter) it a couple weeks ago, brought the FC to about 10 and let it...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

So, this year I made a boo-boo and misunderstood "don't bother testing CYA on a fresh fill" with "don't add CYA on a fresh fill", so I was burning through chlorine quickly. I addressed that with another boo-boo by putting the loose CYA into my skimmer, which of course clogged the filter. I did hang on for a few days to let as much CYA dissolve as possible, but eventually was forced to clean the filter. My FC did stabilize a bit, but was still going down. I assume not enough got dissolved to get me to recommended levels.

Fast forward to yesterday and I had 9 kids in the 10 ft. pool for a few hours. Got pretty cloudy. I tested FC in the morning and then again during a break in the swimming. Was at 3.0 after adding bleach in the morning, then was at 0 by mid afternoon. I added recommended bleach, waited 45 mins and then let the kids swim again. It was at 0 again 2 hours later when the kids were done, so I topped back up.

This morning I decided to do the full battery of tests, including the CYA which I have been holding off on a bit because of the limited tests in the kit.

FC 1.0 - added recommended bleach
pH - 8.0 - added recommended muriatic acid to 7.2 (targeted 7.2pH, lower than my typical 7.4 target as recommended by the app to lower TA . Will aerate the pH up if necessary)
Not super sure why the PH went up so high, but attribute it likely to using our "sprayer" for a while yesterday that would have aerated the water a fair amount.
TA 150 - see above
CH - 20
CYA - best guess is about 15. I could still see the dot at 30, filled the tube the rest of the way and could still barely see it. Added recommended amount IN A STOCKING this time lol.

So, where I'm at now is that all adjustments have been done, but CYA will take a couple of days to dissolve and I can test again. Should I do a SLAM in the meantime or just test and adjust everything else as needed while the CYA goes in?

I know that "just refill it" is the simplest, but since this has happened repeatedly over the years due to my inexperience, I'd really like to be able to learn how to get hold of it instead of taking the simplest route.

Thanks and sorry for the wall of text!
 
Last edited:
Start dissolving 20 ppm of CYA and target SLAM FC for 30 ppm CYA. Maintain that. 24-48 hours after the CYA is fully dissolved, test the CYA. Adjust the FC ranges accordingly.
 
Thanks @mknauss . Quick question about the target FC for SLAM in the app. I went to the FC page from the overview menu. Set the CYA in the top box to 30 and then slid the CYA slider over. It gives me a FC target of 12 and says "your target is outside the suggested range". Is that normal because it's looking at the SLAM suggestion vs. the "recommended Free Chlorine 2.0 <->6.0" at the top of that box?
 
The SLAM level FC is 12 ppm for a CYA of 30. That is outside of the 'suggested range' for daily maintenance. You are not doing daily maintenance, you are doing a SLAM process.
 
SLAM is in progress. First night OCLT was 2.0 ( down to 10 from 12) . Did a full vaccuum from inside the pool yesterday so I could get in all the nooks and crannys. OCLT last night was 5.0 ( down to 7 from 12). Is that kind of increasing loss common? I assumed I must have knocked loose some algae or something by doing the thorough vaccuum.

If that increasing loss isn't normal, any advice would be appreciated.
 
It won't be linear - you'll have some larger areas here and there especially as you brush/vacuum. You probably took biofilm off a colony of algae that was previously shielded from the chlorine. Keep going! :) Test as often as you can, up to once an hour, minimum three times daily, and add chlorine as you can. Test with 10ml and one scoop of powder, drops are 0.5ppm, that will save you reagents.
 
You're in good hands here, I'll be watching your progress with interest. These little pools can be a challenge with a heavy swim load. When my four kids get in and start making waves, I know I'm in for a re-dose of bleach when they're done swimming or preferably at every opportunity I can swing--popsicles are key to enticing them out of the pool. On a heavy swim day I find myself dosing 3 times the normal daily bleach requirements.

I commend you for sticking with treating the pool not just dumping and refilling I t. The education is invaluable.
 

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FWIW, kids swimming always seemed to haze out the pool for a couple hours even when tests came out fine. They became teenagers/adults (1 out of 3 moved out) and haven't been in the pool much this year, nor when they do get in do they wiggle quite as much so I don't know if it's going to happen again. But when they were littler, always a bit of a haze for a short while. I think maybe the littles are just a bit dustier...
 
So another question has come up. During my SLAM (into day 3 now) I've lost a bit of water, just due to evap and we went swimming once, so a bit got sloshed out. It's down about an inch and getting close to the top of my return jet. Not that it's a big deal, but will just cause a lot more turbulence when it gets close to the jet and it starts to blow around my solar cover.

Should I just leave the water level alone until the SLAM is over or add some?

If add now - how does that affect the way a approach the SLAM?
If add after -what do I focus on to bring everything back into proper balance? (I'm assuming test/add CYA and then just do the rest of the stuff as normal)
 
Oakstone said:
Ah ok, didn't know if it was a threshold amount in the test or a specific ratio of powder to water. Thanks for clarifying. :)
Click to expand...
So long as you can see any undissolved powder (even one little grain of it) at the bottom after swirling in the powder, you have enough. Beyond that it's wasted but doesn't hurt the test. :)
 
Interesting development today. Yesterday during the day I lost 0 FC. Overnight loss was 1.5. So, I figured I’m probably pretty close to finishing the slam and would add the water as discussed above and re test everything.

During the tests, CYA came back between 45-50, which means I’ve had higher CYA during the slam than I thought and my Slam FC target would have been low. Might explain why it’s taken several days with only 1100 gal of water haha.

Anywhoo, now that I have a new CYA reading I’m going to monitor loss and go back to slam if I see cloudy water or the OCLT fails.

Thanks for the help so far. Slowly getting it. Still not sure how I overshot the CYA since I cross checked the bottle suggested calculation with the app and they were a perfect match.
 
Oakstone said:
Heya all,

Last year I had this "haze" in the pool, especially after heavy use. I was using test strips and then an OTO kit, but was planning on getting a K2006 this year, which I did. The old thread is here for reference, as the pics show pretty much exactly what I'm experiencing again.

Slight Haze?

Heya, I have this perception that my small 10ft 1100Gal pool has a white-ish haze to. It doesn't feel "crystal clear" to my eye, but I don't really know how clear to expect the water to be. I opened (setup and fill, no over-winter) it a couple weeks ago, brought the FC to about 10 and let it...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

So, this year I made a boo-boo and misunderstood "don't bother testing CYA on a fresh fill" with "don't add CYA on a fresh fill", so I was burning through chlorine quickly. I addressed that with another boo-boo by putting the loose CYA into my skimmer, which of course clogged the filter. I did hang on for a few days to let as much CYA dissolve as possible, but eventually was forced to clean the filter. My FC did stabilize a bit, but was still going down. I assume not enough got dissolved to get me to recommended levels.

Fast forward to yesterday and I had 9 kids in the 10 ft. pool for a few hours. Got pretty cloudy. I tested FC in the morning and then again during a break in the swimming. Was at 3.0 after adding bleach in the morning, then was at 0 by mid afternoon. I added recommended bleach, waited 45 mins and then let the kids swim again. It was at 0 again 2 hours later when the kids were done, so I topped back up.

This morning I decided to do the full battery of tests, including the CYA which I have been holding off on a bit because of the limited tests in the kit.

FC 1.0 - added recommended bleach
pH - 8.0 - added recommended muriatic acid to 7.2 (targeted 7.2pH, lower than my typical 7.4 target as recommended by the app to lower TA . Will aerate the pH up if necessary)
Not super sure why the PH went up so high, but attribute it likely to using our "sprayer" for a while yesterday that would have aerated the water a fair amount.
TA 150 - see above
CH - 20
CYA - best guess is about 15. I could still see the dot at 30, filled the tube the rest of the way and could still barely see it. Added recommended amount IN A STOCKING this time lol.

So, where I'm at now is that all adjustments have been done, but CYA will take a couple of days to dissolve and I can test again. Should I do a SLAM in the meantime or just test and adjust everything else as needed while the CYA goes in?

I know that "just refill it" is the simplest, but since this has happened repeatedly over the years due to my inexperience, I'd really like to be able to learn how to get hold of it instead of taking the simplest route.

Thanks and sorry for the wall of text!
Click to expand...
I'm new. What does CYA stand for?

Thanks, Theresa
 

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