Cloudy water wont uncloudy ..

guardwife2 said:
CYA- I need clarity of what they mean when they say "slowly drop water in till black dot can not been seen" now does this mean it turns a grey color, white color or you just can't see it period? I added drops in till I hit the 30 mark and it was a dark gray color....I couldn't go anymore b/c 1-I was out of water in the tube and 2- there was no more room for me to add more. So if I did this right CYA is 30?
So that it can't be seen. See: http://www.troublefreepool.com/extended-test-kit-directions-t25081.html#p206397

guardwife2 said:
Total hardness: after 5 drops it was purple...not red....but after adding the second part to the test it did turn a light pretty blue...so per the test instructions that would be 400.
If it was 40 drops, then yes.

guardwife2 said:
PH was still high...it read btwn 7.8 and 8.2 (highest on test tube)
Bring this down to 7.2-7.4

guardwife2 said:
CL was really low...the other day it was 5 or higher today it was barely .5.
If your shocking this should always be up at 11 ppm (assuming about 20 ppm for cya..which i a guess). Since you only have the OTO tester, Put 1 part pool water to 2 parts non-chlorinated water then multiply your result by 3. Most municipal taps water are chlorinated. You can test your dilution water with the OTO tester and if it does not color yellow, then it should work.
 
fyi...I went out and took a net and got maybe 20 leaves out of the pool from the bottom. I then took the brush and brushed the bottom and the sides...still got nothing up excepts for yellow stuff from the bottom. I added Mutriac Acid (dosage per calculator on site) and the before and after PH results are amazing. before it was higher than 8.8 before....before I came inside...it was down to 6.8....that stuff really works...now lets see what happens...

Ok..I will continue workinig on it...
 
chuck, yes CL is being added to the pool today..someone on here told me to get the PH down first (since there was no to little CL they said it was the best time to get the ph down..it is in one of these threads...and then add the CL)...so that is what I did yesterday with adding Mutriatic Acid. Im actually taking another water sample into the pool place and picking up more CL. I am also preparing for company from out of state so I am really busy right now. My husband is training in another state with the military and I have three kids, an eplitic dog and a mean cat to take care of so im busy busy busy. Im doing my best but yes..CL will be added today.

thanks
 
quick question:

my CYA is very very low...do I bring this up before I add chlorine? does that have any affect on CL at all? I know it does and per the site you posted and the calculater they are both telling me to add stablizer to get my CYA up. Please clairfy that...:)


per the calculator:

FC: the FC is 0 right now...to get to a 3 it says to add Add 47 oz of 6% bleach. Jug size 96 oz 128 oz 174 oz 182 oz . that does seem alot if I am adding only 47oz of a 96 oz jub of bleach...???
 
guardwife2 said:
my CYA is very very low...do I bring this up before I add chlorine? does that have any affect on CL at all? I know it does and per the site you posted and the calculater they are both telling me to add stabilizer to get my CYA up. Please clairfy that...:)
You can add cya while your doing the shocking process. I seem to remember you have done the cya test a number of times (the drop based one) and are getting below 30 ppm. Have you added cya (stabilizer/conditioner), or used trichlor pucks of dichlor powder/granules? What I am trying to get at is...should we expect any cya at this point? If you are unsure, maybe add enough cya to go up 20 ppm, then wait a few days and retest.

Cya protects (up to a point) your chlorine from getting used up by the sun. 30 ppm cya is our recommendation during the shocking process, and 30-50 ppm is the recommendation during normal pool operation (with most at 50 ppm).

Since it appears like you have some cya in the water (the dot is gray but not gone at 30 ppm), I am going to assume for now that you have 20 ppm cya. Then your FC shock value is 11 ppm (per poolcalculator.com) and you should add 173 ounces of 6% bleach to your 7600 gallons pool to bring in up to shock levels. Then you want to test as often as possible (but no more frequenty then every hour) and redose back up to (or slightly above) 11 ppm FC.
 
I think Linnen's got you covered here. Do what he says.

My only recommendation would be to ignore the mean cat other than food and water, and give the kiddos, dog, and pool your undivided attention till kitty decides to be nicer :~}
 
ok ladies and gents...got another pool store test on my water..it is much much better than last time...here it goes:

07-16-2012
Temp 80
Saturation inx: 1.3 (ideal -.3 to +.3...I have no idea what this means)
TDS: 2250 (ideal <2500)
CYA is 0 before they couldnt' even test it (ideal its says 30-200)
Total CL 0.6 (ideal 1-3)
Free CL 0.5 (ideal 1-3)
PH 8.2 (ideal 7.4-7.6)
Tot Alkalinity and total adj. alkalinity is 252 (ideal is 125-150)
Tot Hardness 318 (ideal 175-225)
Optimizer+ 8 (ideal is 30-35)
Iron: 0 (I made them test this as we have hard water....)
Quat: 7 (ideal is 4) No algae detected and they said algacide is the Quat and it is picking it up..so I am good on it


Now I just had my water tested at the same pool place on Sat the 14th..and here was the readings that day...What ever I am doing is working b/c levels are coming down and Cl is being detected.

07-14-2012
Temp 80
Saturation Idx: 2
TDS 2200
CYA could not test
Tot CL 8
Free CL 6.5
PH 8.8
Tot and adj Alkalinity 387
Tot Hardness 306
Optimizer + 0
Quat 0 or not tested.

so as you can see...the CL is low but atleast SOME is showing up now..before it was high b/c I had just started the shocking process as you suggested..before it was reading )..so it is nice to see SOME of CL is registering. The Ph is coming down..slowly but it is coming down. THe Alk is coming down too and so is the hardness. So I bough 25 bottles of bleach..nothing from pool store..yay me! and came home. so I am now off to create madness in the pool....god help me.
 
I am going to attempt to cut through the clutter in all of these conflicting items

#1 If your water is still cloudy, you should assume you have algae.
#2 Focus on your chlorine. Just test for FC and CC if you have the powder based test or just CL if you are using the color block
#3 Guessing and using inaccurate tests will distract you, just your CL is critical. IIRC you adjusted your PH to 6.8.
#4 Ignore the Pool$tores testing result and ideals. Example CYA is 0 before they couldnt' even test it (ideal its says 30-200) You know your have about 20 PPM CYA . Use this value for your assumptions. You cannot measure below 30 and you had a cloudy test tube when you filled it. Ideal for you is likely 40-50 ppm but that is not important today. Anything over 100 is nearly impossible to manage without lots of $$$ chemicals and even then, it will be cloudy. Saying the ideal range of 30-200 is like saying you should keep your car's speed between 30 & 200 MPH in a school zone.)
#5... Focus on your CL until the pool is not consuming FC overnight, your water is clear and you have less than 0.5 CC. I know this requires the TF test kits... This is the best, most economical way of managing your pool. It is certainly cheaper than almost any purchase of the p$ chemicals.
 

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thanks for the reply...I am so so so confused. I get told I need good test readings so I do some at home and they are not good...so I go to a pool store and get tested and then i shouldn't go off of them either. ???? I CAN NOT afford a test kit at this time. so I have to go off of someones, (mine or pool place) for now. My water is cloudy however..it is getting better. so I think I am doing something right b/c before it was not and getting green. I just added bleach per the other guys comment on here and will continue to check that (with my kits as that is what I have only and live over ahalf hour away from pool store) for now....I will keep doing this till the CL stays at a level and doesn't drop as your school site referenced. I bought 25 gallons so im ready to use it. lol I will take another pool water sample on Wednesday when i go back into town to see what it says then. I am trying to bring my ph down as well and bring the Cya up alittle bit too. Im adding alittle at a time to a sock and hanging it inside the filter thing. I will do this for a while and then stop b/c I do not want more in there than I need. My husband and I have decided that if this is not cleared up by the end of July..we are draining it and closing it. Summer is almost gone, kids will be back to school mid Aug and we have swam 2 x this yr..and we opened it in May. If i have to buy a cheap liner next yr and totally dump this pool and put in cheap liner and haul water in I will do it. I can get a cheap liner from my pool store for about 150 bucks and have water hauled in pretty cheap too. Thanks for the advice....Im still planning on working on it so that is all I can do with what I have.
 
guardwife2 said:
...I am so so so confused. I get told I need good test readings so I do some at home and they are not good...so I go to a pool store and get tested and then i shouldn't go off of them either. ???? I CAN NOT afford a test kit at this time. so I have to go off of someones, (mine or pool place) for now.
Let's clear some stuff up...let's say you decide the pool store numbers are accurate (I do not think they are in this case, but lets say they are) then to do the shocking process with their numbers you will have to take a sample to them at a minimum of 3 times a day to get FC and CC during the shocking process. I am assuming that that is not realistic...

So unless you trust your pool store numbers and you can get there 3+ times a day, that option seems out. So stop going to the pool store for now.

That leaves you/us with two options, the first being adding the FAS-DPD chlorine test for ~ $30 shipped, and the second option is live with what you have.

Living with what you have may cost you more in the long run, but if that is the direction you want to go, we can, and have been working with that.

With the OTO chlorine test you have, you will have to dilute your sample with chlorine free water to measure the chlorine while you shock. This was described here: http://www.troublefreepool.com/cloudy-water-wont-uncloudy-t49381-40.html#p409136 If you have questions about this, please ask.
 
Ok .....I am gonna chime in just for grins.......Have you been running your pump this whole time????? and if so are you seeing any pressure on your sand filter???? I think you are on the right track and your test kit is working for you at this point. I do have to aggree that you are/may be confusing yourself with the possible poor results from your pool store, stick with your test results and stay with it.....Good Luck and keep your chin up!

Brent and Lisa
 
thanks...yes that makes since. Right now I believe I am really doing a great job and I also believe the test results are accurate and here is why. I woke up this morning to crystal clear water. My neighbor and I have been working on our pool. (He is a chemist and works at a nuc plant). His pool is always crystal clear. he gave me some guidance as to what to do and from what he told me and what I got off of this site and the shock method it worked. I will post pics here in a min. Last night I shocked the Crud out of it. every hour I was out there...finally stopped and put a floc in. I awoke this morning to crystal clear water. I am so happy I could cry a river of tears. All I need to do is vacuum to waste. If I have to go get another bottle today to help settle it down, after I vacuum and stir it up, I will. I am very excited to know that we could be swimming by tmrw or thursday. :) I will continue to seek guidance on here and the site. Thanks for the help and pray for me as I vacuum to waste. I will use my filter thing for the hose too and continue to work on the CL, ph and cya.
 
I am slowly vacuuming to waste. It is a little stirred up again but I have hope now and Know it will clear up again. I can also see down to the third step even after it being stirred up from vacuuming. This morning it was crystal clear other than the stuff on the bottom. The floc I used is from Nature's Way...It is a super floc. I got it from The Great Escape close to a town from me....Ironically this is a different pool store than the one that is testing my water. Their products are Bio Guard...I have never had good results with them so I get Nature's Way products and use them. I am almost debating going to get another bottle of the floc and put it in again tonight to settle everything back down and then revacuuming to waste. I got quite a bit out of the pool today and it is refilling. I used the whole bottle last night but if I get some tonight I will only put a few ounzes in it to help it settle.
 
Sorry I havent' been on for a while. I had family from out of state and while they were here my 80 yr old Uncle fell...so Ive been dealing with family. I received my TF100....(thank you:) ) and here are my readings. I have been working on the pool as well. What I have noticed is this: when I first flocked my pool it was like sludge on the bottom...I got alot out but unfortunately it got stirred up again..so Have flocked lightly the past couple of days and continue to get junk out b/c it is getting less and less at the bottom. yesterday morning I could see the bottom print of my liner as well as the little bit of crud side walls weer clear just the bottom was icky due to the stuff falling to the bottom. No matter what though when I vacuum to waste it gets stirred up alittle bit but getting better as i go. Ive been having to add water and after I do that and finish vacuuming the water still look icky. I have backwashed/rinsed my filter and when I do finish vacuuming run the pump (when not flocking) 24/7. Yesterday I added about 6/7 gallons of bleach in as well. SO here are my results with the TF100

Cl 2
Fc 2.5 (I added 5 drops)
cc 2 (I added 4 drops)
TA confused on this-it turned a light green I added 40 drops and it turned a light peachy color. after adding R -0009 it never turned red but got hot pink at 50..so not sure of the reading?
CH confused on this too-it never turned red it was a real light purple. after adding 25 drops it turned a light blue.
Cya 30-finally after adding stablizer I got it to read at 30

so, help me clear up the TA and CH reading issues and I will go to the calculator and figure out how much chlorine to add....please advise what I need to do. thank you:)
 
Ignore the TA for now. You can deal with it later. But you should repeat the test because you need to know TA to calculate pH adjustments. Try wiping the tip of the R-009 bottle with a wet paper towel between drops, you might have some static electricity that messes with the drop size.

CH sounds like you did the test right, and it's about 250, which is fine. Your pool doesn't actually even need any, since it's vinyl.

The problem is that you have algae growing - the high CC tells us that. So does the fact that it stays cloudy. The cloudiness is dead algae with the color bleached out.

What was the pH test? Start there. Get it adjusted to 7.2.
Then hit it hard with chlorine. About 1½ gallons of 6%. Keep the pump running, give the pool a good brushing, then recheck FC & CC in an hour and add more bleach - whatever Pool Calculator calculates to get you back to 13. Repeat every hour or two all day long. Check your filter pressure each time, before you dump in the bleach, in case it's loading up and needs cleaning. It's all detailed here: pool-school/shocking_your_pool You can skip every other test until the water is clear. What you're doing is fighting the algae to the death; think of it as a boxing match - and you aren't trying to be a good sport! You knock it down, and then hit it again before it can get back up, until eventually it no longer tries to get back up
 

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