Cloudy Water.....

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CleverUsername

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May 19, 2018
17
Medina, OH
Hello! I am so glad to have found this amazing site! Prior to creating my account I found lots of great advice here when googling questions in a panic over the last two week, so thank you for that :)

I just bought a house in February in North East Ohio that came with an 18' circular above ground pool (3.5 feet deep as it's filled now, so about 6,600 gallons). I have NO prior pool experience and am currently struggling with cloudy water. I'm going to give a history of everything I've done to the pool to hopefully get the best insight to what may be causing my cloudy water:

About two weeks ago: Removed cover - the pool was half full will crystal clear water. A test strip showed it was perfectly balanced aside from lacking any FC whatsoever.

I proceeded to fill it up with the hose several days later. I know I should have retested at this point, but I was feeling overwhelmed with all the chemistry involved and just added 1 bag of shock. The water became cloudy.

It was too cold to swim over the next week, during which time I put a solar cover on it and only ran the pump at night to save on electricity. Then we had some storms, so one night I had to turn the pump off. Then the next day my son accidentally severed the power cord with the lawn mower and the pump remained off for 2 days until I was able to get the store to get a new cord.

When I plugged the new cord in I noticed the water had turned a deep blue-green beneath the solar cover. This time I knew I had to balance the water first...the test strip showed the PH was at the highest level the strips (HTH and Clorox) would register, and one brand of test strips (Clorox) said the alkalinity was also very high.

I added PH down until both the PH and alkalinity were in normal ranges.

Once the PH and alkalinity looked good I added some CA stabilizer until the level was within the target range on the test strips box (30 or 40 I think). Then I added 3 bags of shock.

The next morning the pool was still green. I added some HTH Super Algea Guard 4-in-1 Akyl algeacide and about an hour later the pool was blue with a milky white tint to it.

The water was still balanced and the chlorine level was registering the highest the test strip would allow. I continued to run the pump and a day later it was still cloudy so I added Clorox 3-in-1 Xtra Blue Clarifier. I chose this because it also claimed to remove phosphates (I noticed after getting it home that there is a total lack of ingredients listed on the bottle!).

2 days later it is still the same level of cloudiness. The chlorine was still very high this morning. This evening it was registering to be in the normal range and I added 13 oz of liquid bleach just to make sure the algea doesn't come back overnight.

I have a bottle of HTH Drop Out Flocculant as a next step but I'd like your opinions on what is going on before I add another chemical. I also don't yet have a vacuum and would link to know what the least expensive model is that will not be a piece of junk.


My questions are:

What could be causing the cloudy whiteness?

So far I've learned that too much CA means you must empty the pool and start over. What other chemicals should I be very careful not to over do it on? Any other situations where a screw up means you have to totally start over with new water?

And just out of curiosity: Why would one brand of test strips say the alkalinity was normal (HTH) and another say it was very high (Clorox)? I tested multiple times and the tests were both consistent in their difference of opinion.

Any idea what the ingredients in Clorox 3-in-1 Xtra blue are? I even called the phone number on the bottle (got a voice mail) and haven't gotten a call back in over 24 hours.

Thank you, everyone!
 
Oh boy. Where to start. First is that the only thing that will kill algae is chlorine. The other stuff you put in is just making more problems for you and wasting your money. You also need a good test kit such as the TF-100 from TFTestkits.net or the Taylor K-2006 "C" version.

Here is a link to read: Pool School - Defeating Algae

Anything with "blue" in the name usually adds copper into the water which can start turning hair green etc. The only way to get rid is to drain the pool.
 
Thanks for the info. Why was it the green color went away after adding the algea killer if it didnt kill the algea? Why do you say algeacide doesnt kill algea? Thankfully no one who will be using this pool has light colored hair so we wont need to drain it. It maybe a couple days before I can get one of those test kits. Any idea what is causing the cloudy water?

- - - Updated - - -

Could you be more specific? Which chemicals are unneeded? What do you think is causing the cloudy water? Will post the more detailed results as soon as I'm able, but it may be a few days. Hoping to get some insight as to whats going on sooner than that...
 
The link you posted says the pool can be milky white for you to a week after the algea gas been killed. I'll go with that for now, instead of assuming I did some irreparibke damage to my water that requires I drain the pool. You really had me going for a few minutes ��
 
Misspoke (mistyped?) Chlorine is the only reliably know algae killer. Ammonium chloride in the algaecide only really works against blue-green algae. Luckily that looks to be what you had. Chlorine is a very effective killer of most forms of algae. Many algaecides can have negative consequences on adding chemicals/metals to a pool and only work on certain algae. That is why they aren't recommended much here.

Water is probably cloudy from dead algae. You need to monitor your FC level and run your filter and make sure it is clean.

The best bet is to just SLAM your pool per the link in the article I posted.
 
Hello Clever, Welcome to TFP! You will be glad you found us.

Your pool turned milky due to the dead algae in the water.
The algaecide is more of a preventative measure than an algae killer. Once you have an algae issue, the algaecide can't do anything to prevent or remove the green.
Which chemicals do you need?: The only chemical that you need to kill the algae is bleach (liquid chlorine). Make sure it is just regular bleach and not splashless, not scented and not the new technology type that Clorox has.
Which chemicals do you not need?: anything that isn't bleach
As you have found out, test strips are not accurate nor trustworthy. You will also need a good test kit such as the TF-100 with XL option or Taylor K-2006C ("c" is important to get the bigger bottle sizes). I like the TF-100 better because it seems to be the right bottle sizes for the reagents we use most.
Once you get the kit, you would need to follow the SLAM Process procedure rid your pool of algae. Read it, Learn it, Follow it.
Your sand filter is the best tool to use to remove the cloudiness. don't use any floc or clarifier. Floc can ruin the sand in the filter so don't let that floc water through the sand filter.

Please continue to read through Pool School, especially the SLAM Process article. Ask all the questions you have here and we will help you along
When your test kit comes in, post up the results and we will help you along.
In the mean time to prevent things from getting worse, add 1/2 bottle of bleach each day to keep the algae from coming back. Run your filter 24/7 to try to get the particles out. backwash when pressure goes up 25% above clean pressure. Don't add any CYA, trichlor, dichlor, or shock.
You will probably need some muriatic acid to get the pH down and stock up on bleach in anticipation. You don't need to buy anything else except a vac head/brush.
How about posting up a picture of your pool so we can see what you're dealing with.
 

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