Hello everyone, this is my first post and of course it's because I have a problem. We have been pool owners for years and never really had any trouble keeping the water looking good but this year has been a different story. Up until about two weeks ago, everything was going great. But suddenly after doing my normal maintenance the water started to look a little cloudy. I attributed to the high amount of rain and did my usual by adding an extra chlorine tablet to the skimmer and adding in some water clarifier. Normally, the next day the water is looking good again but this time is wasn't the case. I really don't go to the pool stores too often but after 5 days of cloudy water, decided it might be worth a visit. The pool store told me that my metals (copper) were high and sold me something to prevent staining and also a Culator 4.0 metal remover. I put the Culator in the pump basket and added the stuff to prevent stains. They also said my phosphates were super high and sold me some phosphate remover which I have never used before. I followed their directions and a week later the water is no better and I'm out over $300. I decided to search the internet and found this site which seems to be a better solution than daily visits to the pool store. I'm going to order a testing kit today but in the meantime, everyone in the house wants to kill me right now. I did take a water sample to the pool store yesterday and found that the metals have dropped from 1.7 to 1.2 so the Culator seems to be working but there are some concerns after reading many posts last night. My pH is 7.5 and the total alkalinity is 109. calcium hardness is 237. My concerns begin here with FC at 4.6 and TC at 5.6 while CYA is 150. TDS is 1500, and Phosphate is 4000 which they said is the highest that the machine will read. Not sure what optimizer is but I'm at 2 and they recommend 30-35. If I understood the information that I read last night, my biggest concern is the CYA being at a high level. With a CYA level of 150, my best option is to do a partial drain and refill or to have someone come perform reverse osmosis on the pool. I did add 6 oz. of water clarifier again last night but at this my point, my thinking is that money is just being wasted by adding anything else. My pool is a pebble tec inground pool with about 22,000 gallons. This year we put in a new filter and heater. The filter is variable speeds and it's a sand filter but also contains glass or something like that as I'm not exactly sure. The filter has a chlorinator attached that holds 3 inch pucks. Since we are in the middle of the pool season, and the whole house relies on me for the pool, the pressure is on and I am failing miserably. Any recommendations??
First time poster with cloudy water
- Thread starter Vitto09
- Start date
Welcome!
Generally, cloudy water = algae.
How cloudy are we talking? Can you still see the bottom of the deep end?
I highly recommend you read through Pool School if you haven't already. Also, without that test kit it's going to be hard to get solid answers until we know what numbers you actually have as pool store numbers and guess strips are historically inaccurate.
If your CYA is really that high, the only way to lower it is a drain/refill of some of the water. But you won't know until you do your own test.
Also, please fill out your signature so people know what type of pool, what type of equipment, etc. This will the folks here give you the best guidance. If you go to your Profile, click on Settings, then Signature.
Generally, cloudy water = algae.
How cloudy are we talking? Can you still see the bottom of the deep end?
I highly recommend you read through Pool School if you haven't already. Also, without that test kit it's going to be hard to get solid answers until we know what numbers you actually have as pool store numbers and guess strips are historically inaccurate.
If your CYA is really that high, the only way to lower it is a drain/refill of some of the water. But you won't know until you do your own test.
Also, please fill out your signature so people know what type of pool, what type of equipment, etc. This will the folks here give you the best guidance. If you go to your Profile, click on Settings, then Signature.
My recommendation till the kit arrives, pull those pucks out of the chlorinator and never use it again. Stop going to the pool store because they know nothing about pool chemistry but will sell anything and everything they have . Don't schedule anything for the high CYA because you may find it not that high with your own testing. Get liquid chlorine and get 5 ppm into the water daily until the kit gets into the mailbox. Nothing else to put into the water until you do a full scale water test via your own kit. Download the poolmath app for free. If you'll want to share your poolmath log for a small yearly fee it's yours. While you wait for the kit read away and fill in your signature so we can see all you have pool wise.
Thank you for the replies and I will update my profile later tonight. Question though, If my pool is 22,0000 then how many gallons of liquid chlorine should I put in each day to get 5ppm ?
- May 3, 2014
- 58,309
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
So here is where I am at today. I added one gallon of liquid chlorine last night. Filter is running 24 hours with heater off. Just looking at the water this morning, I didn't notice any difference. I don't see any algae but can't see the bottom. Test kit is on the way but until then, I contacted a friend that also has a pool but he pays a company to do his maintenance. I contacted the company this morning and they are coming out today to test my water. I will post the results once I receive them.
Sand filters are notoriously slow among filter types so you may not see a difference for a bit. This is where we tell you to bring your POP - pool owner patience! Are you brushing and running the robot?
- May 3, 2014
- 58,309
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
You can use them. We will not provide guidance based on them. Wait for your own kit.
Please do not let anyone put anything in this pool but liquid chlorine.
Added some more liquid chlorine yesterday and ran the robot. Water no different so I will wait for the test kit to arrive and continue adding the liquid chlorine. The maintenance guy that came yesterday didn't provide any numbers because I didn't want to sign up for his service but is only comment was to add some liquid chlorine and add some fresh water. We are getting some heavy rain as I write this.
Welcome Vitto !!! You’re in amazing hands above. We got you now. Have a beverage and add your daily chlorine until the kit comes.
We’ll go at it together when it does.
We’ll go at it together when it does.
Just checked the tracking and the test kit will arrive on Monday so it’s gonna be more like a couple of beverages over the weekend. Thanks for the support.
So since you're not going to the pool store on the weekends anymore you'll have more for the beverage store.
Sooooooooooooo it’s gonna be a fun weekend. *hiccup*.
Annnnnnd. Amother thingie !!! POLITICIANS!!! Amirite ?! Right ?? *hiccup*
I’ve downloaded the poolmath app and paid for a one year subscription and when I went to enter my daily dose of liquid chlorine, I didn’t know which chemical to pick. Says bleach, trichlor, dichlor, 48%cal-hypo, etc. the chlorine I bought says it’s 10% sodium hypochlorite.
- May 3, 2014
- 58,309
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
It’s been a long weekend but my test kit should be here today. Keeping my fingers crossed that I can do the testing correctly.
We have ALL been here.
You CAN test the things !!!! I wrote this to help take some of the nervousness off. If you are too busy chuckling about me doing my first round of tests, you will be more at ease that we were all there once and got through it with flying colors. Enjoy
So you are new to testing
Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters…… It’s that time of year again with an influx of newbs either getting a late start or coming to us trying to undo what hasn’t been working. First of all, I’d like to welcome you all. You’re gonna love it here. We will...
www.troublefreepool.com
- Oct 25, 2015
- 5,132
- Pool Size
- 25000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
Vitto,
Welcome aboard TFP! Looks like you've got a great pool and equipment to get started with. Marty's advice will have your pool in great shape very soon. Don't worry about being new with the test kit. Everybody new gets way better results than they expect right off the bat. There are over 200,000 of us doing pool maintenance this way and we all started right where you are except many had a much worse green pool to start. This often happened because a pool service or pool store advice made things worse. And sadly many times it takes way over $300 of wrong potions before the pool owner gives up and finds us. One of the best things about TFP is that we don't sell anything so we're never going to give you conflicted advice. As you've already seen there are even lot's of places to buy the recommended test kits. You've also noticed we don't give advice based on "free" pool store tests. This is because they are so unreliable. You would think their better than your home test kit but experience tells us they are definitely not. When you post your first set of results you'll get very simple advice. In a few days your pool will be on it's way to a true Trouble Free Pool and you will have learned how to do it yourself. If you ever run into anything else needed we have experts on everything pool related to advise you.
Again, welcome and ask any questions you may have as you get a perfect pool the TFP way!
Chris
Welcome aboard TFP! Looks like you've got a great pool and equipment to get started with. Marty's advice will have your pool in great shape very soon. Don't worry about being new with the test kit. Everybody new gets way better results than they expect right off the bat. There are over 200,000 of us doing pool maintenance this way and we all started right where you are except many had a much worse green pool to start. This often happened because a pool service or pool store advice made things worse. And sadly many times it takes way over $300 of wrong potions before the pool owner gives up and finds us. One of the best things about TFP is that we don't sell anything so we're never going to give you conflicted advice. As you've already seen there are even lot's of places to buy the recommended test kits. You've also noticed we don't give advice based on "free" pool store tests. This is because they are so unreliable. You would think their better than your home test kit but experience tells us they are definitely not. When you post your first set of results you'll get very simple advice. In a few days your pool will be on it's way to a true Trouble Free Pool and you will have learned how to do it yourself. If you ever run into anything else needed we have experts on everything pool related to advise you.
Again, welcome and ask any questions you may have as you get a perfect pool the TFP way!
Chris