First Year Pool Owner Opening Help

[Brad D.]

I just bought a house with a 25k gallon in ground cement pool and opened the pool myself 5/15/20

There was obviously algae in the pool upon open after winter so I shocked to 30ppm chlorine using liquid chlorine and got rid of that while cleaning the skimmer and pump filter basket daily brushing and skimming twice a day cleaning the paper cartridge filter daily and running the pump along with the Polaris aux pump with the polaris automatic cleaner running 24/7.

My initial testing 24 hours after opening showed Cyanuric Acid level of 0 which I thought was very strange as the previous owner used an in line chlorinator with 3" TriChlor tabs and a Combined Chlorine level of 8.0 ppm (yes i typed that correct 8.0 not 0.8) So I did some quick research and sure enough found that there are bacteria and fungi that can metabolize CYA into ammonia so I did an ammonia test and found ammonia levels at 14 ppm.

I then proceded to dump gallon upon gallon of 12.5% liquid chlorine (24 in total in 3 days) in the pool every night to try and keep the FC at around 20 to 30 ppm to clear up the ammonia which worked and when my CC and ammonia dropped to 0 I brought the CYA back up to 30 ppm and now my question is:

The pool is still VERY cloudy blue (maybe 2 feet of visibility) and I am still running the automatic pool cleaner and pump 24/7 cleaning the filter and baskets daily brushing and skimming twice per day and nothing seems to be clearing it up...I'm hoping this is just a case of I'm being impatient and the solution is just wait a few more days and it will clear up on its own but if I'm missing something obvious being new to pool ownership I would love the help.

My most recent test as of this morning is
pH 7.4
Free Chlorine 2.8 ppm
Combined Chlorine 0.0 ppm
Total Alkalinity 100 ppm
Calcium Hardness 200 ppm
Cyanuric Acid 30 ppm
Temperature 59.0 (I have a heater and tested to see that it works which it does but no use heating a cloudy pool that I can't swim in)

Side note I have been keeping an eye on the flow meter and it is consistently between 36 to 38 gpm so I know I'm getting good circulation I've got the inline chlorinator full of tabs and am getting consistent 2.5-3.0 ppm FC so I have good sanitation and all my levels in my water are within the "good" ranges in my Taylor test kit book

 

[thetekgeek]

Take out the tabs and follow the SLAM process. Your CYA is perfect right now for a SLAM, but the tabs are going to continue to raise the CYA. SLAM - Shock Level and Maintain - Trouble Free Pool

 

[Brad D.]

Take out the tabs and follow the SLAM process. Your CYA is perfect right now for a SLAM, but the tabs are going to continue to raise the CYA. SLAM - Shock Level and Maintain - Trouble Free Pool

Thanks, I was under the impression immediately after killing algae if the water was balanced the cloudiness was just dead algae floating around that your filtration had to filter out.....I will continue to maintain shock levels of chlorine until it clears up

 

[Brad D.]

Any insight as to how long to expect it to take, I've been keeping FC between 20 and 30 ppm going on 6 days now since I opened with the rest of the water levels balanced and was hoping to get the pool heated up for a memorial day swim with the family. Most recent testing:

FC 22 ppm
CC 0
pH 7.7 (likely not accuarte due to high chlorine I use sodium hypochlorite for shock and last pH reading with 1.5 ppm FC before shock was 7.4)
TA 100 ppm
CH 200 ppm
CYA 30 ppm

 

[thetekgeek]

SLAM level for CYA 30 is 12. Keeping FC between 20-30 is wasteful, possibly damaging to your pool and will not make the SLAM complete faster. Are you brushing every day? As you know, the SLAM is complete when the three criteria are met.
1. CC is 0.5 or lower
2. Pass an OCLT
3. Water is clear

Have you performed an OCLT?

 

[Brad D.]

SLAM level for CYA 30 is 12. Keeping FC between 20-30 is wasteful, possibly damaging to your pool and will not make the SLAM complete faster. Are you brushing every day? As you know, the SLAM is complete when the three criteria are met.
1. CC is 0.5 or lower
2. Pass an OCLT
3. Water is clear

Have you performed an OCLT?

1. CC is consistently 0.0
2. OCLT from 20 to 19 in 8 hours (I'm not sure what passing is)
3. Water is VERY cloudy (that is my concern being this is my first season owning and maintaining a pool and I'm not sure how long cloudy water should take to resolve given 2 times daily brushing and skimming and basket empty once daily paper cartridge cleaning 24/7 pump running and auto vacuum going water properly balanced and maintaining shock levels of chlorine 24/7....

This is the start of my 6th day of doing all this starting from a green algae filled pool after winter opening

 

[thetekgeek]

Can you post a picture of the current state of the water? It sounds to me like you are on track and doing the right things. I've only ever had to perform 1 SLAM, it took 9 days to complete. I've seen many threads here that took anywhere from a few days to well over 10. Patience may be key here, but a picture of the water each day at the same time and location of the pool might help you see the progress.

 

[Brad D.]

Here are pictures at 4pm today it is a little better but as you can see the only thing you can see is the first couple steps even at the shallow end at 3.5 feet i can't see my brush at the bottom

 

[Brad D.]

Can you post a picture of the current state of the water? It sounds to me like you are on track and doing the right things. I've only ever had to perform 1 SLAM, it took 9 days to complete. I've seen many threads here that took anywhere from a few days to well over 10. Patience may be key here, but a picture of the water each day at the same time and location of the pool might help you see the progress.

Pictures attached

 

[thetekgeek]

Looks about right. Keep up with the SLAM. It’ll clear.