Heavy Bathing Load - Cloudy

[randys]

Alright, so this happened twice already and I am really just trying to understand what is causing it. The first time I thought it was kids trekking mud into the pool, but the second time that variable was removed:

First instance:
This one is explainable... Muddy feet (particles), low FC to start and due to heavy bathing load deficit FC (I really dropped the ball here, but hey.. I was cooking for 50 people):
About a month ago we had a party with 50 people over. Pool chemistry was balanced and water was crystal clear. We setup a water slide bounce house on the lawn so that little kids could go between the pool and the bounce house. What ended up happening was that the kids feet got all muddy in yard w/ grass clippings too and were jumping in the pool. The pool turned VERY cloudy. I noticed it, but others probably did not as even adults kept jumping into the pool. CYA was about 40 then and FC started at 3 and ended at almost 0! I added liquid chlorine (bleach) while everyone was over to raise the FC and again when everyone left. The next day the water was crystal clear again. PH remained the same.

Second instance:
This one makes me question my theory and I don't know what happened...
We had about 16 kids in the pool. CYA 80, FC started at 7.0 and when I noticed it was cloud tested at 5.0. There was no bounce house and no muddy feet. All kids mostly stayed in the pool this time. It wasn't VERY cloudy, I could still see the bottom.. but it wasn't clear to my satisfaction. Update: I did not add any more chlorine yet, and about 2hours after everyone left it appears to be clearing up.

Is my pump not powerful enough to churn over the water through the filter fast enough for this kind of bathing load? We really love having this many people over, but it grosses me out when it gets cloudy.

Thanks!

 

[JoyfulNoise]

16 kids sweating and peeing (yes, they pee in the pool no matter what you say) in an 18,000 gallon pool .... yeah, it’s going to get cloudy.

Whenever we have had guests over (not lately with COVID around) or lots of kids in the pool (or even just my kids), I always run the pump at higher speed to keep the water moving and filtered. Sometimes I run the SWG as well. The robot also goes in after. The pool stays mostly clear but not as clear as it is when no one is in it. All pools have a small amount of suspended solids and settled debris, swimming churns that up. So after heavy use with bathers loading up the pool and churning the water, some off-clarity should be expected.

 

[randys]

My pump isn't variable speed, but I suppose if it ever goes, I could change that.

 

[Richard320]

You don;t know how long since the kids had a bath, or how much sunscreen got slathered on them seconds before entering the water. What you're describing sounds normal.

 

[duraleigh]

We had about 16 kids in the pool.

Cha-ching!!! Normal.

Next time, simply head off that deficit by adding extra FC BEFORE they get in the pool.