Help, cloudy pool and huge pool party in 2 days!

[Rachelm0123]

Hi, I am hoping I can get some help. My 15k pool recently went cloudy and wasn't maintaining free chlorine after 2 bags of shock. Like a dummy, I went to a pool store for advice. :'( They told me my phosphates were high (all else in range) and to use a phosphate remover.

I followed the orders and it made the pool from slightly cloudy to completely cloudy and no change in chlorine reading.

I went ahead and super shocked it with calpo shock and finally got a reading. I added super blue clarifier, ensured all other numbers were in range and have been running the pump for 48 straight while cleaning the cartridge filter 2-3 times a day.

The pool is still cloudy and doesn't seem to be improving. I'm really considering floc so my water will be clear by Sat. However I have a cartridge filter. Could I floc, then remove my cartridge filter, close the return line, open the filter drain and vacuum to waste this way?

Help!!

 

[Bperry]

Hi, I am hoping I can get some help. My 15k pool recently went cloudy and wasn't maintaining free chlorine after 2 bags of shock. Like a dummy, I went to a pool store for advice. :'( They told me my phosphates were high (all else in range) and to use a phosphate remover.

I followed the orders and it made the pool from slightly cloudy to completely cloudy and no change in chlorine reading.

I went ahead and super shocked it with calpo shock and finally got a reading. I added super blue clarifier, ensured all other numbers were in range and have been running the pump for 48 straight while cleaning the cartridge filter 2-3 times a day.

The pool is still cloudy and doesn't seem to be improving. I'm really considering floc so my water will be clear by Sat. However I have a cartridge filter. Could I floc, then remove my cartridge filter, close the return line, open the filter drain and vacuum to waste this way?

Help!!

Get some chlorine in the water, all that other junk is a waste of money. Does the super “blue” clarifier have copper in it? Just use liquid chlorine from the hardware store.

 

[wireform]

I wish it was that easy but unfortunately you're not alone and that's when they find TFP when all the products they bought and dumped do NOTHING and many times it's worse. Floc isn't your answer and neither is the clarifier. Your answer is you need to understand pool chemistry so I'll include some links so you can read and then ask away. In the mean time download the poolmath app and fill in your pool specifics as best you can then see how much liquid chlorine is needed to get you to 5ppm daily till the test kit you order arrives. We do not give advice from pool store testing or test strip results as they're very unreliable to say the least.
Pool Care Basics
Test Kits Compared
SLAM Process
PoolMath

 

[JJ_Tex]

Do you have pictures? Ultimately the answer is simple, you need chlorine (liquid preferred) to kill what is growing in your pool plus your filter to filter out the dead stuff. I'm just not sure 2 days is enough to fully kill everything and filter it out of the water.

Can you consider at least partially draining and refilling before the party?

 

[Rachelm0123]

This is the reading of my pool this morning 12 hours after my second day of shock. Water is clearer but still cloudy. Lots of white milky chunks and debris on my cartridge filter when I clean it. I assume from the phosphate remover. At this point, I assume I just have to wait it out for it to clear?

 

[IceShadow]

This is the reading of my pool this morning 12 hours after my second day of shock. Water is clearer but still cloudy. Lots of white milky chunks and debris on my cartridge filter when I clean it. I assume from the phosphate remover. At this point, I assume I just have to wait it out for it to clear?

Unfortunately we're throwing darts blindfolded with the advice we can give because test strips and pool store testing are so inaccurate and erratic. What you really need is a test kit that uses drop-based testing, like the Taylor K-2006c or the TF-100.

So, you now have two options, from what I can see:

- Keep filtering out and dumping in chlorine blindly and hope that it's enough chlorine to make sure everything is dead, but not so much that it hurts your pool surfaces or is dangerous to swim in
- Drain and refill with fresh water and balance that

I don't know which one is more feasible for you to do in your situation. Ultimately the right way to clear it is to get a good test kit, find out your actual chemistry levels, and use the SLAM Process to clean it up. Without an accurate CYA and FC test, though, it's pretty much throwing darts blindfolded, as I mentioned.

What we would tell people who don't have a kit but are ordering one so we can help them more is to add 5ppm of FC daily to prevent backsliding more. If you're going to throw darts blindly, that's about as good of a guess as we could give.

Please let us know how things turn out. I wish we could do more, but without proper testing...there's not much we can advise

 

[Leebo]

May I ask how the pool looked before adding phosphate remover? Did the water change almost right away?

 

[jeffchap]

Sorry, but test strips are totally unreliable and we can't make any recommendations based upon them.

There are 2 test kits that contain all the tests necessary to follow the TFP method: Test Kits Compared

With your time constraint, you probably can't get one of these online in time to help you. Some pool stores do carry the Taylor K2006 kit, so get one if you can. If not, the K2005 is better than the strips. It just lacks one particular test that we use (the FAS/DPD chlorine test), but you can get that separately online for about $35.

If you can find one of these kits locally, run the following tests ASAP and post the results here and we can make some recommendations.

CYA
FC
CC
pH
 TA

The bottom line is that a cloudy pool is almost always the result of insufficient free chlorine (FC) for your stabilizer level (CYA). The fix is to add only liquid chlorine (aka bleach) to raise your FC without adding any more stabilizer.

All dry forms of chlorine (ie. tablets, pucks and shock powder) contain stabilizer and need to be avoided until we know what your current CYA level is. Chances are it's way too high already which is why your pool is cloudy.