My pool turned into a milkshake....

[Brian in AZ]

Could use someone smarter than me - Have a dilemma

Pool - PebbleTec - 26000 gallons - Salt Cell- Sand Filter - Dolphin Cleaner
Last weekend, drained, bead-blasted - acid-washed Pool - Cleaned out the Sand filter and topped off a bag of ZeoSand to replace what got pulled out and filled on Tuesday - Rinsed pool out - drained and done

Filled Pool - Fired Up - ran filter on BW from the new zeosand and for a final cleaning for 5 min. Water clear Started Filter,
- added 800 lbs of salt while filling,
- added Muriatic acid to bring it to 7.4
- Added 3 Gallons Conditioner to Skimmer
- Added a gal liquid Chlorine and a couple of tablets and a bag of Shock to get the Chlorine up

Next-Day Things were a bit Murky - Checked Chems - Needed Acid - Chlorine was good. As we were leaving town the next day for the weekend, I decided to teach 24 yo Daughter how to test Chlorine and PH - Tossed in some flocculant before I left with chems in good shape, just a little murky

When gone, she keeps telling me its murky 5 days later she tells me it is still murky - I just told her to make sure there is chlorine in it

Turns out - she did not add any acid - only chlorine (bottles mixed up)

Get home - my Pool looks like a milk shake This white water - never seen anything like it -

Get water tested - results:

FAC - 12
TAC - 12
Salt - 3800
Calcium - 190
Cyanuric Acid - 70
TA - 150
PH - 8.0
Copper -0
Iron - 0
Phosphates - 100

So I am adding Acid - 1.5 Gallons to get the PH down - but any ideas on why my water is a murky milkshake - Can Barely see the top outline of the top step
Does anyone have a clue on this mess? Thanks in advance - Brian

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!
You need a proper test kit, see Test Kits Compared. I suggest the TF-100 A proper test kit is needed to get the accurate water chemistry results needed to follow the TFP protocols.
Floc is never a good idea to use. I suspect that is the issue. Acid washing a plaster pool is also not a good idea.
I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry.

 

[Brian in AZ]

OK, so I should not have used Floc, Apparently should not have acid washed my pool and somehow it has been inferred that I have a substandard test kit.

Was more looking for someone who has an idea of what I should be doing now, but thanks, inadequacies noted.

Brian

 

[mknauss]

Floc needs to be allowed to settle. Turn off pumps for a day or two and then vac to waste.

Check your filter media as Floc will gum it up. As you have a sand filter it will most likely need the sand changed when you are done.

Another option is to do a large water exchange.

How do you chlorinate?

 

[wireform]

?What Marty said

 

[beautifulpool]

Could use someone smarter than me - Have a dilemma

Pool - PebbleTec - 26000 gallons - Salt Cell- Sand Filter - Dolphin Cleaner
Last weekend, drained, bead-blasted - acid-washed Pool - Cleaned out the Sand filter and topped off a bag of ZeoSand to replace what got pulled out and filled on Tuesday - Rinsed pool out - drained and done

Filled Pool - Fired Up - ran filter on BW from the new zeosand and for a final cleaning for 5 min. Water clear Started Filter,
- added 800 lbs of salt while filling,
- added Muriatic acid to bring it to 7.4
- Added 3 Gallons Conditioner to Skimmer
- Added a gal liquid Chlorine and a couple of tablets and a bag of Shock to get the Chlorine up

Next-Day Things were a bit Murky - Checked Chems - Needed Acid - Chlorine was good. As we were leaving town the next day for the weekend, I decided to teach 24 yo Daughter how to test Chlorine and PH - Tossed in some flocculant before I left with chems in good shape, just a little murky

When gone, she keeps telling me its murky 5 days later she tells me it is still murky - I just told her to make sure there is chlorine in it

Turns out - she did not add any acid - only chlorine (bottles mixed up)

Get home - my Pool looks like a milk shake This white water - never seen anything like it -

Get water tested - results:

FAC - 12
TAC - 12
Salt - 3800
Calcium - 190
Cyanuric Acid - 70
TA - 150
PH - 8.0
Copper -0
Iron - 0
Phosphates - 100

So I am adding Acid - 1.5 Gallons to get the PH down - but any ideas on why my water is a murky milkshake - Can Barely see the top outline of the top step
Does anyone have a clue on this mess? Thanks in advance - Brian

Gorgeous backyard/pool even with milky
Water! When you asked for someone ‘smarter’ than you for help - im already disqualified. I do agree with Mknauss, I imagine the floc exacerbated this and do you ever wonder -Is it just me, do other parents wonder what went on in our pools/yards we leave our adult kids in charge for a week or two? ?‍
Also, what’s your CSI? While ur CH isn’t high- -maybe even on the low side - but ? if the balance as a whole is leaning high...

 

[Brian in AZ]

Answers -
its leaving a pretty thick layer of sludge on the bottom, it's just beyond me where it all came from - full fill last week and water was clear - added salt, stabilizer bleach, and acid and it started clouding up - used a couple of oz of the floc when it started getting bad, but that's it. Only other thing was I salt-soaked my zeosand and ran the hose thru it with the top off to give it a good cleaning - got a ton of leaves and such out - added 1 fresh bag to top it off

Have an autopilot salt system

Put all my numbers in one of the sites and it showed my CSI good -1 I believe if that sounds right? , don't remember the details

Was thinking about letting settle then vac to waste, Just trying to get the PH and TA under control - adding a bunch of acid while running aerator and waterfall

Thanks - not opposed to doing a water exchange with a vacuum to waste if nothing else try to get most of the sludge out if nothing else

 

[beautifulpool]

Bryan,
Fwiw
As I live within 1 mile of a national Pool store, it made sense to me for 11 years to rely on them for my water testing and to buy what-ever they suggested based on ‘their’ readings. 11 years passed and I continually had issues, from scaling/algae to corrosive water(Including a Ruined Heater, Water too corrosive for too long...a pool FULL of TROUBLE.... and since we had pretty much stopped swimming (as the kids got older) The LAST thing I wanted to do was spend money on a test kit....besides
Wasn’t that the pool store’s job? because they were the “experts?”
Fast forward May 2019
More problems
Cya soo high unreadable
Water snakes mosquitos I was frustrated and skeptical, crying a lot
....and then saw some articles on TFP’s website ....It opened up to me how pool’s work...I started seeing how the pieces of chemistry fit together in balanced water. Was
reading articles, lots of articles
I read, RE-read.... and watched video’s on proper water testing techniques from Co. that makes the reagents used in Tf-100 ya know it’s the little stuff
that can skew test results
So I started testing my water ...
I made changes to my
CIRCULATION
(Oh, you mean cartridges aren’t meant to be used 11 years without replacing?) yep I was that clueless ?
CHEMISTRY
Began relying on my numbers NOT pool stores
CLEANER
Got one that worked, took pressure off my cartridges
TFP recommends a GOOD Kit, only because Nobody cares about your pool as much as you do
Blessings fellow pool owner

 

[mguzzy]

@Brian in AZ .. not to belabor the point, but to have a discussion about your pool's chemistry will require you to use the test kits that we have standardized on (one of the Taylor kits). Any other source are too variable and that includes pools stores and strips. So the most we can recommend are generalizations until we can confirm you are using a test kit we know provides consistent results. . You may have noticed everyone has thier pool specs in their signatures.. that so we can tell at a glance some info about your pool. At first I thought it was just bragging .. but its a useful tool to those who chime in.

If the sludge is that thick.. yeah vacuum to waste and rinse your sand, repeat. Flocs have their place, but boy do they make a mess.