Hi, I’m new to pools and need some help. I have an above ground pool and my boyfriend and I have been trying to get the pool open for the past month or so. There were A LOT of leaves in the pool and it was very green. We have shocked it 5-6 times (the guy at the pool store near us said to keep shocking it). We cannot get the water clear. We have used an automatic vacuum, manual vacuum, leaf vacuum and brush to try to clean the pool. Since we can’t see the bottom it’s hard to tell what still needs to be clean. The chemicals are balanced, we have added clarifier too. We clean the cartridge filter daily. But we just can’t get it clear. We don’t know what to do at this point so any help is much appreciated! I added a picture of what the pool looks like now and what it looked like in the very beginning.
New pool owner - can’t get water clear
- Thread starter rsefer
- Start date
kul
Bronze Supporter
- Oct 1, 2021
- 1,307
- Pool Size
- 15000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Welcome. What test kit are you using? Post your results so guidance can be provided. You’re going to need to slam.
Test Kits Compared
SLAM Process
Test Kits Compared
SLAM Process
Total chlorine - 3
Free chlorine - 3
Alkalinity - 80
CYA - 0, we’ve been having a hard time keeping this up
pH dropped overnight - now at 6.4
Do we need to shocking it and adding chlorine? We had pH and alkalinity at the correct levels but it rained yesterday and today.
jedigrover
Gold Supporter
- Sep 13, 2010
- 333
- Pool Size
- 21000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Where are you getting these numbers? Pool store?
You need a proper Test Kits Compared and do your own testing.
CYA should not be hard to keep up. It doesn't evaporate. It goes away by draining, or by conversion to ammonia.
If your CYA is truly at 0 and you try to raise it and it falls again, then you may have an ammonia issue. See: Ammonia - Further Reading
We use test strips currently.
Attachments
kul
Bronze Supporter
- Oct 1, 2021
- 1,307
- Pool Size
- 15000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Please also comment on what you have been adding to the pool. Your ph drop is concerning.
kul
Bronze Supporter
- Oct 1, 2021
- 1,307
- Pool Size
- 15000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Test strips can be inaccurate and TFP method doesn’t recognize them as valid measurements. Please consider purchasing one of the tests from the link I included so that you can start to accurately track your levels.
We have been balancing the pool using chlorine, we added pH increaser, stabilizer, clarifier and everything was balanced according to the test strips including pH (besides CYA, that remained low). We have been having a lot of rain in our area - can that cause the pH to drop?
kul
Bronze Supporter
- Oct 1, 2021
- 1,307
- Pool Size
- 15000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Rain usually causes ph to slightly increase. Rain also can cause CYA to drop if there’s enough of an exchange of your pool water.
Typically a steep drop in ph is caused by adding excessive Muriatic acid.
TFP method does not recommend using clarifier. Chlorine will be your way out of this. Liquid preferred so that you’re not adding other things at the same time. Typically shock packets or pucks can increase your CYA and lower your ph.
Typically a steep drop in ph is caused by adding excessive Muriatic acid.
TFP method does not recommend using clarifier. Chlorine will be your way out of this. Liquid preferred so that you’re not adding other things at the same time. Typically shock packets or pucks can increase your CYA and lower your ph.
jedigrover
Gold Supporter
- Sep 13, 2010
- 333
- Pool Size
- 21000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Please specify. What chlorine?
Trichlor pucks?
Dichlor?
Cal-Hypo?
Bleach? (Either standard 6% or pool 10% or 12%)
Here's why it matters:
Trichlor and Dichlor will add CYA and lower pH. Cal-Hypo will add Calcium Hardness. Bleach just adds a little salt, which is harmless.
The problem with Trichlor pucks (the typical 3" puck that gets pushed at you) is that it will, over time, add more and more CYA. This makes the chlorine less and less effective as a sanitizer. So you add more and more chlorine (pucks or shock) and compound the problem. One day, algae blooms even though you've chlorinated your water. Pool store will tell you that you went into "chlorine lock". BS. The product they sold you drove your CYA way too high...leading to big profits for them and a water change for you to try and clear algae. Of course, first, they will sell you all kinds of watered down and overpriced phosphate removers (that generally are not necessary), clarifier, flocculant, enzymes, copper algaecides, "Yellow Out" (sodium bromide), etc. That is usually what happens right before people find this site.
If you've been using pucks, I have a hard time believing the test strips' CYA of 0 unless something else like massive water exchange or ammonia is going on.