New Pool Owner need help!

[onaiR]

Hi all,
A new pool owner here and I'm pretty new to this site. I've decided to start maintaining my own pool vs hiring someone else.
I've read a lot of great and useful information from the site, and I like to learn more!
My goal is to have a Trouble Free Pool! which unfortunately are not happening right now.
Any recommendation or insight from you guys would be beneficial for me and appreciated!

So I noticed some algae in the pool in the last few days and water a little greenish, so I shock the pool last night with 'Leslie's Power Powder Granular'
Ever since the shock, my pool is blue but now very cloudy. So I ran the filter longer (about 8 hours yesterday) and another 8 hours today. And still cloudy.

Today my pool test came out:
FC - 5
TC - 5
pH - 8
TA - 80
CH - 320
CYA - 0

My Pool store recommendations are: to add Muriatic acid, add Chlorine Neutralizer and add conditioner. And also told me to use 'Leslie's Ultra Bright Water Clarifier' to remove the cloudiness.
From what I've learned in the past, my pool store is always recommending me unnecessary stuff.

I think I should add Muriatic acid to lower the pH and then add cyanuric acid to increase the CYA?
I'm guessing that the cloudiness will 'eventually' disappear?

What do you guys think?

 

[StogieC]

CYA - 0? Is this the pool store's test? If so, step one to a "Trouble Free Pool" is running your own tests using a quality test kit. Either the TF-100 or Taylor K-2006. Muriatic acid is likely needed, "Chlorine Neutralizer" is NOT. Conditioner/Stabilizer (CYA) MAYBE. You'll need to get your test kit and test everything, including a CYA test, to find out for sure what is going on.

 

[onaiR]

Yea, CYA 0 from the pool store test.

I'm still waiting on my Taylor K-2006 test kit, which will be a couple days from Amazon.

Meanwhile, I'm using the pool store test.
Perhaps I'll just do the Muratic acid first to lower the pH and wait for the test kit?

Still not sure what to do on the cloudiness issue. You think this will eventually go away?

 

[stodds]

If CYA is really zero, your chlorine will go to zero VERY quickly.

 

[Hammond]

How have you been getting chlorine in the pool? If you were using tablets or shock there would have been some cya in the pool.

 

[StogieC]

There are a number of potential causes of cloudiness in your water. We could speculate about the cause but it would only be speculation that could lead you to do somthing very wrong. 25k gal is a nice sized pool (congrats). Given what you know... I would add two gallons of unscented 6% bleach and two quarts (1/2 gal) of muriatic acid while you wait for your test kit to come in (at least 15 min between them and poured in front of a return jet in the deep end). Even if the pool store test is very wrong, this dose is highly unlikely hurt anything and may help greatly. How old is the pool? Is it using a salt water chlorine generator (SWG) or are you using some other method for maintaining your chlorine?

 

[onaiR]

I've been using tablets and shock for my chlorine. But I like to switch to liquid chlorine.
Isn't possible that my CYA is zero because I've been using tablets and shock vs liquid chlorine?

I just bought 2 gallon of Instant Conditioner. If I am correct, these 2 gallon should raise my CYA to 40. From there, I should be able to use liquid chlorine/bleach to maintain my chlorine level.

Pool store guy recommend me to leave the filter pump ON for 72 hours after putting in the conditioner. Is 72 hours necessary??

 

[StogieC]

Don't add that conditioner. That stuff is 70% somthing other than CYA, I'm sure someone else here has an idea of what. Wait for your test kit to come in. Other than some electricity, running the pump until you get your test kit will hurt nothing and may help. Using tablets and shock, it's HIGHLY unlikely that your CYA is zero.

 

[mknauss]

The tablets and shock add nearly as much CYA as they do chlorine.

Do Not add the 'conditioner' until you have a proper test kit as suggested in earlier posts.

The liquid 'conditioner' is called liquid gold on this site. Really expensive. You can get powder CYA from Walmart or Home Depot for less than half the price.

Take care.

 

[onaiR]

Ok. I will wait on the conditioner until I get my Taylor K-2006 test kit.

Strangely tho, when my pool was greenish a few weeks ago, I shocked the pool, then it turned blue again for about a week only and started to go back to greenish again.
Perhaps that my CYA is 0 ?? No protection for the chlorine?

 

[mknauss]

More likely is that your CYA is very high if you have used tablets and dichlor shock for a long period of time. High CYA makes the chlorine ineffective in combating bacteria and algae.

You may want to contemplate what you would need to do if you must drain and refill a substantial amount of the water in this pool.

Take care.