Pool a bit hazy after rain and Sahara dust cloud

[Orion7319]

Went swimming and it’s hazy again.... gerrrrr....

 

[mariane]

My pool gets hazy after a swim party. I bump up the FC a little before the party and a bit more after the party. Both still below SLAM level. I usually clears overnight.

 

[Orion7319]

My pool gets hazy after a swim party. I bump up the FC a little before the party and a bit more after the party. Both still below SLAM level. I usually clears overnight.

I bumped the chlorine up a bit already, I put the last pound of cal-hypo in and a clarifier. It passed the overnight free chlorine loss test, so it shouldn’t be algae, I ran my robot all day and it did get a lot of dirt or something up. It cleared up briefly yesterday morning after I added the clarifier in the morning before. I keep finding this stuff on my pool steps in the morning... this is obviously what’s causing the water to haze... not sure if it’s algae (passed over night FC loss test) dust or from the pine needles that always fall in or what. I do know the pine needles can kinda act like tea and haze the water. Any ideas?

 

[Orion7319]

Unfortunately none of the pine trees are mine, otherwise I would consider cutting them down.... the more I think about it, I’m probably going to have to shock up to around 20ppm.....

 

[mariane]

I bumped the chlorine up a bit already, I put the last pound of cal-hypo in and a clarifier. It passed the overnight free chlorine loss test, so it shouldn’t be algae, I ran my robot all day and it did get a lot of dirt or something up. It cleared up briefly yesterday morning after I added the clarifier in the morning before. I keep finding this stuff on my pool steps in the morning... this is obviously what’s causing the water to haze... not sure if it’s algae (passed over night FC loss test) dust or from the pine needles that always fall in or what. I do know the pine needles can kinda act like tea and haze the water. Any ideas?

When you rub your hand across the steps, does that stuff go "poof"?
Does the stuff on the bottom go "poof" when the robot gets to it? Does it stay?
"Poof" means dead algae settling on the surface, "Stay" means staining, Cloudy usually indicates suspended dead algae.

Have you done a SLAM? Shock Level And Maintain.

 

[Orion7319]

When you rub your hand across the steps, does that stuff go "poof"?
Does the stuff on the bottom go "poof" when the robot gets to it? Does it stay?
"Poof" means dead algae settling on the surface, "Stay" means staining, Cloudy usually indicates suspended dead algae.

Have you done a SLAM? Shock Level And Maintain.

SLAM

SLAMing your pool is the best way to eliminate algae, sanitize your pool and get your water crystal clear. If you have algae, or the CC level is above 0.5, o...

www.troublefreepool.com

It goes “poof”... The proof is in the poofing????? Sorry I’m a dad.. and that means bad dad jokes.... I’ll do a slam after the weekend... wife won’t like it if I take her pool away for the weekend.... looks like I need to add bleach to the shopping run in addition to the hotdogs and buns... What I don’t understand though is I thought I wouldn’t get algae if I kept the chlorine levels where they need to be. I haven’t let them drop below 3ppm, my CYA this year hasn’t been high, and I have been running the pump for 9 hours a day during daylight hours during the spring. Last year when we bought the house the pool was completely green. We were too busy moving and trying to sell our other house to deal with the algae ourselves. We had never owned a pool before and didn’t know a thing about pools. My wife hired a company to clear the algae and they wasted a month trying to get rid of it. Eventually I got kinda frustrated with them and just dumped 20 pounds of cal hypo in the pool.... that killed it! Lol! In the process that company did replace the sand in the filter. This winter we had the liner replaced, had to replace the fiberglass stairs with thermoplastic ones and converted to salt. With all these changes and new water with the chlorine never dropping, I was kinda hoping I was done with algae. Anyway long post, but could the dead algae be from the filter from last years bloom?

 

[mariane]

Okay here goes
We love bad dad jokes. My son groans but that doesn't stop his dad.
Poof means algae. Debris will move but not go poof.
You can get stronger bleach - liquid chlorine (same thing just stronger) at 10% in the pool section or 12.5% at some BBS.
It's okay to swim with FC levels at or below SLAM levels. It won't turn her hair green, that's from copper in the water (another discussion).
The chlorine levels at where they need to be is only for maintenance. When you have a lot of FC use ie. from dust cloud, heavy swimmer load, debris from trees, it uses more FC. FC at 3 is low for a pool after all the above. What is your CYA? If you are keeping the CYA at SWG levels, 3 is too low. That is only a minimum. Go for the target to maintain. But you need to SLAM.

The Free Chlorine and Cyanuric Acid Relationship

Managing your cyanuric acid and Free Chlorine levels is key to stabilizing your pool. Learn how these two items affect each other.

www.troublefreepool.com

No, the dead algae did not come from last years bloom.
Hope this helps "clear" things up. hardee har har

 

[Orion7319]

Okay here goes
We love bad dad jokes. My son groans but that doesn't stop his dad.
Poof means algae. Debris will move but not go poof.
You can get stronger bleach - liquid chlorine (same thing just stronger) at 10% in the pool section or 12.5% at some BBS.
It's okay to swim with FC levels at or below SLAM levels. It won't turn her hair green, that's from copper in the water (another discussion).
The chlorine levels at where they need to be is only for maintenance. When you have a lot of FC use ie. from dust cloud, heavy swimmer load, debris from trees, it uses more FC. FC at 3 is low for a pool after all the above. What is your CYA? If you are keeping the CYA at SWG levels, 3 is too low. That is only a minimum. Go for the target to maintain. But you need to SLAM.

The Free Chlorine and Cyanuric Acid Relationship

Managing your cyanuric acid and Free Chlorine levels is key to stabilizing your pool. Learn how these two items affect each other.

www.troublefreepool.com

No, the dead algae did not come from last years bloom.
Hope this helps "clear" things up. hardee har har

I hope it helps clear things up too! Lol! I have the CYA somewhere between 50 and 60. I know it’s recommended at higher then that for a Salt pool, but this pool gets lots of shade and after the problems it had last year due to the last owners having the CYA up past 200 using pucks, I quickly became high CYA adverse.... the levels seem to maintain where I want them right now, and I do monitor the CYA weekly, and will adjust the CYA should the chlorine levels start to drop. The free chlorine has been between 3-7 for the last 20 days, and this week the water got past 85 finally. I have only had detectable combined chlorine levels once so far, early in the morning. Right now the pool math app is saying it needs to be between 3-9 so I was planning on running it somewhere in the range of 5-7. I always use the super chlorinate feature after a rain, high swim load ect.. The kids know not to pee in the pool.... I mean Michael Phelps isn’t anyone’s idol in this household, so I haven’t been worried about that... I guess the dust and the rain must have done it, but I am a bit confused as to why it’s dead algae, I guess the pound of shock I used the other day killed it before it took off but wasn’t enough to clear the haze out? I think all that’s open today (other then Home Depot) is the grocery store and I already haven to go there, so I’ll pick up some bleach from there. I know to get regular bleach and to stay away from Clorox.

Complementary bad Dad joke “How do you cut the ocean in half? With a sea saw!!!!”

 

[mariane]

I hope it helps clear things up too! Lol! I have the CYA somewhere between 50 and 60. I know it’s recommended at higher then that for a Salt pool, but this pool gets lots of shade and after the problems it had last year due to the last owners having the CYA up past 200 using pucks, I quickly became high CYA adverse.... the levels seem to maintain where I want them right now, and I do monitor the CYA weekly, and will adjust the CYA should the chlorine levels start to drop. The free chlorine has been between 3-7 for the last 20 days, and this week the water got past 85 finally. I have only had detectable combined chlorine levels once so far, early in the morning. Right now the pool math app is saying it needs to be between 3-9 so I was planning on running it somewhere in the range of 5-7. I always use the super chlorinate feature after a rain, high swim load ect.. The kids know not to pee in the pool.... I mean Michael Phelps isn’t anyone’s idol in this household, so I haven’t been worried about that... I guess the dust and the rain must have done it, but I am a bit confused as to why it’s dead algae, I guess the pound of shock I used the other day killed it before it took off but wasn’t enough to clear the haze out? I think all that’s open today (other then Home Depot) is the grocery store and I already haven to go there, so I’ll pick up some bleach from there. I know to get regular bleach and to stay away from Clorox.

Complementary bad Dad joke “How do you cut the ocean in half? With a sea saw!!!!”

I'll tell my son the "cutting ocean" joke and watch him roll his eyes. LOL
I think you're just maintaining the water at "still killing algae" level and not getting ahead of it. The haze is floating dead algae. When it accumulates you vacuum it up but it will reappear if you don't get it all. The clarifier caused it to clear because it bound up some of the dead algae but it comes back because more algae is growing then dieing. The SLAM will get you ahead of it.
Target FC levels are only for when your water is clear and balanced, no cloudiness.

 

[mariane]

Complementary bad Dad joke “How do you cut the ocean in half? With a sea saw!!!!”

I'll tell my son the "cutting ocean" joke and watch him roll his eyes. LOL

The reaction I expected. Rolled eyes, hung his head down, smiled and sighed, "I've heard that one before." my 19 year old.

 

[Orion7319]

I'll tell my son the "cutting ocean" joke and watch him roll his eyes. LOL
I think you're just maintaining the water at "still killing algae" level and not getting ahead of it. The haze is floating dead algae. When it accumulates you vacuum it up but it will reappear if you don't get it all. The clarifier caused it to clear because it bound up some of the dead algae but it comes back because more algae is growing then dieing. The SLAM will get you ahead of it.
Target FC levels are only for when your water is clear and balanced, no cloudiness.

Thanks! That makes sense. I picked up some 6% bleach at the store, I’ll either slam it tonight or tomorrow night. Hopefully it clears out the haze. It went down a bit since the filter came on today, probably because of the clarifier.

 

[Orion7319]

The reaction I expected. Rolled eyes, hung his head down, smiled and sighed, "I've heard that one before." my 19 year old.

Oh ok, well let’s see then.... “What do you get when you cross and elephant with a rhinoceros? Elephino (heck-if-I-know)

 

[Orion7319]

Thanks! That makes sense. I picked up some 6% bleach at the store, I’ll either slam it tonight or tomorrow night. Hopefully it clears out the haze. It went down a bit since the filter came on today, probably because of the clarifier.

Last night I added 5 gallons of bleach to the pool, as that’s what pool math told me I needed to add to hit slam level. This morning the pool is still hazy, however I can now see some of this dust on the pool liner in spots. When I take the brush it just poofs right off. I threw the robot in (even though I know that’s not good for it) to try and get that stuff off the bottom. I would like to help the sand filter along somehow to filter this stuff out quickly, but since I added the clarifier just a few days ago, I don’t think I should add anymore. Would a phosphate remover bind some of this stuff up so the filter can remove it more quickly? I do want to try adding some DE powder to this sand filter, but having a hard time finding it locally right now as the pool stores are closed.

 

[Orion7319]

Update.
This morning the pool was still hazy, but with a milky blue tent. I found that my local Lowe’s had DE powder in stock so I ordered some online from curbside pickup. (Side note: got home and discovered the box was taped shut and the bag inside had been cut open.... why do they always accept used stuff and resell it?) I ran the robot all day get all the stuff off the bottom. I added a cup of the DE powder and checked the filters pressure gauge 15 minutes later, and it had gone up 1psi. Checked the pool again at 5 and the PSI has gone up 4 and the water is almost completely clear. FC at 13.5 CC at 0. I think this hopefully solved the issue. I am just going to let the water clear up and backwash, wait for the FC levels to drop below 10 so I can get good test readings and rebalance all the chemicals. I do have to say that I am quite impressed with how well and how quickly the DE in the sand filter is working. I think I am always going to add a cup with each backwash. Thanks to all who replied and helped me out!

 

[Mdragger88]

I’m not sure if you’re understanding the SLAM Process - it stands for Shock Level And Maintain-the most important part is the maintain until u pass all 3 end of slam criteria - you’ve passed 2 the 3rd is crystal clear water.
if you’re cya is between 50 & 60 you count it as 60 & your slam fc level is 24ppm


if you end slam prematurely your cloudy water & algae problem will likely return

 

[Orion7319]

I’m not sure if you’re understanding the SLAM Process - it stands for Shock Level And Maintain-the most important part is the maintain until u pass all 3 end of slam criteria - you’ve passed 2 the 3rd is crystal clear water.
if you’re cya is between 50 & 60 you count it as 60 & your slam fc level is 24ppm


if you end slam prematurely your cloudy water & algae problem will likely return

Yeah honestly, I admit that I’m a bit confused as to what exactly is going on, because it passed the overnight test before I even added the bleach. I actually brought the chlorine level up to 22. I had calculated the CYA at 55 and the pool seems to be a bit shy of 20k gallons, somewhere between 19,500 to 19,700. Anyway I’m still running the pump and I’m about to test the chlorine again and will test it again first thing in the morning, just to be sure. Also after adding the bleach, and 8 hours after adding the DE to the pool, the water seems to actually be clearer then I think I have ever seen it.

 

[mariane]

TFP method will result in "sparkly" clear water when you pass ALL 3 of the criteria at the SAME TIME:
1. crystal clear water
2. OCLT FC loss of < 1
3. and CC of .5 or less
DE is so much better than clarifier.
Does the robot vacuum the stuff off the bottom or just catch it in a bag? Bags will not catch dead algae.

 

[Orion7319]

TFP method will result in "sparkly" clear water when you pass ALL 3 of the criteria at the SAME TIME:
1. crystal clear water
2. OCLT FC loss of < 1
3. and CC of .5 or less
DE is so much better than clarifier.
Does the robot vacuum the stuff off the bottom or just catch it in a bag? Bags will not catch dead algae.

The robot does vacuum stuff off the bottom. It’s a Dolphin nautilus CC plus, and I am using the fine filters in it. The water is absolutely sparkling this morning and after my checks last night and this morning, looks like I’m good! Just got to wait until the FC drops a bit so I can get accurate tests and make sure all my levels are good. I wish I had known about adding DE to the filter sooner!

 

[Orion7319]

 

[mariane]

YaY! Looks good.