Pool slightly Cloudy after removing cover

[ChunkyGuacamole]

I just bought a solar cover for our new pool, and I have noticed the last few days that when I remove the cover in the afternoon so the kids can swim in it, the pool is slightly cloudy. It seems to resolve itself after a couple of hours, I will usually pump up the pump and the chlorinator. I’m just wondering if this is normal?

 

[mknauss]

Odd. Mine is not. I use a solar cover and it is clear.

Watch your chlorine levels.

 

[ChunkyGuacamole]

I’ve been keeping the chlorine well within the parameters designated based on CYA. Just wondering if maybe there is some layer of film being trapped near the cover that is not circulating? I pull the cover off and I see some particles which after the cover is removed, get sucked up by the skimmer.

 

[mknauss]

Dirt, etc will settle on the cover. It comes off when you remove the cover. But I would not call that making the water cloudy.

 

[ChunkyGuacamole]

Hi all!

I’d noticed last weekend when I pulled the pool cover off a bit of cloudiness which cleared up within a couple hours. FC was at 4.5 so I bumped up my SWG and figured things were fine.

Kids were playing in the pool all weekend, I do have a toddler who is not toilet trained yet and we had a couple swim diaper incidents during the weekend.

This past week I was noticing the FC dropping overnight and some cloudiness when brushing, so on Thursday morning I added bleach to bring the FC up to 28 per my 70 CYA.

Readings were:
FC 6.5
CC 0
PH 7.5
CH 375 (I have been raising this, aiming for 400+)
CYA 70

Water currently looks very clear, no cloudiness when brushing last night but still this morning had FC loss of 3.5. So I will continue to SLAM and do another OCLT tonight.

I do have a stenner acid feed and usually add about 2 ounces per day. I have it turned off - wondering if I should continue to add the 2 oz per day my pool averages or just wait until after the SLAM to adjust the PH? I have a new pool with pebble finish that is only 2 months old and am concerned about PH getting too high.

I have been brushing every day and see no visible algae. I do not have any ladders and the skimmer looks clean. My pool vac lives in the pool 24/7 so any algae in there is getting chlorinated. I don’t know how to remove the light from the niche to clean behind it. The pool is only 2 months old so I can’t imagine there could be much back there.

How much longer should I expect to SLAM?

Thanks in advance!

 

[HermanTX]

How much longer should I expect to SLAM?

This is based on maintaining the FC at SLAM level - 28ppm for your CYA of 70. If you can test 2-3 times a day and bring up the FC to SLAM level then it will go quicker. If you are losing 3.5ppm FC overnight then you have organics eating your FC. Keep up the 28ppm FC level.
The issue with pH is that at elevated FC levels, your pH testing is not accurate, so you do not want to crash your pH below 7.
Some good pH meters let you test your pH with elevated FC levels.

A CH of 375 is fine - no need to increase. Are you monitoring your CSI? Do you use PoolMath app to track your test data and CSI?

 

[ChunkyGuacamole]

Yes, I use pool math and try to keep the CSI right around 0, but it’s usually slightly below.

 

[ChunkyGuacamole]

I wanted to raise CH a bit to help the CSI up a bit.

 

[ChunkyGuacamole]

Seeing as I have an untrained toddler, I’m thinking I should probably keep my FC up at the higher part of the range to prevent this issue in the future. I was in the middle of the range and I think the accidents in the pool may have caused fc to dip, even though when I tested it was 4.5… presumably it may have gone below that, even though the SWG was running.

 

[HermanTX]

I wanted to raise CH a bit to help the CSI up a bit.

By up I think you mean positive, above zero. Actually, I try to keep my CIS slightly negative to reduce scale on the SWCG plates, so you may see in other posts, that keeping CSI between -0.3 and 0.0 to avoid this,

Seeing as I have an untrained toddler, I’m thinking I should probably keep my FC up at the higher part of the range to prevent this issue in the future. I was in the middle of the range and I think the accidents in the pool may have caused fc to dip, even though when I tested it was 4.5… presumably it may have gone below that, even though the SWG was running.

That is a good assumption. Maintain your FC on top of range for your CYA using a SWCG. Also, it does not hurt to add liquid chlorine directly after high bather load or a toddler "accident" in the pool to quickly raise FC levels.