Pool water murky

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Switched

Well-known member
Dec 25, 2019
78
Adelaide
Hi all.
In an effort to get the water fully balanced, my water has gone dark and lost the clarity.
Unfortunately it happened at a time I was making a few changes namely;
Adding borax to increase PH after I had lowered TA.
Increased my CH from around 250 to 400.
Increased by CYA from less than 30 to 100 and then down to 80 or so.

I did an overnight chlorine loss and found that it dropped only 0.5ppm. I never thought it was algae as my FC has been good.

The other thing it happened around was when I turned on my solar connect to my roof, and also change the pool suction to pull from main drain as apposdd to main drain and spa.

Any thoughts here on how to resolve and my next steps? I think my swim season is over as the weather is cooling.

==========================================
HomePool
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Build Type: Plaster
Volume: 75000 liters
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Latest Test Result Summary:
FC: 6.5 (28 minutes ago)
CC: 0.0 (9 hours ago)
pH: 7.6 (9 hours ago)
TA: 100 (9 hours ago)
CH: 425 (16 days ago)
CYA: 80 (9 hours ago)
SALT: 4640 (28 days ago)
TEMPERATURE: 21° (7 days ago)
CSI: -0.15 (28 minutes ago)
==========================================
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Test Results 2020-04-14 @ 06:28 AM
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Free Chlorine: 6.5
CSI: -0.15

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Notes 2020-04-14 @ 06:26 AM
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Pool water is still murky. Completed an overnight chlorine loss test and it dropped Down to 6.5ppm.
Water was seen to be darker around the time the CYA, CH was risen. As PH was still low it was about this time I also put in 1kg of borax to increase PH

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Test Results 2020-04-13 @ 09:15 PM
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CYA: 80
CSI: -0.15

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Test Results 2020-04-13 @ 09:10 PM
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Total Alkalinity: 100
CSI: -0.17

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Test Results 2020-04-13 @ 09:07 PM
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Free Chlorine: 7.0
Combined Chlorine: 0.0
pH: 7.6
CSI: -0.24
 
Can you explain 'dark'? Is the pool just cloudy or actually brown?

With those chemical adds, things may need some time. I am curious why you would chemically raise pH when lowering TA? Aeration will raise pH quite quickly with a high TA. And you should not be lowering pH below 7.2 when doing the process to lower TA.
 
My pool tiles are dark blue and water is deep but normally it is crystal clean and can see the drain at the deep end easily. It appears the water is much darker and not so clear - I wouldn’t see it as cloudy. I can see the drain but it’s not as clear. To me the water has gone dark and murky looking . I’ll send a photo soon. The chemical adds were done about 2-3 weeks ago so not sure how long it would take?
Regarding TA it was at around 100, so thought to lower with MA which dropped my PH to around 7.2ish. From here I tried to use my spa blower for a day and it had no noticeable increase in PH. Eventually I turned to borax to try and raise it which seems to work.
I didn’t have any other way to aerate pool so not sure if I need to do something differently here.
 
Its hard to tell from the pics, but you know your pool better than anyone and I take your word that it is darker than normal. How is your filter doing and have you back washed recently?
 
Yes I backwashed in the last week or two. We had a downpour here and used excess water to backwash. Issues were evident before downpour.
Problem is it’s a new pool and maybe did too much too soon in getting it to the TFP benchmark!

I used this for increasing PH https://shop.coles.com.au/a/national/product/bare-essentials-borax

It’s Main ingredient is Sodium tetraborate decahydrate
Does this all look OK?
 
Now the sun is up here are more pics.
I don’t see how it could be algae is the overnight loss test was less than 1ppm.
 

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It's hard to say and pictures don't do it justice with all the reflection. Contrary to your belief it did not pass OCLT as per the TFP rule meeting 3 criteria. There's still something going on causing the water to look different then you know it can.
 

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Thanks everyone - I’ve left the cover off for a few days. im a new pool owner so haven’t known my pool for very long. One other point, I have this I will soon try and repair. Could this be the cause of it? I actually think back to when I added the borax was when it started and never recovered. Can borax as per my above post be the cause? Does borax cause a different imbalance to something else within pool?
 

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Just another thought. Currently plumbed on is an old gas heater. Vintage unit probably from the early 90s I would say. Funnily enough it’s not working and I had ordered the pressure piping to plumb
It out of the main line and remove the unit. Do you think if these contain copper coils that this could be the reason? If not are there typically copper in rooftop solar setups?
 
I don't think copper causes green water. Copper precipitates onto pool surfaces as very dark blue or black but I don't think it turns water green.

That said, iron can under certain circumstances, but your test results don't show those circumstances.

Are you running your pump 24/7? Are you filling from a well?
 
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HI Dave, What circumstances would normally? 2 months ago when I took the pool over the tests were: FC10, PH 7.8, TA 80, CH 250, CYA <30 and SALT 4800.
Pump was running 8 hours per day, couple of days ago went to 4 hours as the temps are cooling right down.
I dont have any way to test copper or iron currently - I would need to purchase something - looks like our Australia Clear choice friends dont have such a kit.
Regarding well water - no - standard domestic surburban water supply.
 
At one point my PH was low- lowered it to reduce TA, and it stayed low until I realised i needed to raise it quicker - hence the spa blower on (it created alot of bubbles but after 8 hours being on, there was no noticable difference in PH). I resorted to Borax to raise it. Looks like in my history it went to around 7.0 after adding the MA on 24th Feb and PH was at 7.4 around March 16th so there was a period where it was very low here - about 2-3 weeks.
 
Start the SLAM process. Bring your FC to around 30 (consult the CYA/FC chart) and keep adding chlorine to hold it there 24/7. Secondly, run your pump 24/7 until your pool clears. Don't back away from this regimen. I believe you will see a difference in 24-48 hours.

Frankly, the pics are awful.....all I can see are reflections. Can you give us a better look?
 
Hi Dave - thanks - today I realized a very important thing - my M400 robot had the coarse filters in there and not the fine filters. I pushed a broom across the floor to realise a cloud of dust followed. After putting in the robot and taking it out after an hour today, the water that I pulled up as it drained had a green tinge so I think partly what is the cause here is lack of filtering by my cleaner.
Im running the cleaner and clearing the filter regularly mostly organic fibres from my neighbors trees that are very fine - Its not alot but certainly hosing out the filters and the water is running with the green tinge.
What I'll do now is turn the filter off - let everything settle overnight and run the robot again and keep trying to get it out of suspension. Failing this, SLAM it is..
 

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