Very blue, CLOUDY water - WILL NOT CLEAR UP PLEASE HELP ME

[ajjohnson93]

Hello, new here, and new to owning a pool. We just bought a new home and the pool and equipment came with it. I have tried everything I can think of and find online and nothing is working to get the water clear. The only thing I have not tried is a flocculant, and the reason for not trying it is that I have tried a clarifier which did NOTHING.

I took a sample to Watsons and they said the issue was high Ph, so they gave me what I needed to fix it and still no luck.

Chem levels:
Total Hardness: 250 ppm

Total Chlorine: 0 ppm

Free Chlorine: 0 ppm

pH: 7.2

Alk: 120 ppm

Stabilizer: 0 ppm

When I checked chlorine levels yesterday morning they were up ever so slightly, enough to give the strip a slight color but back to 0 today. I also added stabilizer 1 or 2 days ago and the level will not rise! At this point I think I added the entire 4 lb bottle! And I am sure it has dissolved I brushed what I put directly in pool and added slowly to skimmer.

Please someone help me, I am ready to pull my hair out! I just want to swim!

Oh and I live in northern ky so climate is pretty avg summer temps, 80s-90s if that is important.

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to TFP!

Without stabilizer, your chlorine is being consumed as fast as it's being generated. You need an alternate source of chlorination. Stabilizer can take a few days to register on the test.

 

[ajjohnson93]

So should I be shocking the pool while waiting for the stabilizer to take effect? And after it does, will the chlorine clear up the pool?

 

[JohnT]

So should I be shocking the pool while waiting for the stabilizer to take effect? And after it does, will the chlorine clear up the pool?

You need to be at least keeping chlorine in it. Running with zero chlorine is the cause of the cloudiness. You'd probably be best to follow the SLAM Process Process until things clear up and the CYA reaches a reasonable level.

 

[ajjohnson93]

About how long will it take for the CYA to get to reasonable? And what chlorine level should I be aiming for right now with the CYA at who knows what level

 

[JohnT]

About how long will it take for the CYA to get to reasonable? And what chlorine level should I be aiming for right now with the CYA at who knows what level

Assume it's at the level for the amount of CYA you added and use the [FC/CYA]Chart[/FC/CYA] to get your FC level

 

[Razorhog]

About how long will it take for the CYA to get to reasonable? And what chlorine level should I be aiming for right now with the CYA at who knows what level

I think the CYA issue might be that a lot of it is stuck in your filter. Didn't you say you added it directly to the skimmer?

 

[ajjohnson93]

I think the CYA issue might be that a lot of it is stuck in your filter. Didn't you say you added it directly to the skimmer?

Some of it. The bottle said that was the best way but once I saw that it was basically clogging my skimmer basket I added to the pool itself. I had read that if you do that to brush it around to dissolve it and I tried to do that. But it's possible that a lot of it could have gotten to the filter before dissolving. Is it stuck in there, or will it dissolve out eventually?

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To update: I have added 5 gallons of bleach to the pool to get the chlorine levels up. I assume I'll have to keep doing that until CYA levels rise?

 

[triptyx]

Yes, if the CYA ended up in the filter, it'll slowly dissolve there over time.

For now, you'll need to add enough chlorine to fight the sun and whatever is growing in there.

 

[ajjohnson93]

Great, thank you all so much. I guess I'll check the levels in the morning and update here if needed. One more question - my parents own a pool and my dad just flocced his with great results and has half a bottle leftover that he's giving to us. Is that safe or wise to use at this point, or should I just let the bleach do its thing?

 

[Donldson]

You have a cartridge filter, how do you plan to vacuum the flocced debris to waste?

 

[ajjohnson93]

I think all I have to do is remove the drainage plug

 

[ajjohnson93]

Another clarification - at what point in the process will the water begin to clear? Will it happen as I add chlorine or not until CYA comes up?

 

[Donldson]

Ok, quick question: Are you just looking to get the pool cleared up fast or do you want to get your chemistry correct, take control of things, and never have to deal with this again?

 

[ajjohnson93]

Also - there are starting to be some white spots floating around the top of pool. Is that good/bad/normal?

 

[ajjohnson93]

Both really... but more so the latter I supppose.

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Ok, quick question: Are you just looking to get the pool cleared up fast or do you want to get your chemistry correct, take control of things, and never have to deal with this again?

Both really... but more so the latter I suppose

 

[Donldson]

Then the first thing is I'm going to shame everyone who has offered you advice based on pool store testing. Shame, shame, shame

That was a friendly jab at them, but test results from a pool store have proven to be untrustworthy and can lead to more problems. The first thing you need is to be able to do your own testing, that way you can do it as often as you need and we can trust your results. Yes, you may not initially trust yourself to do a better job, but years on this site has me trusting even the newest pool owner's results over a pool store's any day. But you need a kit capable of doing all the tests and doing so correctly. There are only two that are recommended, the Taylor k-2006 (preferably the 'C' variant) and the TF-100 (only available online). Both have the same tests but the TF-100 is better built for someone getting started, especially if their pool is already needing some work, so that is my recommendation off the bat.

Next, instead of just jumping in and throwing ideas around, I want to make sure we are on the same page with terminology and concepts. So here are a couple areas to look in to in the fairly vast Pool School up top:
Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart
Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain
The SLAM article also has a good video giving a brief overview of how you will be going about clearing your pool.

Finally, I want to ask you a personal favor: please don't pull out your hair I found this site the same way you did, our pool was cloudy and nothing was working. Since finding this site and implementing the information I learned here my pool has NEVER been cloudy again. Yes, occasional algae when I slacked but quickly cleared up with the proper knowledge. When your parents are still using floc to put a band-aid on their chemistry problems you can enjoy your crystal clear water that just doesn't go cloudy. That is the difference TFP makes.

 

[spinPHD]

I'm just here to offer a second option for you, and my second opinion is that I echo what Donldson said. First step is get yourself a test kit, one of the two recommended kits. Once you get your kit, post your results and we will be here to guide you along your way.

 

[ajjohnson93]

Awesome, thank you so much. I'll do my best to refrain from the hair pulling. So for right now, I've added 5 gallons of bleach. It's been 1-2 days since adding CYA. Do I need to do anything else for the time being, other than read the info you shared?

 

[spinPHD]

Until you get your test kit, I wouldn't add anything else other than adding a gallon of bleach each day until kit gets there and we can actually see what's under the hood and know what needs adjusting.