Water is worse every year... finally buckling down!

[attist178]

Hi all,
This is our 4th season w/ this pool (in signature), water quality was great and very easy the first 2 years. Last year we had a bunch of mechanical issues on opening -- so it took a while and some nasty swamp water to get things going again. It got mostly better last year, reopened this year and no mechanical issues but really green. Shocked and lots of vacuuming as I did the previous years, the green went away in about 48 hrs and is blue again, but very cloudy! Can only see ~5 ft down. No signs of any algae after the green went away.
Used the Pentair Chlorine & PH reagent kit combined with test strips, thought I was getting things right as I was seeing the right moves on the strips for pH, TA, and CYA - but no improvement in the water quality.

Now it's time to buckle down and do things the right way - just got my TF-100 kit and ran my first test this afternoon.
FC - 7
pH - 7.4
TA - 230 (strips were way off)
CH - 800 (our municipal water is extremely hard - 22-25 grains per million, some 5x the US average)
CYA - 60 (looks like the strips got me close on this, they were indicating 0 before I added CYA)

If I'm figuring this correctly, the very high TA (that my test strips apparently lied about), coupled with the very high CH, could be the cause for my cloudiness? I added baking soda to get the pH right based on the test strips, but maybe too fast and drove that high TA number?
I'm at the point where I really don't want to make things worse then they are, because I feel like that's all I've done yet this year.

Also note - the previous owner recommended the calcium hypochlorite shock, and that's what we've been using not knowing the difference - probably not helping things.
Also #2 - switching to bleach versus the chlorine pucks ASAP.

Thanks in advance!

(P.S. I'll attach a picture of the water tomorrow for perspective)

 

[IceShadow]

Welcome! You are doing the right thing switching to liquid chlorine. The cal hypo was adding more calcium and the pucks were adding CYA. Can you test your fill water and post the TA, pH, and CH of that? You might be able to improve some with a partial drain and fill or water exchange.

If not you can drive the TA down by aerating your pool to raise the pH, then using acid to bring the pH and the TA down. But that will take a lot of acid with TA that high. Maybe re-do the TA test, and wipe the tip of the R-0009 reagent with a damp paper towel between each drop - that reagent is known to have an issue with static electricity that causes small drops and high tests. After a few tests the static electricity will not be an issue.

 

[attist178]

Thanks, IceShadow!
So I retested TA of the pool and paid close attention to wiping the bottle, drop consistency -- came up with TA: 180 this time.

Tested the fill water, as well, good thinking there:
TA: 290 (did this twice just in case, same results)
CH: 450 (seems possible that the add'l CH in the pool is from the Cal Hypo shock I've been using)
pH: 7.4

So the fill water is definitely contributing to the (still high?) TA. Do I still work to get that 180 TA down? Possible it's still high enough to cause cloudiness from the high CH or should I start a SLAM with bleach?

 

[IceShadow]

I would find a good source of muriatic acid. Hopefully we get enough rain that you can drain a bit and replenish from rain to lower the TA, but otherwise you’ll be constantly putting in acid to fight the pH rise. This isn’t awful because it will lower your TA too.

What is your CSI? (Can get this from the Pool Math app or webpage, link at bottom of this page.)

Do you have a solar cover? That would help stop evaporation - as your water evaporates it leaves the CH and TA behind and fill water adds more, causing a rise over time from that.

In any case I would bet the cloudiness is algae. I would start a SLAM, yes. Lower pH to 7.2 first, then start maintaining a high FC level. At 60ppm CYA your SLAM level is 24ppm FC. Keep it at that level with testing multiple times a day and adding. Try to make sure anything on the bottom of the pool is cleaned out, check any light niches / ladders / skimmers and weir doors / steps for algae hiding, and keep the pump running to filter.

Do you have a multiport on your filter? Make 100% sure that’s set to filter - some people with cloudiness have forgotten they set it to recirculate in the past.

 

[attist178]

I'm new to using Muriatic Acid, but it's available locally.
If I'm doing it correctly, CSI is 0.35 with the numbers above (+updated TA)
Had a solar cover a couple of years ago and it was great...but good point on the evaporation.

I'll get the pH lowered to 7.2 w/ Muriatic Acid today, then SLAM away!
Crossing my fingers -- thank you for all of the help so far!

 

[IceShadow]

Just keep in mind the SLAM is a process and not a one-time FC addition. Maintain is the most important word in the acronym

 

[attist178]

Well, just an update - got pH down to 7.2 (the PoolMath app is a lifesaver). Brought FC up to 24 ppm yesterday, dropped to 20 overnight. Keep vacuuming and FC tests!