Water went super cloudy after adding bleach.

[Strawberryshortcake]

Hello! Well, we replaced our liner a few months ago. With that came brand new water and everything had been crystal clear and perfect since then. I had been using liquid chlorine from Atwood’s, 10% specifically meant for pools. But they ran out, and the absolute only bleach I could get my hands on here was Great Value from walmart. I think it is 6-6.5% or so. I added that and the next morning the pool was hazy.
The temperature outside was also extreme during this time, 102+ degrees and my pool was baking in the direct sun all day, so I was having to add even more of this weaker bleach to maintain level, and the pool just continued to cloud up. In addition, I started noticing some yellow-orange staining on the liner in a few spots. I was horrified because we’d finally seemed to have dumped out iron issue when we changed the liner!!

Finally able to get some 10% pool chlorine the other day and start using that. In addition the temperatures dropped to the 80s again. The water is still super cloudy, but all the yellow-orange has gone away. The water is blue but has a white haze. You can barely make out the deep end.
At this point I do not think it’s algae but something to do with the Great Value bleach, as that is when it all started…
Passed the overnight test two nights in a row. My test results:

Chlorine: 6
CC: 0.5
CYA: 40
TA: 40
CH: 25
PH: 7.6
Temp: 92

What to do?

 

[mknauss]

Most household bleach is scented/splashless/fabric protection. All of those are additives that can effect the clarity of the pool water.

I would do an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test tonight. If good, keep your FC a bit elevated and filter the water. Might use some DE in the sand filter.

 

[PoolStored]

Can you post a picture of the bottle?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I don’t think most store brands of bleach are good sources of chlorine anymore. As @mknauss stated, they all have additives. I once found an off-label brand of bleach at Costco that was 8.25% and was marketed as bleach for cleaning food prep areas. I have since not seen it again .

All laundry bleach, no matter the brand, is manufactured by one or two main manufacturers in the US. They have all licensed the “ Fabric Protection Technology” from Clorox corporation. FPT simply means an additive (surfactant) that leaves behind a thin residue on the surface making it harder for dirt to cling and microbes to grow. In pool water, that additive can cause cloudiness.

In the future, use calcium hypochlorite for emergency needs.

 

[Strawberryshortcake]

Thanks for the advice. Yes, the Great Value bleach says "Fabric Protection". The explains the cloudiness, but what about the discoloration on the liner? Weird!

I usually had to resort to great value bleach near the end of summer because the other options went "out of season", which is just... it's hot until Oct here sometimes so I don't get that, lol. Never had this issue before but it was an overnight thing after having to use it for the first time in a while. Maybe something else has changed again.

Before Covid they used to sell one marketed as "cleaning bleach" in a green bottle but I haven't saw that one in a long time. I bought that when I could. Said nothing about fabrics.

This year, my local walmarts never even carried the pool chlorine they did pre-covid. Atwoods had it until mid-July. Only one pool store carries liquid chlorine, and they were also out until next week. Just so hard to get any since covid started.

I went ahead and brought the pool up to shock level just in case. I also put in some more CYA because it's about to get scorching again. Added some filter fiber (In place of pool DE which I don't like using because my backwash goes right into the lawn - and my dog wanders around it). Also set the filter to run 24hours...running the robot to keep things stirred up. Hopefully, some improvements in the morning...