Another cloudy pool

[RobDHW]

So, my concrete pool is cloudy. Again. I think I need to add more bleach & all will be well but a little reassurance never hurts. My #'s are from the Wal-Mart / HTH 6 way drop test kit:

CL >5 (that's all the stinkin' thing goes up to - yes, I promise to get a Taylor...)
CYA 100 (a goof from before I discovered this site)
PH between 7.2 & 7.5. I'm not very good at color comparison
TA - 130
CH 300

Interestingly, my TA was 80 last week... I didn't add anything.
I dumped in 1.42 gallons of bleach this morning. Not much better, so I dumped in a pack of Cal-Hypo shoch that I had before I went the bleach route.
It seems to go cloudy pretty easily.

Thoughts?

-Rob

[Watermom]

You can make your test kit test higher by using dilution while you are waiting to get the Taylor kit you promise to order! This is not super accurate, but better than nothing. Take a look at this thread for how to do so:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?p=65545#post65545

I would not use any more cal-hypo. Your CH is aleady pretty high. It could be contributing to the cloudy water problem. Also, your CYA may be much higher than 100 since that is the highest the kit will differentiate. I'd suggest doing a partial drain and refill (maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of the water) and try and get the cya level down. Depending on how hgh your cya actually is, it may take a couple of drain/refill cycles to get the cya down to a more manageable level.

If you choose not to do a drain/refill, you will have to run higher than normal chlorine levels to compensate for the high cya. (Another reason to get the Taylor kit.) Take a look at the chart at this link:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=365

You need to be testing and dosing a minimum of 2 times per day and 3 or more times per day is even better. Take your cl level back up to shock level which for your pool with such a high cya is 25ppm. Try and hold it there for a bit. When you can go from sundown to sunup without losing more than 1ppm, you can let the cl drift down but never want it to go lower than 8ppm.

My opinion --- 1. Get the Taylor kit, 2. Drain and refill and try to get the cya down. 3. No more cal-hypo. Stick to bleach.

[RobDHW]

Thanks Watermom.
I can't drain that much at one time, I'll flood my yard (and subsequently our family room) but I can do it a bit @ a time. We've been getting good evaporation at night, so that helps, since I have to add water occasionally as well.
I get the dilution thing, so I'm all over that.
The Taylor kit will be ordered Monday (been waiting for the closing date on the credit card - it's a priority thing).
I saw the chart previously & had been doing ok w/ keeping the CL really high.
I'm doing it all right, which is a good thing.
In fact, it actually looks better this morning. Not perfect, but I can see the bottom.

FYI - the CYA level got so high w/ those %^&*O)(_@# Test strips. They're useless.

I think Wal-Mart should sponsor this site - for the amount of bleach I buy there...

Enjoy the weekend.

[aylad]

We've been getting good evaporation at night, so that helps, since I have to add water occasionally as well.



Unfortunately, this isn't going to help to lower your CYA or calcium--when the water evaporates, the CYA and Calcium stay in the pool, just a bit more concentrated until you add fill water to dilute it again. The only way you're going to be able to lower it is if you physically remove it from the pool. However, draining and refilling in small steps is effective, it just takes a little while.

I definitely wouldn't use any more cal-hypo in your pool. Since your CH is so high, I'm sure that it's contributing to your cloudiness problems.

Janet

[RobDHW]

Janet,
I get that the only thing that's going to help is draining - and I know it's going to take time. I only used the cal-hypo because I'd run out of bleach & it was sitting in the garage. I just got back from a bleach run & all is well. Thanks. In fact, I'm heading out to drain a bit & refill right now. It clearly (pun intended) is the fact that I need a ton of bleach to match the CYA.