Ca Test?-red precipitant

[rferrel1]

Okay - my water is still cloudy -
FC 17.5 (this is the 4th day over 15-have kept it up to that level)
CC 0
TC 17.5
pH 7.2
Alk 100 (up 40-added 4# of baking soda last nite/this a.m.)
Cal 100
CYA 50
Temp 85 (air temps were in the 100's again today)

Have been running the filter 24/7 - tried the skimmer sock last night - bought some DE today - put 1 cup in - raised pressure by about 1.5
Skimmer is running now - had a little wind/no rain but got some debris on top after vacuuming.

When I do the Cal test - when the water changes to blue at 10 drops I can see very tiny red particles swirling in the water. When I let it sit there is barely some red on the bottom of the tube - did I stop too soon? what is this red stuff? Could it be related to my problem?

Again - only 6% bleach since 3rd week in July - 3" chlorine tablets in an auto-chlorinator before that?

I'm planning on going out and turning the skimmer off around 10 and let it settle over nite and see if the cloud goes to the floor. I'm getting pretty frustrated BUT I thought that red precip in the Ca test might mean something.

Thanks for your help. robin

[waterbear]

The red precipitate is either the magneisum that is precipitated out by reagent #1 so you can get a calcium reading or it is interferance caused by other metals in the water. Ignore it and look for the color change in the liquid. It sometimes helps to add 6 drops of reagent #3 first, then add your 20 drops of reagent #1 and your 5 drops of reagent #2. When you start the titration with reagent #3 start counting the first drop you add as drop 7.

[rferrel1]

thanks for the response - I was starting to think it was always there (and maybe it was) and I just hadn't noticed it. Tried your suggestion and it worked like a charm. robin

[cschnurr]

Could it be that this is not a chemistry problem, but a plumbing issue.
This may seem unlikely, but it worked for me earlier this year.

I had a problem earlier this year with cloudy water which I believed to be caused by contaminants (even though the chemistry was good). I was shocking pool with pump running 24/7 for a couple days with no improvment.

I did notice when I eventually turned the pump off for 16 hrs to see if the contaminants would settle out, that the cloudiness improved, but there were no contaminants on the bottom of the pool. I also noticed at night with the pool lights on, that there was a fine stream of bubbles or particles (I couldn't tell which) in the return jets into the pool.

Turns out I had a connection in my plumbing that allowed a fine stream of air bubbles to be sucked into the plumbing on the low pressure side of the pump causing the water to be cloudy. Since I was running the pump 24/7 to get rid of contaminants, the fine air bubbles in the water were being pumped in as fast as they could dissipate so the cloudiness never went away.

Immediately after turning the pump off and viewing through the strainer basket cover, I could see a fine stream of small air bubbles originating from the inlet side of the pump.

I disconnected and inspected all threaded connections between the skimmer and the pump. Applied O-Ring grease to any O-Rings in the connectors, re-wrapped threads with teflon tape, and re-connected.
I actually did this to all connections while I was at it and my cloudiness went away the next day.

Its possilbe but unlikely that a poor seal between the pump housing and stainer basket cover will allow fine air bubbles in the pool, but its worth opening up the pump strainer basket, inspect the O-Ring, and O-Ring seats on the basket and basket cover, apply O-Ring Grease, and re-install.