Help!Cloudy AG after Borax/chlorine granules

[pam100257]

Help! I am fairly new at this! I have 24 foot round Intex metal frame pool with vinyl liner, 52 inches deep. the other night my ph was high so I added some borax, my free chlorine was low so I added some chlorine granules that were left over from last year (I normally use the bleach) but wanted to get rid of the granules. I use the 6-way strips from hth. My pool prior to that was clear, now it is a cloudy mess! I have let the pump run non-stop for over 2 days now and it isn't getting any better. Any suggestions???
My test results this evening were
TH=1000
FC=1
ph=7.8
TA=180
cya=0
I greatly appreciate any input!

[mbar]

It seems to me that if those numbers are right you are precipitating calcium out of the water, which is making the water cloudy. Your best bet is to drain 1/2 your water and refill, you will have to test your fill water, because if it is high in calcium you would want to know it. Have you been using calhypo to chlorinate the pool? Have you put any calcium in the water? Yoiur alkalinity it high, and so is your ph. Borax is to raise ph, not lower it. Have you checked out the info on Pool Forum? Your numbers should be :

Free chlorine at a minimum of 1- 3 This also depends on your cya (best guess chart sticky at top of chlorine fourum)
Combined Chlorine - 0
PH - 7.2 - 7.6
Alkinity - 80 - 120
Calcium hardness - 0 for a vinyl liner
CYA 30-50
This is why I suggest you drain 1/2 and refill, you may have to do this a couple of times to get rid of all the hardness.

We can help you better if you tell us what you have put in your pool water this season:)

[CarlD]

I agree with Marie. With TH of 1000 and TA of 180 I would have predicted a milk-white pool. Bet those chlorine granules were cal-hyp...made the problem worse.

If you get TH down to 500, you'll need to get TA down to between 80 and 110 to avoid the cloud. If you get TH down to under 400, your TA won't be a problem at all.

[pam100257]

Hello, well I have drained 1/2 of my pool water two times now, once on Monday and refilled, the water was more milky-white than before I drained it. The water in my area is known to be hard water but is very highly chlorinated according to the water company and they say the amount of hardness in my regular water should not cause this milky-white condition.

So today I drained 1/2 of the water again. I have not refilled it yet. Here are my water test results this evening (only half the water is in the pool-Intex metal frame 24 foot round, normal volume 12000 gallons) I tested with 2 different test kits:
TH=1000
FC=10
PH=8.4
TA=120
CYA=30-50

I do have a water softener in my home that I can run the water through when I refill it for the second time. However the water softener people do that recommend that. The first time I filled it-I bypassed the water softener and the water was crystal clear for over 1 month-then last week when I put the chlorine granules and borax in it, the water became milky white and I can't seem to get it back to clear. It is still very milky-white.

What do I do next?
Should I run refill water through the water softener?
Any thing I can add to get rid of the hardness? I have heard that people use TSP? Should I try that? Should I just leave it alone and hope it clears up?
I appreciate any suggestions. Thanks so much!

[tphaggerty]

Your PH is way high. In your first post, you said your PH was high, so you added Borax. Wrong direction! Borax RAISES ph - the proof appears to be that your PH is now 8.4. It needs to be in the 7.2 to 7.6 range. You need to add acid, either muriatic or PH down.

I think once your PH is in range, then you can start to work on the other issues.

[Watermom]

Have you added any more of the chlorine granules? Don't. Just use bleach for your source of chlorine. It will not cause cloudy water problems.

[mbar]

I think once you get your ph down to 7.2, and your alkalinity down to 100, you won't have any trouble with cloudy water, even with your high calcium level. I would turn your jets up and let the water aerate, and keep putting muriatic acid everytime your ph gets to 7.5 to knock it back down to 7 - 7.2. This will lower the alkalinity. Do not use the pool shock - use regular bleach or trichlor pucks. The trichlor pucks will keep your ph down and let you add cya, which will be lower since you drained half the water. - So long story short, don't use your water softener, I think you will be fine with the lower alkalinity and lower ph.:)

[pam100257]

Hello and many thanks to those who responded.
I learned a valuable lesson about using the pool shock and chlorine granules--I haven't used those any more ---just bleach. I will not touch any thing that has calcium in it again for sure! LOL
My water is clear now but there is a ton of white sediment on the bottom, which gets stirred up when in the pool. I purchased Pool Tech Catfish last week and all it does is swirl the white sediment around, it sucked the water in and threw the white sediment right back into the pool water. I even added a knee high hose and cotton balls and it didn't help.I tried to use pool vac to suction but it could not filter out the sediment either, also tried knee high and cotton balls in that too. Any suggestions?
I plan to return the Catfish and get a poolbuster vac. Does any one think that will pick up the white sediment?
I also saw something called a "Slime Bag" while searching on the net, does any one have experience with those?
Once I get rid of the white sediment in the bottom of the pool I will be good to go. Thanks again-Pam

[Watermom]

I'm assuming that you have a sand filter. If so, you can do like many of us with sand filters do and that is to add a little DE to your skimmer. It will help to filter out the tiny stuff that sometimes sand can't catch. Add only enough to make your filter pressure go up by about 1-2 psi. Add a little to your skimmer and then watch the pressure. It may take about a half hour for the pressure to rise. If you add too much, it may clog the filter and then you'll have to backwash it out. My pool is almost the same size as yours - 24 ft AG with 48" walls. I added a half a cup yesterday and it increased my filter pressure by about 2.5. So, in your pool it would probably increase it by about 2. If you want, start with 1/4 cup and see what that does for you. This may help clear it up for you.

[mbar]

Another thing you can try is a little flocculant - it will clump the small particles together so they will be easier to vacuum out. Just follow the directions on the back of the bottle, and turn the filter off overnignt. Brush up the particles so that they are in the water so the floc will clump them. Let us know how you do:)

[pam100257]

Hello. well it's almost a month later and I am pretty disgusted with the whole pool thing, summer is all most over and still no swimming.
I still have problem with cloudy water, there is white chalk-like sediment on the bottom every morning, vacuuming just stirs it up and the water is cloudy again. I have been vacuuming to waste 1-2 times a day, have spent a lot of money with no results. I have emptied pool 1/2 way down 2 times, plus all the water I lose vacuuming to waste and refilling on a daily basis, I used a "slime bag", bought and tried the Pool Buster (which just swirled the white stuff around), ordered the special silt bags for the pool buster and used those, still just swirled the white stuff around. I used flocculent 2 times, I have used trouser socks in the skimmer with cotton balls. I use bleach with a few Trichlor tablets. My chemistries are all OK (pH 7.2) except the hardness, which is a little high. I just cannot figure this out--- I had a pool last year with the same hard water and only had a few days where it was cloudy.
BTW I have a water filter in my home that filters all the heavy metals out of the water when it enters the house, so I cannot bypass that. I called the company and that filter cannot be bypassed but I turn my water softener off before I add water. My pool is crystal clear in the morning and I can see all the white stuff on the bottom, it is getting a lttle better but the end result is that as soon as I start to vacuum or get in it, all that stuff gets stirred up and it's cloudy until the next morning. I run the filter at least 6-8 hours a day.

Any suggestions? other than a stick of dynamite? LOL
Thanks so much

[Watermom]

It would be helpful if you could post a complete set of current water testing results. Also, list anything you have added to your pool while you have been trying to clear it. Then, somebody here can take a look and try and help.

NO DYNAMITE!! :eek:

[poolbuoy]

My pool too was crystal clear...tc is 10 alk is 130 and ph is 7.5.
I made a slide for the kids in the pool and used concrete blocks to hold the wooden part down...Not sure if the blocks leached into the water and made it cloudy. any ideas?

[dannyboy]

Use the water softener.
I feel your pain. I have had the same problem.
The water softener if filled using salt sodium chloride will not hurt your pool.
If you can drink it you should be able to swim in it.
The softener exchanges calcium, magnesium and some iron for sodium and
nothing else.
I recirculate my pool water thru a softener to avoid future problems
I have also plumbed my refill water directly from the house water softener.
My neighbors also must use softened water or suffer the calcium carbonate
snow.
Untill you get rid of some calcium your problem will not go away.

[salinda]

I also think the vacuums swirling the stuff around definitely happens for me in my spa, but I also notice that their filters get clogged with this stuff way before they get filled. If you use the PoolBuster, you have to clean the bag frequently when you are dealing with this type of precipitate.

[poolbuoy]

Pool all clear, just vacuumed a few time and shocked it. added more bleach up to 10ppm since my cya is 60.