ph and cloudy water

[itjustrixie]

Can ph being low cause cloudy water or is this probably just algae?

[Watermom]

We need more info to be able to help. Can you post current water testing results for someone here to take a look at?

[itjustrixie]

24" ABG pool
FC=12
CC=0
TC=12
TA=130
pH=-6.8
CYA=30

[tphaggerty]

I will let others handle the cloudy part. But you need to bring your PH up asap. Having a reading of 6.8 doesn't necessarily mean you have 6.8, it could be LESS as the phenol red test only goes down to 6.8. A low PH can cause your liner to wrinkle pretty quickly! You can use borax or aerate. (Aerating is normally used to bring TA levels down, but if your PH is already low and your TA is where yours is, it can also be a fairly easy and chemical free way to raise PH, just takes a while).

[Watermom]

Since your ph is so low and aerating the ph up can take time, I'd recommend adding some Borax. You need to get the ph up ASAP. I'm not sure why your pool is so cloudy. With your readings, it doesn't appear that algae is the cause. Had your chlorine dropped too low recently? If so, perhaps you did have some algae starting but you zapped it with the high cl and the algae just hasn't all filtered out yet? Or, it could be from adding something to the water. Exactly what all have you added to the pool recently?

[topnotch]

Cloudy water....i just fought off some algae during a two day period when I couldnt run my filter....what I learned was

Dirtier the filter the better since the algae is so small
Cup or two of DE in the filter can filter it out better
When PH is out of whack the chlorine can be gone in just a few hours..
(you cant really believe how fast it is gone from the sun)
Vacuuming to waste is the best way to get rid of stuff that settles
Traditional vacuuming through a sand filter recirculates the stuff
HERES THE BIG ONE.....DONT TURN YOUR PUMP ON AND OFF....IT DISLODGES THE GREEN STUFF FROM YOUR FILTER.... I was standing at the returns when the pump kicked on from the timer and the blast of green stuff that went back into the pool was un#@#%^^&believable....I turned mine off to vacuum to waste and then to backwash in that order so it doesnt send the stuff back to the pool.....flocculants work but why spend the money...



PS: went to the store for washing soda yesterday since PH was low...by the time I came back it was high....water needs to circulate few hours before you start adding things again....this is why pool stores hate this site....

[JohnT]

Be careful trusting your pH reading with FC of 12. At the most, just raise it a little.

[Wolffe]

How do you properly test ph in a high chlorine environment? I was fighting off some mustard algae yesterday and while there are no traces of the algae today the water is still a little cloudy (pump running 24/7).

Measuring the ph with a Taylor 2005 kit before treatment, I saw that my ph had suddenly jumped very high (dark purple). I added a bit of acid before starting to shock. Now, after shocking (bleach and more bleach), I see that the ph test starts off really dark purple (high ph) but within a few seconds fades into the mid-range of colors. I know that the ph test can't be trusted with high cl but I'm not sure how to read this... or whether I can read this at all.

Does high cl make the ph test appear lower or higher than it actually is? I'm guessing my ph is actually still high and that the cl is making it fade to the lighter color.

[chem geek]

According to the Taylor "Pool & Spa Water Chemistry" manual:

----------------------

FALSE READINGS: high levels of chlorine (usually > 10 ppm) will quickly and completely convert phenol red into another pH indicator (chlorphenol red). This new indicator is a dark purple when the water's pH is above 6.6. Unfortunately, some pool operators mistake the purple color for dark red and think the pool water is very alkaline and wrongly add acid to the pool.

When a sanitizer level is not extreme, only some of the phenol red may convert to chlorphenol red. However, purple + orange (for example, pH 7.4) = red. This error is more subtle as no purple color is observed and the operator does not suspect that a false high pH reading has been produced. Some operators neutralize the sanitizer first by adding a drop of chlorine neutralizer (i.e. sodium thiosulfate). However, thiosulfate solutions have a high pH and, if heavily used, may cause a false higher sample pH.

-----------------

I've noticed that roughly speaking each drop of thiosulfate seems to raise the pH in the test by about 0.05-0.1 so the effect is pretty strong (unfortunately); otherwise, one could just simply neutralize the chlorine.

Richard

[Wolffe]

Thanks! I think I'm going to leave the pH until my CL levels come down enough to get a good reading. Right now, as soon as I mix the test it's a dark color looking like the ph is off the chart... then after 3 or 4 seconds it fades and looks to be about 7.2.

I started fighting the algae yesterday morning (I found the bottom of the pool covered in a light yellowish brown "powder"). After vacuuming everything up, and brushing the sides and bottoms, the pool was looking really cloudy in the deep end. It looked a bit better this morning, and right now the water is sparkling again. I'm going to keep it up until tommorrow, then when the CL levels come down again I'll deal with the pH because I have no idea what level it's at right now.