Cloudy Water

[staclear]

Will Super floc help to clear water quickly, or just waste of money?

[aylad]

If you still have a greenish tint to your water, you still have algae to kill, so you're wasting your money if you buy floc. Once you've killed the algae and have blue/cloudy water, and have given your filter a couple of days to get it out and still have cloudy water, THEN you might consider a floc.

It just takes some patience.......

Janet

[staclear]

Thanks janet. The pool is a blueish color and its definitely cloudy. I HAVE given the filter a couple of days and its still cloudy. In regards to superfloc, how many quarts of floc should I use per gallon? I read that some have a 1 quart per 40,000 gallon ratio

[aylad]

The only one that I have ever used advised 16 oz for my 29K gallon pool. I just squirted the contents over the surface of the pool, left the pump running overnight, and it was clear the next morning with the exception of the very deepest layer of the deep end. I repeated the 16 oz treatment on the deep end only, left the pump running, and by the next morning it was so crystal clear that the deep end actually looked shallow.

This is in a pool that I started up with new zeolite without backwashing first (a whole other story, posted elsewhere in the forum), and all that fine dust along with regular sand infusions from a faulty filter had mixed into a very muddy looking pool that I had contemplated draining, so it was an extreme circumstance. However, it is so crystal clear now that my daughter's friend who came over yesterday to swim actually asked if she could touch bottom in the deep end because it sparkles and looks shallow.
Janet

[staclear]

I can not find Super Floc in stores, ordering on line it takes 5 days to arrive. I need it today so my kids can swim this week end. Would the Hydro Floc I found in store work the same?

[aylad]

Probably, I think they all work pretty much the same--although most other floc bottles I see say to add the floc, run the pump for a couple of hours, then shut it off for 12-24 hours, then vacuum the stuff that settles to the bottom. The stuff I used was by Natural Chemistry, and the product was called "Clear and Perfect". It was labeled as a clarifier, not as a floc. I bought it off the shelf at Leslie's.

Janet

[CarlD]

You can also try a quart of PolyQuat. It's not exactly a floc, more of a clarifier, but it's also the ONLY algaecide we recommend besides chlorine.

You'll find it under the names Algaecide, Black Algaecide, Mustard Algae Treatment, etc.

However, it's ONLY ingredient is 60% Poly...<something, somthing>... If it's got only that, it's PolyQuat. Usually you use less, but if you need to clarify it...it works great.

One GIANT caveat: Within 48 hours of adding the Polyquat your FC will drop to near-zero. Don't panic. Just add more bleach/Liquid Chlorine to bring FC back to your desired level. If FC accidentally drops again, the Polyquat should keep algae from immediately starting to grow, as least for several days.

[staclear]

Thanks, I'm going to give a try.

[chem geek]

Though there may be several brands that do a decent job, the one flocculant that seems to consistently work well is OMNI Liquid Floc Plus and the one clarifier that seems to consistently work well is BioGuard Polysheen Blue. This is just what I've seen from reports of people using various products and is not an endorsement (anyone that knows me knows I'm not a fan of BioGuard given Chemtura's policies on CYA). PolyQuat 60 is also a clarifier, but isn't as good for that function as specialized clarifiers.

Of course, neither a flocculant nor a clarifier is necessary if one maintains a shock level of chlorine, brushes the pool, vacuums out larger debris, and runs a good filter 24/7. There are some occasions where this won't work well, either because the filter isn't very good (sand filters don't do as well as cartridge or DE, but you can add some DE to a sand filter to improve it) or because the cause of cloudiness is very fine particles that don't get oxidized by chlorine nor trapped in the filter.

[staclear]

Anyone please can tell me what is the white slimy Gunk floating on the surface of the pool and how to get rid of it?. i used Hydro Floc, which suppose to settle things on the bottom, but instead floated to the top. I used some DE to enhance the sand filter but the gunk still scapes back to the pool.

[aylad]

Since we have three threads dedicated to essentially the same problem in the same pool, it is becoming confusing for the people attempting to help. I have merged the pertinent stuff into one thread, and will lock this one.

Janet