Cloudy Water - A Chemical Story

I've had an inground pool for about 10 years now and started with the BBB method from day 1. Over the years, I've come to understand the basic needs of my pool without even testing the water. I've had the occasional algae bloom when I got lazy or relied on friends while on vacation. These have always been my own fault but i was well equipped to deal with them and could have a clear pool within a couple days. I knew my pool's numbers and spot checked once a week.

This year I opened as usual and had crystal clear water within a day or two. About 5 days ago I decided to put the solar cover on to begin the spring warming process. To my surprise, I rolled the cover back on Saturday to shock and the pool was completely milk white. You couldn't see the bottom of the shallow end. Having only seen water this color after fighting an algae bloom, thoughts began swirling through my head:

- Did the recent rain wash in some fertilizer?
- Were some leaves/grass trapped in the solar cover and have begun decomposing?
- Did I have some algae growth that was killed off from the last shock?

I began the process with a simple CL test which indicated I was running with no CL. Not good, so I bleached my way up to 15 and held for 24 hours. While this was happening I put in my vacuum and did pull out a half basket of leaves. 48 hours later the pool was still milky white. What could it be?

This was when I realized I had become extremely lazy in my chemistry checks. The only readings I had done this year were TC and FC. I had no idea what was happening with my pool. It was time to get back to basics and do a complete check.

TC 14
FC .5
TA 45
Ph 6.8 (or lower)

I have no idea what caused my Ph to drop so low. It was a mild winter but I'd never had readings this low. After 2 boxes of Borax, the Ph is back in the 7.6 range and the water is nearly crystal clear. My TA is still pretty low but I won't address it until I feel the feel like the Ph is stable.

Lesson learned - don't get lazy with the chemical testing. I have no idea what caused the pool to be so out of whack. Was it like this at the start of the year? Did the cover cause something weird to happen?

So.... I think my TA usually ran in the 80-90 range but I realize I haven't checked it in probably 2 years. Does this sound like a good target?

Yes, TA of 80-90 should be fine. Although it is ok to not run some of the tests every day, pH is one that you really should. At least several times a week. Though low chlorine can let an algae bloom happen, it can be fixed. Low pH can destroy equipment or liners which cannot be fixed --- at least not inexpensively.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Thanks; yes, lesson learned on Ph. I became lazy because it hovered between 7.2 and 7.8 for years. I don't think it became dangerously low since it was fixed with a couple boxes of Borax. It's a 15,000 gallon pool. I wanted to share so hopefully any others becoming a little lazy will learn from the error of my ways.