Cloudy Water - I'm confused

New 15' x 30' (54"deep) inground pool. Filled with well water. This pool replaced Intex 16' round that we had for 4 summers. Same well water, same SWC conected to new pool. Never had cloudy water. Using sand filter with 1 hp pump that came with pool package. Sand in filter is zeolite. Took 4-5 days to fill with water. Added 8 bags of Morton pool salt and 3 bags of shock. Water turned light green. Ran filter for 3 days and had very little change. Added 3 gals 6% bleach and very little change. Purchased clairfier from Wal Mart added 3 oz. twice. Made particles a little larger but still would not filter out. Have test kit from Lowes and pool water is balanced. Took water to local pool store and they tested. Water in good shape. They gave me chemical to stick stuff floating together so I could vaccum. Poured in 16 oz of pool clarifier (GLB brand), ran pump on recirculate for 3 hrs and turned off and let set for 36 hrs. Did this twice and most everything settled to bottom. Could see clear water, bottom of pool, thought I was set, vacummed to waste. Water coming from vaccum was light brown. When vaccum was removing waste from bottom you could still see very small particles moving in pool. Added 4 gals bleach and 3 more bags of salt. Now I have very cloudy water almost white with particles very small and suspended. I dipped out 1/2 gal in clear glass and in 12 hrs it has settled very little. Same with pool, turned off filter at 7pm last night, very little settled overning. From what I have read on forum, I believe I have hard water or a calcium build up. Help Please. 4 weeks and very little pool time.

Thanks!!

Eddie

Is the water greenish?

What kind of shock did you add? Please list the ingredients.

You need to get a testkit. The one we recommend is the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C which you can get through the test kit page in my signature below. It is only available online so go ahead and get it ordered so you'll get it quickly. In the meantime, while you are waiting for it, get a cheap OTO (yellow drops) / phenol test kit, or if available at YOUR Walmart (check availability), get the HTH 6-way DROPS test kit, which is compatible with the Taylor K2006. Test the pool as soon and you can, and post the results. If you get the 6-way kit, ALSO test the water you FILL the pool with, especially if it's a well, and post THOSE results as well. (The HTH is the best available kit you're likely to find locally, but it's not the K-2006. It can only provide rough measurements chlorine levels above 5 ppm, and it measures "TOTAL" hardness, rather than "CALCIUM" hardness, which is not ideal.)

Don't add any more pool store products at this time.

Also, please fill out our pool chart with information about your pool.

Pool Chart Entry Form
Pool Chart Results

Welcome to the Pool Forum!

Just ordered test kit from Amazon. I had purchased 5 way kit from Lowes and here are the most recent results and results from test at pool company and their recommendations.

Total Chlorine: 4-5
Free Chlorine: 2-3
Bromine: 4.4
pH: 7.6
Total Alkalinity: 130

Below are results from Medallion Pool Company in Colonial Heights, VA

Total Alkalinity: 140
pH: 7.7
Shock Treatment: 1.4
Cyanuric Acid: 0
Total Hardness: 140
Total Chlorine: 3
Free Chlorine: 1.6

Pool Company Recommended: 1 pound 8 oz of PH down - 2lbs shock - 6 pounds 4 oz of stabilizer - 12 pounds 12 oz of calcium.

The only chemical I purchased was: GLB Drop n' Vac (Clarifier) - used entire bottle - purchased second and used 1/2 bottle (16oz)

Don't know the name of the shock I purchased from Walmart - 4 1lb bags
Also used 2 1lb bags of shock from pool store after using clarifier.

I have put 440 lbs of Morton salt and 1 gal of acid to lower ph since filling the pool.

Neither one of the Pool Charts would open on my computer.

I will post some pictures shortly.

Eddie

Odds are pretty good that you have metals in the well water, and when you exposed them to high levels of chlorine, it caused the metals to precipitate, causing the clear green water. Throwing all the goop in the pool really isn't helping things any. Take a look at this sticky to control pools with well water--while logged out, go to the Intex chemistry part of the forum, and read the sticky called "before you fill your Intex pool with well water". This may shed some light on what's going on. I would get a sample of your fill water and take it to be tested for metals. If they're there, then you'll need to get a bottle of metal sequestrant, which won't remove the metals, but will hold them in suspension so they don't drop out and stain your pool.

Is this a vinyl liner pool? If so, you don't need the calcium the pool store is trying to sell you. You will need to drop your pH to the lower end of the range (7.0-7.4). You will also need some stabilizer to get some protection for your chlorine from the sun. I would also get a bottle of Polyquat 60, which is the only algaecide we recommend, because you're going to need to keep your chlorine levels low and it already looks like you have some algae trying to start up. You can ignore the bromine reading on your tests, because this is a chlorine pool. And the pool company test for "shock treatment"???? I don't even know what they're looking for there--it's a bogus category, designed to sell you more of their chemicals.

Be careful with the clarifiers--they often have unpredictable results, and if you overdose, they can actually create worse problems for your pool than you had to begin with.

Janet

Just a quick update, noticed I was losing sand during backwashing. Come to find out it was lot of sand. Took filter apart, two of the laterals had holes in them the size of a dime. The other four had smaller cracks in the plastic. Bottom line, I was trying to filter with about 2-3 inches of sand. I was upset as this was new filter, pump and pool. I'm going to notify Sta-Rite and see if they will help with my Zeolite cost that is now on the ground and new laterals. Going to run filter for 48 hrs and see if it will clear. I will keep you guys updated. Thanks for the replys.

Eddie

Let us know how it's going...and thank you for the subscription to the forum!!

Janet