Cloudy Water

Frustrated,

When you say 'shocking', what are you shocking with? Is it bleach, and how much? Please, don't add anything other than plain liquid bleach!!! Keep it simple silly.......add bleach!

One gallon of regular unscented bleach (5.25% sodium hypochlorite) will raise the chlorine of 10,000 gallon pool 5.25 ppm. Too effectively shock, you'd need to raise chlorine to a 15ppm, which would be 3 gallons of bleach, for a theoretical 10,000 gallon pool. Now, if you have algae or other contaminates in the pool, those will eat up that chlorine fairly quickly, so you'd need to be adding more bleach as needed, daily. This is why it's advocated here to use a drops based kit. You'll know what your numbers are and be able to adjust the chemistry as required.

Most drop based kits do not measure chlorine higher than 5. So to be accurate, you'll need to use the distillation method. Not hard at all. If I can do it, you can do it. You'll need some distilled water. Take one part distilled water, and one part pool water, mix together, and use this sample to test for chlorine. Take this number and multiply x 2 for your free chlorine (FC). If it still reads higher than 5, take 2 parts distilled water, one part pool water, mix and measure, then multiply by 3. Some people use a shot glass as their measuring method, I personally use a childs medicine cup. Plastic won't break if you're doing your testing out by the pool.

Now, do you have an old nylon knee high? I've begun to use one over my skimmer basket, and have been surprised as how much gunk it is able to filter out. The first day I used it, I had to clean it twice as it was filled and clogged with who knows what, which I could not see with my naked eye (even corrected @ >20/20). This may help you also.

Keep the pump/filter running 24/7, and backwash when needed.

Post numbers when you get them. If you take pool sample to the pool store, have them run all the numbers and get a printout. Then post.

Good luck, and Happy Mothers Day.

CaryB
Go 'Canes!

Keep adding the bleach--you have to be aggressive with that. Since your CYA is 90, you need to keep your Free Chlorine level at 20ppm. You have to test the water 2 to 3 times a day and add chlorine when it drops. Most of what I usually say has been said. Thanks, IvyLeaguer--saved me a LOT of typing.

Do NOT use any kind of powdered chlorine--use only bleach now.

Frustrated,

Thanks for the update! Keep adding the bleach as you want the free chlorine level to be at least 20ppm w/ a CYA for 90 AND a combined chlorine reading. If you look at your chlorine numbers: Free chlorine + combined chlorine (the BAD stuff, think combined contaminants) = total chlorine. Your FC is 5 and total chlorine is 5.7, so that means your combined chlorine is 0.7. This indicates that the chlorine is working on something in the pool, being used up. Therefore, you need to add more bleach to counter what is being used up.

Your pH is okay, but keep testing it because bleach can cause pH to rise, although not always. Mine stays steady at 7.6 and I use bleach exclusively.

The calcium is high, and I'm betting that it is causing or at least exacerbating the cloudiness. DO NOT add more cal-hypo granular shock! This is reason enough to stick with the bleach program.

The alkalinity is on the high end, but not dangerously so. I'll let other folks with more wisdom here address this. If it was my pool, I'd probably leave it alone for now, but keep checking it to make sure it doesn't go higher.

What was the name and ingredients of the algecide you used? Most folks here use polyquat 60%. If the ingredient on the label says poly.....something unpronouncable and is 60%, then it's polyquat. I'd not add anymore at this point. Other algecides can add copper, which can cause staining w/ high chlorine levels. Stay away from that.

Glad the water is clearing up, may still take awhile. Keep the pump/filter running 24/7, add more bleach, and try a skimmer basket sock if you can find one. That can catch more gunk too.

Good luck....oh, and add more bleach!!

CaryB
Go 'Canes!!

thank you for such a quick reply! thanks! the alagecid is bioguard product..called back up...ingredients are dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride.
one more quick question...do i address the iron...if i add any pool magnet plus as instructed to rid of metals, it says to not shock for 7 days...so do i add the bleach and address the iron later if at all? please advise...thanks!!!

I think a lot of your problem has already been addressed a couple of times in earlier posts in this thread. When you have high cya like you do, you aren't going to kill any algae if you let your chlorine levels drop too low. You need to test 3x a day and each time bring your chlorine back up to shock level. Letting it continue to drop too low is going to keep you from getting this problem solved.

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=365

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Very Frustrated

one more quick question...do i address the iron...if i add any pool magnet plus as instructed to rid of metals, it says to not shock for 7 days...so do i add the bleach and address the iron later if at all? please advise...thanks!!!

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An iron reading of 0.2 sounds miniscule to me, but I'm no expert on that metal. I'd refrain from adding anything else, and stick with the plain unscented bleach, and keep it up to 20ppm. Once your pool clears, then you can begin addressing the other issues.

Oh, and keep adding the bleach to maintain the free chlorine level up @ 20ppm. Good luck.

CaryB

you need to look at ben's best guess chart for cya levels, i will put a copy here the 20 is just while you are having to stay at shock level.:)



Best Guess CYA chart
________________________________________
Ben's 'best guess' FC/Stabilizer table for algae free operation of OUTDOOR pools -- as of July 2003 --

Use the info in this chart to help you figure out what levels of chlorine you need to maintain in your pool based on the amount of CYA (cyanuric acid, also called stabilizer) that you have in your pool. (FC = free chlorine)

Stabilizer . . . . . . Min. FC . . . . Max FC . . . 'Shock' FC
=> 0 ppm . . . . . . . 1 ppm . . . . . 3 ppm . . . . 10 ppm
=> 10 - 20 ppm . . . . 2 ppm . . . . . 5 ppm . . . . 12 ppm
=> 30 - 50 ppm . . . . 3 ppm . . . . . 6 ppm . . . . 15 ppm
=> 60 - 90 ppm . . . . 5 ppm . . . . . 10 ppm . . .. 20 ppm
=> 100 - 200 ppm . . . 8 ppm . . . . . 15 ppm . . .. 25 ppm

Frustrated,

Guess what! All the times before when you added "shock", you were actually increasing the chlorine to many times higher than 3. That's the whole point of "shocking".....getting the chlorine high to kill (or shock to death!!) the evil algae or microbes in the water. The 20ppm is just for the shocking level. Here's the chart below as a reference.

Stabilizer(CYA) . . . Min. FC . . . . Max FC . . . 'Shock' FC
=> 0 ppm . . . . . . . 1 ppm . . . . . 3 ppm . . . . 10 ppm
=> 10 - 20 ppm . . . 2 ppm . . . . . 5 ppm . . . . 12 ppm
=> 30 - 50 ppm . . . 3 ppm . . . . . 6 ppm . . . . 15 ppm
=> 60 - 90 ppm . . . 5 ppm . . . . . 10 ppm . . .. 20 ppm
=> 100 - 200 ppm . .8 ppm . . . . . 15 ppm . . .. 25 ppm

Most people don't swim during the times that they are shocking the pool, because they are trying fight off contaminates in the water. Once the water clears and contaminates are killed, then the chlorine level is allowed to go back down to maintenance levels. In your case with a CYA of 90, you'll need to stay between 5-10.

Also chlorine is chlorine, it just comes in different forms and many different kinds of products. I used to use pucks, which provided the chlorine for my pool. Now I use bleach, which provides chlorine for my pool. Some people use granular pellets in a floating device, which provides chlorine for the pool. IT IS ALL THE SAME CHEMICAL COMPOUND IN THE END, and your pool doesn't care which one you use, as long as it gets its' sanitizer.

How's the pool looking? Is it clearing? What are your current numbers? Good luck.

CaryB

yea i realize the shock shoots the chlorine levels up. just never have kept chlorine levels high for days like this...wanted to make sure i understood exactly what you are saying so i don't screw up and make it any worse. i do appreciate very much you bearing with me and helping me. honestly, thanks very much. the pool is still cloudy, not as bad, can see the bottom. i don't trust my judgement on the water testing i do, but today my readings are chlorine 15, ph 7.5, ta 180. can't test for cya. keep the levels high until it completely clears...is that right? also, i could stand to add water as the level is down due to backwashing, etc....but should i hold off on adding water until this problem clears.if it ever does? thanks

computer results today
TDS 1100, cya 93, total chlorine 10, free chlorine 7.9, ph 7.5 total alkalinity 115, total hardness 453
water unchanged..still cloudy but can see the bottom
would appreciate some advise. thanks