Cloudy Pool Water - Could use some help

Hello everyone....

I live in NE Pennsylvania and just opened my 24' above ground pool (13K gallon) this past weekend. I've decided to use the BBB method and see how things go and could use some help with some cloudy water. Here are my readings from just about 30-mins ago (I'm using the Taylor kit I just purchased):

FC = 6.0
CC = 0
PH = 7.2
ALK = 110
Calcium = 280
CA = Over 30 - using the test kit I did the test and filled the tube with the water/solution and I can still see the black dot on the bottom when I fill the tube to the very top (which is 30)

When I opened the pool the other day my CC was 2.8 and my FC was zero. So I added about 3-gallons of 6% bleach (Walmart brand) to the pool yesterday and it looks like that helped clear up my CC issue. I know the FC is high but I'm not sure what is causing the cloudiness of the water. Here are some other things to note:

1. I have a sand filter and just backwashed it today to clean it out.
2. When I opened the pool there was a lot of white tissue-y looking stuff floating around, especially after I put in the plastic stairs. I don't see any of that floating anymore though.
3. When I say cloudy I mean I cannot see the bottom of the pool. I can probably see 1/3 of the way down but the water is blue.

I went to the local pool store and he said to use a clarifier (which I added a few ounces last night) but doesn't appear that that changed anything. One thing I have not done since I opened is vacuum. Not sure if that would help or not.

Any ideas how to get my pool back to sparkling clean water?? :) Had loads of issues last year at the end......darn pool was constantly losing chlorine and it was a pain. I've normally used 3" pucks in the floater (which I removed) and I also use the "Chlor Brite" to shock (which I did initially put a 1-lb bag in when I opened it up.) Needless to say I'm learning as I go here and could use some help in getting a good clean pool and a good consistent routine down for maintaining it.

Appreciate the help and all of the info on these boards.

-Brian

Hi Brian and welcome. Glad you got a good test kit. That is going to make everything much easier for you.

If you could still see the black dot on the cya test when the vial was full, then that means your cya is less than 30, not more than 30.

What is in "Chlor-Brite" --- meaning ingredients?

If you just shocked the pool yesterday, the cloudiness is probably due to dead algae that needs to be filtered out. If it was my pool, I think I'd go ahead and keep it at shock level for another day and also run the pump 24/7 while trying to clear this up. Not sure about the floating white stuff. Let's give it a day at high cl and lots of filtering and see what that does for you. If still cloudy after a few days and still no CC, you might try adding a little DE to your sand filter. There is a stickied thread about that in the pool equipment section of the forum.

Also, your calcium hardness is pretty high. I wouldn't use any cal-hypo in this pool.

Hope this helps. Repost if you have more questions.

BTW -- Al (Poconos), one of my fellow moderators also lives in NE PA.

I am not exactly sure what is going on, but it sounds like you may have had water mold. Water mold takes mega doses of chlorine to kill it. I would take my chlorine up to 20ppms and keep it there until it holds overnight (not losing more than 1ppm) It could also be just dead algae that will take a while to filter out, but lots of chlorine will break down the dead stuff too. So my suggestions is to add regular bleach to get your chlorine up to 20 and hold it there by testing as often as you can and adding more to keep it at 20 until it starts to hold. Backwash and keep the filter running 24/7 until you have clear water.

Marie, I think you may be right about it possibly being water mold. I have heard of that before and his description of it does sound like it.

Thank you both for responding. Being so new to this stuff I really can't tell you what that stuff was floating around but there was a TON of it. Small tissue white looking stuff. That's how I describe it. :) I don't see it anymore however I don't see much anyway because it's so cloudy.

The Chlor Brite Step 2 Sanitizer is from Leslie's. The Active Ingredients is listed as:

Sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione dihydrate = 99%
Other Ingredients = 1%
Total = 100%
Available Chlorine = 55%

I put one of those in the other day when I opened the pool. Outside of that it's only been the 3-gallons of bleach. If I want to get this size pool up to 20ppms any idea how much bleach I'll need? Part of my issue is calculating what is needed. I've read about people putting 10-20 gallons of bleach in so I'm just trying to gauge what I need to buy today.

Thanks again!
-Brian

Brian, here's a handy calculator... http://www.poolcalculator.com/

Brian, in your pool, each quart of 6% bleach will raise the cl by about 1.2ppm. Also, it is OK to use the dichlor for awhile but it does add to the cya. For every 10ppm of cl it adds, 9 ppm of cya is added. You won't be able to use if for too long or you'll have too much cya in there. (We like cya of 30-50.) Plus, dichlor may contribute to cloudy water problems so you mught just want to stick with bleach for your daily maintenance chlorine and for your shocking and not use any more of the dichlor.

Thanks everyone for your help. I'll follow your suggestions and let you know how things work out.

Brian

Update........last night I put in (2) 182-oz jugs of 6% bleach at about 6pm and let it run for a while. I tested the water about 2-hrs later and saw my FC actually was down to 4.0 (and my test did show the presence of CC this time around.) So about 8pm I put in two more 182-oz jugs of the 6% bleach and let the pump run all night.

This morning I tested the water and this is the reading:

FC = 4.4
CC = 4.0
PH = 7.1
ALK = 90
CA = <30

The water looks just as cloudy as it did yesterday, no significant change at all.

Am I not being patient enough or did I not hit this pool with enough bleach to do the job? At this rate I should purchase a pallet of the stuff if I continue to need more. :)

As always I would appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks,
-Brian

2 of those big bottles of bleach in your pool should add around 13ppm of cl which should be a good dose for your pool given your low cya. Keep testing and hitting it with bleach as many times per day as you can to try and keep the cl level around 12ish. The key is to sustain the high reading without letting it yo-you up and down. No such thing as testing and dosing too many times in a day. Also, continue to run pump 24/7.

Try those cl tests again. I don't think you have 4.0 cc. Remember FC + CC = TC.

Keep an eye on your pH. It is pretty low. Might want to add a little Borax to bump it up some. Maybe add 1 cup additions. Pour it slowly into the skimmer, breaking up any clumps. Wait a couple of hours and retest pH and add more if needed. Note that if your cl level is above 10ppm when you test pH, you'll get a falsely high pH reading, so do this test at a time when your cl is not high.

By the way, it is ok to add Borax and bleach at the same time. Not necessary to only add one and then wait hours before doing the other.

Repost after you redo the chlorine tests.