Cloudy Pool ... getting there slowly but surely?

I balanced all my numbers for my pool... AG 24" round sand filter on opening. I have been working a couple of weeks at adding chlorine, chlorine, and chlorine. I haven't tested the chlorine in a week, but have been adding 12% ... 3 gallons a day. My other numbers I balanced. I'm going to do a reading today and do the 1/5 , 4/5 distilled. I know when I was running all my other numbers and had the chlorine high and tried to use the walmart bought kit the colors was orange not yellow for the test. My question, my water is getting clearer... It's about 80% there... When I started shocking it was probably about 60% there. Can I still be adding 12% bleach blindly. Should I up it to 4 gallons a day until it clears? Does it sounds like I'm not keeping the shock level up long enough for it to clear? In any event, I'm going to go buy more of the 12% Mega bleach shock on sale at $2.49 a gallon at Ocean State Job Lot.

Wow! 3 gallons of 12% bleach at a time in a 24 ft AG??? That would increase your chlorine level by about 27 ppm. I sure hope your cya is really high to compensate for that kind of chlorine level or else you are probably killing your liner. We need some numbers instead of just 'balanced' to be able to advise you. In the meantime, don't add any more 3 or 4 gallon doses of bleach.

Oh boy... I'm in trouble. Here are my attempt at numbers. I diluted 4 parts diluted... 1 part pool water... the chl level was higher than five still maybe 8... so times that by 5 is 40...

Now for the PH... it is off the charts... it was very pink... way above 8.2


Alk.... 35 drops and still didn't have a hint of red color in it

Hardness... Never changed color during testing


CYA... I ran out of the cya stuff and the only thing I can conclude is it is above 100


Now what do I do.

Like I said before the water looks good... except cloudiness

Again, I say WOW!! We really need some accurate numbers. How old is your kit? What kind of kit is it?

If your cya really is above 100, you should do a partial drain. Otherwise, you are going to routinely have to run really high chlorine levels. Since you don't know how much above 100 it is, we can't predict what the cya level will be after draining. If it is WAY over 100, you may need to do a couple of partial drains. DO NOT drain your entire pool at once, however, or it will ruin your liner.

Obviously, you need to get your alk and ph down. But, I think we should wait until after you decide if you're going to do that partial drain or not before we advise you about dealing with those.

We're doing a partial drain now. My CYA is all out. I was using walmart kit. We are going to do the partial draining... Refill and take the water down for testing tomorrow. So my thought was to add the bleach because of the cloudiness. DOes it mean the cloudiness wasn't related to the bleach?

Who knows. It may be really high alk, calcium and high ph. We really can't know for sure what is going on with your water until we get some reliable testing results.

It would probably also be a good idea to test your fill water and see what you get.

Did I cause all the numbers to be whacko by over chlorinating? My numbers were good last week, but I have been dumping alot of chlorine in.

Over chlorinating will often bleach out numbers but shouldn't give false positives. Out of curiosity, what were your numbers last week? Did you test them or have a pool store do it?

I can't recall my numbers last week, but at one point I lost chlorine, so that's when I started this onslaught of shock. All my other numbers were in the right range of okay, if that helps. Nothing extreme... Right in middle. I'm still draining... I have run two test on water for chlorine and ph... first one the ph was still high.... second one ph is 7.2... chlorine on both are immeasurable with what i'm using... the color of the test is still orange, but not as orange, so i know it's gettinge better. I am back washing and at the same time i am running a hose with water in my pool. I'm going to run another set of these two tonight.

peggles - I'm going to have to let someone else walk you through this in the next few days because I'm going to be out of town. Lots of good people here who can help you get this clear. I'm sure you'll have several people who will jump in here and give you advice as you get some good numbers. Keep posting your progress. Good luck.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by peggles0224

I can't recall my numbers last week, but at one point I lost chlorine, so that's when I started this onslaught of shock. All my other numbers were in the right range of okay, if that helps. Nothing extreme... Right in middle. I'm still draining... I have run two test on water for chlorine and ph... first one the ph was still high.... second one ph is 7.2... chlorine on both are immeasurable with what i'm using... the color of the test is still orange, but not as orange, so i know it's gettinge better. I am back washing and at the same time i am running a hose with water in my pool. I'm going to run another set of these two tonight.

---

If you're still in the draining and refilling process, test your pH before running the chlorine back up again...high chlorine levels will give falsely high pH readings. You really, really need to give some accurate numbers for us to be able to help you, otherwise we're just guessing and putting your liner at risk. My suggestion would be to finish refilling your pool, get a water sample, and take it to a local pool store to have it tested. Don't buy any of the stuff they're going to try to sell you, just tell them that you already have it at home. Take the printout, post your numbers here, and we'll be glad to help you go from there.

I also highly recommend that you go to WalMart (or look while you're at the pool store) and buy the 5-way or 6-way drp-based test kit. The pool store will have the same as WalMart but I think they want around $30 for it...WalMart sells it for around $15.

Janet

Thank you so much watermom. I really appreciate it.

Here's where I stand as of today. I have been partially draining and filling... partial drain and fill. I went down to local pool shop today... closed! I don't have the cya reading, but I have everything else... I think I am almost back on track. What should I do next. Here are my numbers, without the CYA, using walmart kit.

PH 7.4 - excellent I think
CL - 5 - awesome in comparison to what it was, so I did a good job drain/fill
ALK - 70 - I know this is slightly low
Hard - this is the kicker... when I put the indicator stuff in and they said it would turn a different color, well it didn't. I still put the tytrant in it and after 35 drops (which is a reading of 350) it was still the same color
CYA - As I said I don't have the reading because I ran out, but plan to go to walmart

Now what?

Thanks for all your help, you guys!!!

Can someone help me, please?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by peggles0224

Thank you so much watermom. I really appreciate it.

Here's where I stand as of today. I have been partially draining and filling... partial drain and fill. I went down to local pool shop today... closed! I don't have the cya reading, but I have everything else... I think I am almost back on track. What should I do next. Here are my numbers, without the CYA, using walmart kit.

PH 7.4 - excellent I think
CL - 5 - awesome in comparison to what it was, so I did a good job drain/fill
ALK - 70 - I know this is slightly low
Hard - this is the kicker... when I put the indicator stuff in and they said it would turn a different color, well it didn't. I still put the tytrant in it and after 35 drops (which is a reading of 350) it was still the same color
CYA - As I said I don't have the reading because I ran out, but plan to go to walmart

Now what?

Thanks for all your help, you guys!!!

---

Your pH is fine right where it is. Your alk is slightly low, you can raise it by adding some baking soda (I'd start with about 1/2 cup in the skimmer, give it 24 hours or so to dissolve and mix thoroughly, and test again, and go from there). I'd be interested in finding out the hardness of your fill water--have you tried testing the fill water for it instead of the pool water?

What does your water look like? Is it clear yet? If so, then just raise your alk a tad (shoot for about 100), and go swimming. If it's still cloudy, then leave your filter/pump running and continue to brush daily. You also probably need to bring your water back up to shock level for just a little while longer, but without a good number for CYA I can only guess at what that shock number is. Even if it were zero, you'd be okay to take the chlorine back up to 10. Once you get a good CYA number, post it here and we can go from there.

Janet (I'm not watermom--she's out of town! :) )

Thanks I'm not Watermom. My hardness numbers were NEVER a problem before I was overzealous in my bleaching activity. Can you go swimming if I put the bleach number at 10? Will do on the rest, but I'm going to take a sample to pool company today.

My pool finally cleared in the last two days. The hardness reading... finally has a reading now. Three drops to change to red. The chlorine went down to about 2 in the last two days. So I added 1 gallon of 12%. I'll bring up the alk. What should I test every week... Chlorine and PH? And as long as everything looks good, I shouldn't have a problem/wouldn't have to do any further testing and do the others once a month? I'm going to order a kit on line. Where should I buy and what should I buy? My DH was all smiles :) (Not that I could see his smile, but know his tone well enough) when I told him on the phone. I think he gave up on me. I'm glad everything worked out.:D