Very cloudy water

I had metal stains and did the metal treatment with ascorbic acid. Stains lifted off magically and after some time I added the sequestering agent. The next day my pool was very cloudy, never saw it like this before. Its been like this for 3 days with the pump on filter for 24/7. Good news is that stains as far as I can see are gone, it was terrible on my white stairs. My ph and alk is normal and my chlorine just recently began to hold, at around 1ppm. Please help, the northeast is in the near 100's and my family want in.

One other thing, it is cloudy blue water. It seems like there is a whitish sediment on the bottom that gets displaced when I vacuum or brush the pool. How do I get this back to crystal clear. Please help.

I too just did the Metal Out and thankfully it did the trick....(and I too am having the clouding issue as well...not that severe though)..

Why not get the family IN THE POOL and splash around the deposits on the bottom. While they're enjoying themselves, you can go get a panty hose stocking, cut the foot out of it and wrap THAT piece around your skimmer basket....

Run the filter over nite and this should help pick up the micron-sized particles that are "probably" producing the clouding in your pool....I know this has worked for me in the past....hopefully it will help you out as well....Others will say to "hard shock" until the cloud dissipates, but then the metal staining will re-occur...

I did the panty hose thing around the skimmer but the whitish sediment is going right through. I see it coming out my returns when I vacuum. I feel helpless. I thing I am taking a trip to the pool store........:(

How high was your calcium when you added the sequesterant? Is it the same reading now or has it dropped?

here are my numbers:



CYA=39
tot chlrine=0.4
free chlorine=0
ph=7.7
tot alk=83
tot hardness=292

Have you attempted vacuuming to waste ?

Marie (mbar) I believe is on vacation...she would probably let you know if the sediment is a residual from the ascorbic powder...

You might want to read through my 2006 post, sounds like you're having the same issue that I did.

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=4348

Yes, it is from the saturation of the water that it gets cloudy, it precipitates calcium and some other stuff in the water that the water can't hold anymore. You probably had some of your calcium and alkalinity fall out, if you compare former chemistry you had. It can take time for it to dissipate. You can put a coffee filter in your basket of the skimmer to catch some of the really fine particles. You can also use a floc, if it really bothers you - follow the directions on the bottle, then vacuum to waste. You can swim - it is only cloudy from too much saturation, it is clean water!

Sorry I didn't answer, Finally got on the computer! The vacation is great!

I did use PowerFloc by Biogaurd. After vacuuming a lot of water and refilling, I must say that it looks pretty good. It is still cloudy but very much better. My kids were in the pool today.

The stains have not returned, and it has been 7 days since I started the Vit C treatment. I also got a good kit K-2006 and here are my numbers:

FC=2ppm
CC=3.5
ph=7.0 (added 4# sod carb to bring to 7.4)
alk=100
CH=340

CYA: did not test because water is still cloudy.

My questions are:

When can I Super Chlorinate to rid the CC?
When will the cloudy water become brilliant.
Can I still use Calcium hypochlorite. I have been using straight bleach lately but I find the granular easier to use and takes less space. Also to superchlorinate would require 5 gallons in my 15k ig vinyl pool. I just want to be careful of not increasing my CH.

Thanks for all the help. I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

You should leave your ph low. Do not add any chlorine till you are sure that your ph is not above 7.2. It is better at 7.0 while shocking after dealing with stains. Do not use any more calhypo - I find that it really adds to staining. Just use plain bleach. Start with 2 gallons, wait a little to see if stains start. If they do add more sequestering agent. If not add the other 3 gallons. Keep it there until the chlorine holds overnight. Remember, high ph along with high chlorine will make any metals that are not sequestered fall out of solution. Calcium is a metal - that's why I think the calhypo adds to stains. The calcium will cloud water too. I think your best bet is to lay off the calhypo - I know it is easier to deal with, but once you get your water where you want it, the bleach will not be hard to use, as you won't have to use very much every week if your cya is between 30 - 50. It would be a good idea to know what your cya is, this way you are sure of the amount of chlorine you need. Hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions:)

I added 2 gallons of 6% bleach waited 2 hours and there was no staining. I added an additional 3 gallons today and hope there will be no staining. Is metal sequestering going to have to be part of routine maintenance for me?

About 6% bleach, how many gallons are required to shock a 15k size pool. Do people ussually add bleach daily? What is a maintenance dose, 1 quart or 2.

The pool water is still a little cloudy, should I use a clarifier. Thanks for all of your help. :)

Here is a chart on what you need to shock your pool according to how much cya you have.


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

As you can see, it depends on what your cya is - cya makes chlorine not as effective, so the more cya you have in your water, the higher the chlorine level needs to be.

To help with your 'Bleach' Calculation I've copied a portion of the sticky posted in the Pool chemical section. Figure out where your pool is on the 'Best Guess' guide that Mbar posted and then adapt your pool size to the calculation below:

Bleach for chlorine--regular or ultra unscented. 1 gallon of regular bleach, with a 5.25% concentration will add 5.25ppm of Free Chlorine (the good stuff--FC) to 10,000 gallons of water. 1 gallon of Ultra at 6% will add 6ppm of FC to 10,000 gallons of water.


My math isn't the best but given that 4qt(1gal) bleach at 5.25% will raise 10,000 gal of water to 5.25ppm fc, I think 6qt will move 15,000 gal the same (5.25ppm fc). For maintenance purpose, I think you can use the same math, and divide it in half for maintenance, like this. 3qt will give you about 2.5 - 3.0ppm,

To make things easy for myself, I bought a 2qt plastic pitcher, and marked it at the '2 cup', 1qt and 2qt. I found this helped a lot and makes the dosing pretty easy. Keeping your chlorine at the right level is a must and MAY include adding bleach daily. I think one of the keys is to get your CYA level to a point that your FC holds at your desired level between dosing so that dosing is convienent. As an example, my CYA is about 15-20 and it appears to be holding my FC till I add a maintenance dose of anywhere between 2 cups to 1 qt at the end of the day. The SUN/Temp/pool use affect the amount I need to use to keep my pool at sanitation level.

re: Sequestering Agent - I would suggest adding 'Sequestering Agent' every time before you bring your pool to shock level to avoid staining. You might even need to add a little more after you shock to remove fresh stains.

I don't have any comments on the Clarifyer because I have only used it a few times but didn't see any real gains. So according to me the jury is still out on the value of 'Clarifyer'.

Hope this helps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jcarroca

I added 2 gallons of 6% bleach waited 2 hours and there was no staining. I added an additional 3 gallons today and hope there will be no staining. Is metal sequestering going to have to be part of routine maintenance for me?

About 6% bleach, how many gallons are required to shock a 15k size pool. Do people ussually add bleach daily? What is a maintenance dose, 1 quart or 2.

The pool water is still a little cloudy, should I use a clarifier. Thanks for all of your help. :)

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How often to people shock the pool. I just added 1.46 gallon of 6% bleach and after about 30 minutes it raised my FC to 7ppm with 0 CC.

Generally, you shouldn't need to shock the pool unless you have CC greater than 0.5. I personally also shock mine after a large swimmer load for an extended period, and after a couple days of bad rainstorms.

Janet