From green to cloudy!

Hi All. I just recently opened my pool (3 days ago), which when opened was fairly green, but only a little cloudy. I did the usual brushing the walls, etc etc, and then shocked, fairly hard, but not unusually. Yesterday, the pool was completely milky, and can't see the bottom even in the shallow end. I did a test and CL levels are right off the scale, which was to be expected. I hoped today would be better, giving time for eveything to settle that was going to settle, but it is still milky. I'm thinking about adding more shock, thinking maybe supersaturating the water will cause the fine particles to precipitate out.

Any ideas? This is a first for me in 6 yrs of pool ownership. I've seen cloudy after a hard shock, but nothing like this

What is your calcium level? Shock that is from calcium chloride will raise your calcium levels, which with high alkalinity and ph your will get cloudy water. If you can please post all of your numbers it will be much easier to help.

In addition to what Marie said, also tell us what type of pool this is - vinyl, gunnite, fiberglass. Welcome to the forum.

Watermom

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Originally Posted by mbar

Shock that is from calcium chloride will raise your calcium levels

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Calcium Chloride is not shock. That's Ca+, Ca up, or whatever the flavor of the week is. I think you meant to say Calcium Hypochlorite.

Michael

Oops, Michael's right, I got it mixed up! sorry

Hi again

I have an 18x36 vinyl pool. I'm using Sodium Hypochlorite (HTH) for shock. My PH is now very high( can't be a correct reading), which makes no sense as Sod Hypo usually lowers PH when you shock. I shocked with about 10 cups, which again is high, but I've done worse in the past. Usually a hard shock makes the water clarity better, but not in this case.

I'm off the scale with CL (the test is actually an orangy red!), so can't give you a number. PH is reading wrong as well as CL is so high.

I've shutdown my pump, and hoping things will settle out. The algae (and anything else for that matter, ha ha) is killed off, just have to deal with the cloudiness.

We really need some numbers to be able to help. Can you get a drops-based kit and retest? (Preferably one that tests higher chorine than 5ppm.) You might also consider buying the kit that Ben sells at his www.poolsolutions.com website. It is the one that most of us use and is well worth the money. In the meantime however, try and pick up a different kit and repost with some numbers. Then somebody here will be glad to try and help you. Keep your pump running 24/7 for the time being while you are trying to clear the pool.

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Originally Posted by MrApathetic

Hi again

I have an 18x36 vinyl pool. I'm using Sodium Hypochlorite (HTH) for shock. My PH is now very high( can't be a correct reading), which makes no sense as Sod Hypo usually lowers PH when you shock. I shocked with about 10 cups, which again is high, but I've done worse in the past. Usually a hard shock makes the water clarity better, but not in this case.
Sodium Hypochlorite might raise pH slighlyly, not lower it but what is most likely happening is that the phenol red indicator has converted to chlorphenol red because of the high chlorine levels. Chlorphenol red goes through the same color changes as phenol red but at much lower pH. It will turn purple at a pH of 6.8 as compared to 8.2 with phenol red! The better quality test kits such as Taylor's and the one Ben sells on the sister website www.poolsolutions.com have a chlorine neutralizer added to help minimize this interference.
I'm off the scale with CL (the test is actually an orangy red!), so can't give you a number. PH is reading wrong as well as CL is so high.

I've shutdown my pump, and hoping things will settle out. The algae (and anything else for that matter, ha ha) is killed off, just have to deal with the cloudiness.

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It is difficult to get an accurate pH reading when the Cl level is very high. Let your chlorine levels drop to a more normal range and then retest your pH before making any adjustments

Well, this is where I'm at.

When I opened my pool my CL was 2ppm and my ph was 7.6. I shocked and that's when it went cloudy. I shutdown my pump and alowed everything to settle out and now the water is clear enough to see the bottom in the deep end fairly well. My CL reading is now 6.5+ (probably higher, but that is the highest test kit I could find) and now my ph is in the 6.5 range, which I kind of expected as shock is acidic. I have alot of sediment on the bottom now, so I will be vaccuming to drain and then will adjust my ph slowly to avoid causing cloudiness again. The water isn't crystal clear, but it's getting there now that all the suspended solids have precipitated out.

As for raising ph, I've seen alot of discussion about using Borax to increase ph, instead of "ph up". Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Yes, borax is the way to go, it will raise your ph without raising your alkalinity. You are probably going to need a lot - if you are measuring 6.5, it may even be lower. I would get it in as soon as possible.

You said that you used sodium hypochlorite to shock, which is the same as bleach, which has a high (around 11) pH. I'm not surprised that your pH went up drastically after shocking. I am curious, though, about why it fell drastically. What is your TA level?
Janet