Cloudy Water and Can't Maintain any Chlorine Levels

Hoping someone can help. We opened the pool last week (18,000 gallon pool) and started the process of balancing the chemicals. After about 4 days, the water was still cloudy so we took a sample to the pool store to get tested. High ph and high Alkalinity. Suggestion was to add muriatic acid to reduce alkalinity; said ph would drop a bit as well; also suggested soaking filter cartridge in a muriatic acid/water solution because water flow was low. Did all of that and ph ended up almost unreadable and alkalinity ended up good. Added chlorine and it disappeared in no time. Added ph up and took another sample to the pool store. High ph and slightly high alkalinity. Added ph down; ph and alkalinity readings looked good so added 1# of chlorine. No reading after an hour. Read on this thread about using regular chlorine bleach so bought some of that. Added three gallons and had no reading after about 30 minutes. Added 4 more gallons. Took a reading immediately and registered the chlorine high...waited about 5 minutes and read it again...GONE!

We don't know what to do next.

Post current water testing results taken with a drops-based kit so we can look a them. We need pH, alk, cya, CH, and at least two of the following -- FC, CC, TC. What type of pool is this? Repost with this info and somebody here can help. By the way, welcome to the forum!

Hi and thanks for the welcome. Here are the most current readings which are way different than last night.

TC - >1
FC - 0
Alk - 110
Ph - >6.8 (drops didn't go lower - strip showed possibly 6.2)
cya - 0

Yesterday:

1# bag of 73% Calcium Hypochlorite (powder version) in the afternoon.
4# of cyanuric acid over the past week - yesterday about 2#.
Last night we used 7.5 gallons of 6% Sodium Hypochlorite - which disappeared in 5 minutes.

Pool is 18' x 34' vinyl 18,000 gallons. Filtration system is Hayward and is a cartridge. Pool system also flows through a solar panel.

Next step?

The reason that your chlorine isn't staying in the pool is that 1) with no CYA, the sun is "eating it up" almost as fast as you're adding it, and 2) if FC=0 and total chlorine is greater than 1, then the rest of the chlorine is being used up fighting something in the water.

Do not add any more CYA. 4 lbs in an 18000 gallon pool is more than enough, but it takes several days before it registers in the water, which is why most people overshoot their target and then regret it later. How did you add it? Did you broadcast into the pool, or is it in a sock in front of a return? Be patient until it starts to register in the water, but I wouldn't bother to test for it for at least 3-4 more days. However, if you put it in through the skimmer BEFORE you removed and soaked your cartridges, then it has all washed off and you'll need to start over.

You do need to immediately get some Borax in there and raise the pH. Anything below 7.0 is too acidic for a pool and can damage it. Start with about 1/2 box of plain 20-mule team Borax sold in the green box in the laundry aisle at WalMart (not the washing powder), and either pre-dissolve it into some water and put it in your skimmer, or slowly add it through the skimmer, breaking up the clumps. Give it a couple of hours to register, then re-test and add more as needed until you get to the 7.2-7.6 range.

In the meantime, each quart of 6% bleach will raise your chlorine by 1 ppm, and 4 1/2 gallons will take it up to shock level--you need to keep it at all times between 1-3 ppm until your CYA registers, by adding frequently throughout the day. Just a hint--if you'll get it up to shock level after dusk, when the sun is off the pool, it will have the whole night to work on "crud" in your water without interference from the sunlight, and will go a long way toward killing your impending algae bloom (usually what's happening when your water goes cloudy).

Janet

Priority --- getting that pH up ASAP!!

Thanks all. Great information. Heading to Wally World right now.

Success! Ph and Alk are close to balanced, water is crystal clear, and chlorine levels are holding. CYA is still low but will give that another day and see where it is at. We are at least at the point where we were able to start the sanitizing cartridge system so that will help the overall effort. Thanks to all for your help!

Great to hear it is going well. Good job!

Yup! Happy swimming! :)

(that's what we all go through this for!)

You are all great! Don't know what we would have done without you. Husband was ready to drain and close down the pool for the year.

Crystal clear and the kids were swimming last night.

It is truly amazing the amount of chlorine that was required to resolve this. Never would have thought it would take that much (15 gallons by the time all was said and done).

Had a friend with similar problems and passed on your advice to him as well.

Thanks!

Glad it worked out well, and hope your friend can benefit as well.

Happy swimming!!!!

Janet