Cloudy water plan of action

[wsommariva]

Sorry to ask so much but I don't want to make a dramatic mistake. My water is a bit green, I assume algae is starting. Can I increase bleach amounts once PH hits 7.0?

[waste]

Ben,

Carbonate alkalinity, is that total alkinality? I keep it at 100 to 150 ppm. Good range for me?

CH - I am at 255. This too high? If so how can I decrease?

Borates - I use baking soda, same thing?

Thanks

Sorry I'm late to this party! (thanks for inviting me Ben, I am TRULY honored! but I check my E-mail maybe once a week)

With no CYA, your total alkalinity is the carbonate alkalinity. With all the copper in your water, I believe Ben is suggesting to lower it (see his post above).

Borates are a different way to raise the pH (pH up powder [a.k.a sodium carbonate] is so closely related to baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) that they act ~ the same and will raise not only the pH but also the carbonate alkalinity). Borates raise the pH without messing (too much) with the alkalinity.

To lower the C.H. you have to drain water out of the pool and replace it with water that is lower in C.H (a hard trick in the S.W. but, if you're in the S.W. you may be able to find a company that can filter the calcium out by reverse osmosis)

I wish you well with your pool and please know you can call on me anytime to help you!

[wsommariva]

Ted thanks for the clarification. I think I'm on the road to understanding what I need to do. I just learned that my low TDS might prevent proper oxidation. So I'll increase that a bit and see what happens.

Thanks again to everyone who has helped.

[PoolDoc]

"I just learned that my low TDS might prevent proper oxidation."

Arghh!! Did you learn this from the same people selling the Clfree?

No, no, no. TDS is usually irrelevant. Do not pay any attention to it; do not worry about it; do not try to adjust it! Usually, pool stores try to tell you your TDS is too HIGH, and that you must do this or that or life as you know it will end. I've not heard of someone trying to tell you it's too low, before.
(And stop trusting whatever source of information giving you this information.)

Best wishes,

Ben

[wsommariva]

Something to do with water conductivity.

In any case I strive to get this pool to where I want it to be - perfect. Maybe someday.

Thanks everyone once again for your underrstanding and help.

[waterbear]

Something to do with water conductivity.

You are right, low TDS mean low conductivity and that means that CHLORINE CANNOT BE GENERATED IN THE CELL JUST LIKE WITH A SWCG! You unit is producing a small amount of chlorine as an oxidizer in the cell along with the copper BECAUSE OF RESIDUAL SALT IN YOUR WATER (TDS). It is not unlike the Ecosmarte system and it is SNAKE OIL! We have been through all this on a different forum already.

Your water is cloudy because something is growing in it unless your DE filter grids are damaged. On another forum you stated that your pool became cloudy after running the filter for a day but it was crystal clear before you turned the filter on. I told you to inspect the grids but you insisted that the grids were fine! In that case something is growing in the water to cloud it.
You needed the metal stain remover and sequestrant you used because you are putting metal into your pool. Don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out! Fiblerglass pools are notorious for staining (it's their main drawback) so metal ionizers are NOT a good idea. There is some empirical evidence that keeping the calcium hardness up in a fiberglass pool can slow or prevent staining from metals and cobalt spotting but the jury is still out. It can't hurt, IMHO.

Also, we have been through most of this on the OTHER forum that you post in quite a bit (where I am a Moderator) so I am not sure why you thought you would get different answers here. You have gotten the truth in both places. Whether you choose to believe it or not is your decision.


Sorry if I seem a bi short but this is really a rehash for me. Perhaps you will start to believe now that you are hearing it from other sources as well and stop believing all the marketing hype on the ClFree website.

[wsommariva]

I respect your opinions and you have helped me in the past especially with the staining and not listening to pool stores regarding chemicals not needed and I appreciate your input greatly. Yes I always ask a lot of questions because I am searching for answers to problems that I have had for 3+ years. As you didn't reply to my last post on the other forum I came here.

Yes I think my filter grids are good. Not rocket science, I cleaned them and reinstalled them properly.

My water is now crystal clear despite the great amount of tree debris this time of year. Also I have no stains at all and I can't figure that one out. One thing I did was buy a filter that claims to remove iron from water. Last Fall I removed maybe 15% of the water in closing. Replacing it with no iron water (maybe) reduced my iron from .4 to .2 ppm. Regardless, as you convinced me, my minor stains are not an issue.

I am slowly increasing my TDS to 800. I am stopping the bleach. I may buy a smaller pump to reduce the flow into my filter. So I am hopeful.

[waterbear]

I respect your opinions and you have helped me in the past especially with the staining and not listening to pool stores regarding chemicals not needed and I appreciate your input greatly. Yes I always ask a lot of questions because I am searching for answers to problems that I have had for 3+ years.

And if I am not mistaken this is your 4th year with the ClFree, isn't it?

[wsommariva]

This is my fourth year. And maybe I'll get it right with you help.

[waterbear]

The only help I can offer to solve your problems is to get rid of the ClFree and either start using the BBB method as taught on this forum (It's really just good pool care and maintenance) or install a SWCG if you don't want to deal with daily bleach additions (it's still BBB since the generator is making sodium hypochlorite in your water which is what bleach is).
Your pool problems are mainly due to your ionizer system. They are common with ionizer systems. When people get rid of the ionizers and start taking care of their pools properly the problems go away. I've already told you this a while back on the other forum and chem geek had also given you input about your system and it's shortcomings.