Cloudy Water

[Watermom]

With a cya of 60, a chlorine reading of 2 is too low. You need to be keeping your cl between 5-10 all the time. And, shocking to about 15. See the chart at the following link. This very well could be a part of your problem. Shock your pool up to 15 using bleach and try and keep it there without letting it yo-yo up and down. If you can, test 3x a day and each time bring your shock level back up to 15. You never did say what type of granular shock you are using, but whatever it is, quit using it. Stick with just bleach. Run your pump 24/7.

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=365

[Poolsean]

Frustrated...
Are you running your pump 24/7? Floculants ( I believe) are meant to be added then shutting down the pump so that the floc can catch the debris and drop it to the floor. The next day, you should slowly vaccum the fallen debris out of the pool.
Clarifiers are meant to clump the debris into filterable sizes and to leave the pump running.

Perhaps that is why your water got cloudy.

[ivyleager]

Frustrated,

When you say 'shocking', what are you shocking with? Is it bleach, and how much? Please, don't add anything other than plain liquid bleach!!! Keep it simple silly.......add bleach!

One gallon of regular unscented bleach (5.25% sodium hypochlorite) will raise the chlorine of 10,000 gallon pool 5.25 ppm. Too effectively shock, you'd need to raise chlorine to a 15ppm, which would be 3 gallons of bleach, for a theoretical 10,000 gallon pool. Now, if you have algae or other contaminates in the pool, those will eat up that chlorine fairly quickly, so you'd need to be adding more bleach as needed, daily. This is why it's advocated here to use a drops based kit. You'll know what your numbers are and be able to adjust the chemistry as required.

Most drop based kits do not measure chlorine higher than 5. So to be accurate, you'll need to use the distillation method. Not hard at all. If I can do it, you can do it. You'll need some distilled water. Take one part distilled water, and one part pool water, mix together, and use this sample to test for chlorine. Take this number and multiply x 2 for your free chlorine (FC). If it still reads higher than 5, take 2 parts distilled water, one part pool water, mix and measure, then multiply by 3. Some people use a shot glass as their measuring method, I personally use a childs medicine cup. Plastic won't break if you're doing your testing out by the pool.

Now, do you have an old nylon knee high? I've begun to use one over my skimmer basket, and have been surprised as how much gunk it is able to filter out. The first day I used it, I had to clean it twice as it was filled and clogged with who knows what, which I could not see with my naked eye (even corrected @ >20/20). This may help you also.

Keep the pump/filter running 24/7, and backwash when needed.

Post numbers when you get them. If you take pool sample to the pool store, have them run all the numbers and get a printout. Then post.

Good luck, and Happy Mothers Day.

CaryB
Go 'Canes!

[CarlD]

Keep adding the bleach--you have to be aggressive with that. Since your CYA is 90, you need to keep your Free Chlorine level at 20ppm. You have to test the water 2 to 3 times a day and add chlorine when it drops. Most of what I usually say has been said. Thanks, IvyLeaguer--saved me a LOT of typing.

Do NOT use any kind of powdered chlorine--use only bleach now.

[ivyleager]

Frustrated,

Thanks for the update! Keep adding the bleach as you want the free chlorine level to be at least 20ppm w/ a CYA for 90 AND a combined chlorine reading. If you look at your chlorine numbers: Free chlorine + combined chlorine (the BAD stuff, think combined contaminants) = total chlorine. Your FC is 5 and total chlorine is 5.7, so that means your combined chlorine is 0.7. This indicates that the chlorine is working on something in the pool, being used up. Therefore, you need to add more bleach to counter what is being used up.

Your pH is okay, but keep testing it because bleach can cause pH to rise, although not always. Mine stays steady at 7.6 and I use bleach exclusively.

The calcium is high, and I'm betting that it is causing or at least exacerbating the cloudiness. DO NOT add more cal-hypo granular shock! This is reason enough to stick with the bleach program.

The alkalinity is on the high end, but not dangerously so. I'll let other folks with more wisdom here address this. If it was my pool, I'd probably leave it alone for now, but keep checking it to make sure it doesn't go higher.

What was the name and ingredients of the algecide you used? Most folks here use polyquat 60%. If the ingredient on the label says poly.....something unpronouncable and is 60%, then it's polyquat. I'd not add anymore at this point. Other algecides can add copper, which can cause staining w/ high chlorine levels. Stay away from that.

Glad the water is clearing up, may still take awhile. Keep the pump/filter running 24/7, add more bleach, and try a skimmer basket sock if you can find one. That can catch more gunk too.

Good luck....oh, and add more bleach!!

CaryB
Go 'Canes!!

[Very Frustrated]

thank you for such a quick reply! thanks! the alagecid is bioguard product..called back up...ingredients are dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride.
one more quick question...do i address the iron...if i add any pool magnet plus as instructed to rid of metals, it says to not shock for 7 days...so do i add the bleach and address the iron later if at all? please advise...thanks!!!

[Watermom]

I think a lot of your problem has already been addressed a couple of times in earlier posts in this thread. When you have high cya like you do, you aren't going to kill any algae if you let your chlorine levels drop too low. You need to test 3x a day and each time bring your chlorine back up to shock level. Letting it continue to drop too low is going to keep you from getting this problem solved.

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=365

[ivyleager]

one more quick question...do i address the iron...if i add any pool magnet plus as instructed to rid of metals, it says to not shock for 7 days...so do i add the bleach and address the iron later if at all? please advise...thanks!!!

An iron reading of 0.2 sounds miniscule to me, but I'm no expert on that metal. I'd refrain from adding anything else, and stick with the plain unscented bleach, and keep it up to 20ppm. Once your pool clears, then you can begin addressing the other issues.

Oh, and keep adding the bleach to maintain the free chlorine level up @ 20ppm. Good luck.

CaryB