Also have cloudy water (with a story)

[Justardnck]

Hello I'm new to this forum and very new to pools.

We have a cheapy vinyl above ground pool (we decided to try it before we invested in an inground). This pool hold roughly 5500 gallons of water (15' X 4' round). Some explanaition of my house water needs to be told also, we have well water that has high calcium and high iron. Last week the pool was crystal clear and everything was great (the pool has been filled for 2 months now). I noticed the pool was about 3" low and we live in South Florida so I figure the water has evaporated. I decide to top it of, I put the hose in and forgot to shut the water off. I came outside and the pool had over flowed (my guess is that is had been overflowing for 20-30 mins. I drained some of the water off and all was fine for about 1 day and then I got some slight cloudyness to it. I added about 4 oz of clarifier to it. It then started clouding over worse, 3 days later and you can't even see the bottom. I tested the clorine with a drop kit and it showed NONE so I added about 1 quart of liquid shock and refilled my tablet floater (with stabilized tablets)

Today I tested with my 6 way test strips and here are the results

Total Hardness between 100-250
Total Clorine 1
Free Clorine 0
PH 7.8
Total Alkalinity over 180 (actually off the chart, color is dark blue and the chart goes to green)
Stabilizer between 50-100

Now I do also have the elaborate drop test kit so I retested using it, here are those results

Free Clorine between 1.0-1.5
PH 7.8
Alkaline 370ppm

The alkaline test said to keep adding certain drops till a color change took pace so I did.... 37 drops. The test then said I had to multiply that number by 10 and that was my PPM reading.

I refered to the chart that is in the tester to lower the PH and it recomended 1 1/2 cups of Muratic Acid so I put that in the pool.

My question is:
Am I on the right track? I was not a very good chemist in high school.

[mas985]

With only 5500 gallons, my first thought was drain the pool and refill it but your fill water may also have very high alkalinity. If it does then you may want to follow Ben's proceedure for lower alkalinity:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=191

250 ppm is a long way to go so you will need to be patient. Also, check your total chlorine aganst your free chlorine, you may need to shock the pool.

[Justardnck]

With only 5500 gallons, my first thought was drain the pool and refill it but your fill water may also have very high alkalinity. If it does then you may want to follow Ben's proceedure for lower alkalinity:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=191

250 ppm is a long way to go so you will need to be patient. Also, check your total chlorine aganst your free chlorine, you may need to shock the pool.

I read that before I posted this thread and I'm embarrased to say, I was totally confused. I think I am starting to understand a little now. It appears that my PH and Alk are linked somehow, so If I aerate the pool and add acid slowly and in small doses it may help? The question is how long might I have to wait till I see changes?

Here is a pic of the pool this morning



This is what it looked like 30 days ago (ignore my floating wine glass)

[Justardnck]

With only 5500 gallons, my first thought was drain the pool and refill it but your fill water may also have very high alkalinity..

it took almost a month to get the iron out of the water when I filled it, I don't know if I wanna go through that again

[mas985]

Yes, PH and alkalinity are linked. When you lower PH, alkalinity lowers with it. The trick is to keep the alkalinity low while raising the PH. This is where aeration comes in. Follow Ben's instructions to the letter and you will see the alkalinity lower slowly. For 250 ppm, I am not sure how long it will take but I suspect longer than a week or even two.

[KurtV]

...so If I aerate the pool and add acid slowly and in small doses it may help...

Justa, No, that's not what Ben's TA-lowering-procedure post says.

In a nutshell: You lower the pH first (using small doses of acid to ensure you don't undershoot your target); then you aerate to remove CO2; you add acid as needed to keep the pH down as you aerate; and you stop aerating when the TA has reached your target level (for which you'll need a good drop-based test kit for TA).

I recommend you read the whole thing again before trying it: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=191

[Justardnck]

Thank you all, I will try your advise and keep you posted

[mbar]

I really think you need to add chlorine - your cya test doesn't give enough info - but even if it is at 50, you need to have your chorine higher. Your fc in one test was 0, and in the other 1.5. Either way you probably have algae which is why your pool is cloudy. If you added a quart of shock, and have tablets in your floater, then something is eating the chlorine. Using stabalized tablets is what is raising your cya - You need to add chlorine in the form of bleach - what kind of liquid shock did you add? Was it a peroxide shock?

[littleHeidi]

And at the very least, spend $15 and get an Aqua Chem test kit from Walmart or something. Do away with those test strips. They're not very accurate.

[Justardnck]

And at the very least, spend $15 and get an Aqua Chem test kit from Walmart or something. Do away with those test strips. They're not very accurate.

I have one with 5 solutions in it and I have the strips.