Water cloudy, have test results

[Watermom]

You need to buy the good kit! I can tell by your numbers that these are pool store numbers and may or may not be reliable. There is no way to get a reading of 15 on CYA or 97, 93, or 268. Those tests are simply not that precise. In addition, unless you have a total green slime pit, there is no way that your chlorine numbers can be right. FC + CC = TC always. So, for your readings to be right, then your CC would have to be 8ppm which I highly doubt. I'd also be a little wary of a pool store that wouldn't recognize that those chlorine numbers were wrong ----- unless it might have just been a typo on your part.

Have you backwashed your filter any? If so, did you note your clean filter pressure afterwards and is the pressure rising to indicate that the filter is actually filtering particles out?

[aylad]

Do you see your pressure rising at all? If so, the filter is catching it and it will just take some time and patience. If not, you can try the DE trick-- take a cup or so of DE (just enough to raise your pressure by 1psi) and add it through the skimmer. First check your returns to see if it comes back through. If so, then you may have a problem with the filter that needs fixing. If not, then the DE will settle in the filter and help filter out smaller particles than sand can do alone.

Janet

[sbillingsley]

The night that I posted my last reply I had to leave town to see my Grandmother that feel suddenly ill then passed. While were were gone my BIL tried his best to take care of the pool with no real directions, just doing what he thought needed to be done. He couldn't find any chlorine so he bought some and started using that instead of bleach. He sucked all the leaves out and kept it brushed down for me. It is a little cloudy but I can see the liner well. To answer the last questions posted the sand filter runs 24/7. My husband suspects he needs to replace the sand next weekend. There has never been a pressure gauge on the filter so I dont know about the pressure. I ordered a kit Thursday night when I got back. While I was gone a Leslie's Pool Company opened in town (until this point I was using Ace Hardware to test the water cause that is all we had) so I took the water there to be tested until I get the kit. These are the numbers I got from Leslie's:

FAC 2
TAC 2
Calcium Hardness 50
CYA 40
TA 60
PH 7.2
Phosphates 50

She said I had a "chlorine lock" and need 30 pounds of Calcium because my water was "hard." From reading this website I think I need to add bleach regularly to break this "lock" but I am not sure how much. I am not sure about the calcium. Thank you all for your help!!!

[BigDave]

You don't need calcium in your vinyl lined pool. Given your two readings, 211 and 50, if either is correct, calcium shouldn't be causing the cloudiness.
Sounds like your Brother In Law did well.
I'm pretty sure that "chlorine lock" is a pool store myth, sounds like you may suspect that as well. However, if you have algae (and you did) and it's not all dead, you could be just holding it at bay with all the chlorine you're putting in without making real headway.
As you supect, you do need more chlorine. According to Ben's Best Guess Chart, your regular operating Free Chlorine level should be between 3 and 6 for CYA of 40 and 15 for shock level. If this were my pool, I'd raise the FC to 15 and keep it there until the pool loses less than 1ppm FC overnight (sundown to dawn) with nearly 0 Combined Chlorine. It willl take about 3-1/2 gallons of 6% bleach to move your FC from 2 to 15, and you'll need more to keep it there so stock up.
You will need the K-2006 kit to measure these values. Have you ordered it yet? You may have noticed the the pool store tests show a wide variance, you really do need to be able to make accurate measurements yourself.

[aylad]

In addition to what Big Dave said, and I agree with it all, you don't need to change the sand. The only time sand needs to be changed is if it's really gunked up from something like a Baq conversion or filter additives that have rendered it useless. Before you go to that much trouble and expense, you need to get a pressure gauge on the filter--that will tell you (us) a whole lot more about whether the filter is operating properly.

Don't buy the calcium, and don't buy into the "chlorine lock" philosophy--they're equally useless in your situation!

I'm sorry for the loss of your Grandmother...

Janet

[sbillingsley]

I did buy a test kit. It has shipped and should be here by the end of the week. I have a question about testing and adding more bleach. If I am supposed to test it a couple times a day (prob will do it at 6:30 am & pm) do I add the bleach needed at 6:30 am to get it back up to 15 ppm even in the morning? I read where you are supposed to add it at night so it will do a better job. Thanks for all the help.

[Watermom]

For maintenance, evenings is always best for chlorine additions but when you are trying to clear the pool, you can always dose it morning and evenings to keep the chlorine levels as consistently high.

[aylad]

To add to what Watermom said, the more consistently you keep the chlorine levels up, the faster the pool will clear. So you can just dose once in the evenings, but it will take much longer to clear that way than if you dose multiple times during the day,.