Cannot Get Rid of Cloudy Water

[AnnaK]

Yes, it's normal for pool store testing to vary. That's why we're so adamant that you have your own DPD-FAS test kit and do your own testing. Yours will arive Friday and you'll have a lot of fun!

It's hard to say which CYA reading is correct so we'll leave that one alone for now. Either number is okay and if you do put the floater with the trichlor pucks back in the pool it'll add a little CYA. Mostly we shoot for 50 ppm, give or take.

pH looks great! TA is okay.

Now, chlorine. Remember this formula: TC = FC + CC. If CC is .5 or more, we have organics that need to be killed. Your CC is 1.2, not good. We need to shock. Ben's Best Guess Chlorine Chart tells us that for CYA between 30 and 50 we need FC = 15. To get there from the tested FC of 5 you need to add 311 oz of 6% bleach, that 2.5 gallons. You have to maintain this shock level until your overnight chlorine loss is less than 1 ppm. See why you need your own test kit? It saves on running to the pool store for water testing.

I'm intrigued by what it is you saw floating on the top. Algae normally adhere to the pool walls or bottom or show up as a green tinge to the water. What did this floating matter look like?

I'm happy to hear you got the skimmer sock. Check it in a few hours. It'll have crud in it, probably dark grey to brown looking. Rinse it out with the hose, put it back in.

You'll want to stock up on a few gallons of bleach.

[ajb8898]

The stuff on the top is a very dark green color and almost looks like little oval pills floating around. I scooped most of it up but just found a few small pieces to take a picture of. This is what has been coming up for weeks. I assumed algae but is it something else?

EDIT -- Email the pic to poolforum@gmail.com

[AnnaK]

What kind of steps do you have?

[ajb8898]

4 steps in the shape of half moon. We took them out over the weekend and haven't put them back in.

[AnnaK]

Were they clean when you took them out or did they have green spots on them? What's floating on the surface of your pool does look like algae, a heavy patch of it that's broken loose from somewhere else. And, with the cloudy water it's hard to know what's on the bottom. That's why brushing is important, even when you can't really see what you're doing.

I use a Wall Whale, have you heard of that or seen it at the store? It's a pool brush with sort of a flap on it, fits on a telepole. When you push the brush the flap move upward and pushes a whole lot of water around. That way, even when I can't easily reach some parts of the pool, I still get a good amount of water movement in the area. Plus, I use this brush to push water at my wedding cake steps to circulate it under and behind them.

Anyway, looks like we'll have to superchlorinate your pool (to shock levels) until we get the CC down.

[ajb8898]

Oh the steps were bad when we took them out on Sunday morning. Definitely lots of algae. It didn't make the whole pool green though. We shocked it right after we took them out and it seemed to kill it.

I've been brushing every day but I do know we have uneven ground and have pockets that probably still have something in them. I haven't heard of a Wall Whale. I'll look into it.

We're going out this afternoon for the chlorine. I only have 1 gallon left here.

[AnnaK]

There are things you can do to keep algae out from under and behind your steps. Take a look at the link in my signature (Step Weights), it might give you some ideas suitable for your steps. When you brush pay close attention to where the steps used to sit, that's likely your algae source. Keeping the water at shock level will kill them and with the pump running they'll eventually filter out. But you MUST maintain shock level of 15 ppm until your chlorine loss is 1 ppm or less overnight. And definitely scoop up what floats to the top.

Had I known about those dirty steps at the beginning of our discussion, or that you've had patches of algae coming to the surface for weeks, I would have advised you to shock the pool right away and we might be a little ahead of the game.

[ajb8898]

Apologies, I thought I mentioned the steps as part of the history and even went back to check but it's not there. I guess when we shocked Sunday and then the test came back free of algae Monday I thought it was a non-issue. I brushed and vacuumed the spot obsessively on Sunday after shocking.
Once we got the steps out, I saw that was probably the issue all along but I really thought it was a non-issue once we got them out Sunday. In any case, hopefully this will help. I'm so ready for the kit to come in. I keep checking the tracking hoping it magically comes tomorrow. Is there anything at Walmart we can get that will measure just the chlorine? My liquid kit only goes up to 5.

[ajb8898]

OK 2.5 gallons of chlorine is in the pool.

[aylad]

You can force your kit to read higher..it's ballpark, but it's close, and will work until your Taylor kit comes in...

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...a-good-testkit)

Janet