New 15' x 48" Intex pool

[aylad]

Hi AggiePool,

Somehow this thread got to the bottom of the list and I missed it until now....I'm sorry!!!

Did you add CYA to the pool? How's it going so far?

Janet

[Watermom]

I must have missed it, too. How did that happen that we both did?

Sorry 'bout that!

[AggiePool]

Howdy!

My CYA was way too high - 100 ppm - so I decided to drain the pool and start over. Ugh on the water bill! Anyway, I tested today after balancing for the last couple of days and here are my results.

CYA - 10 ppm or less (still waiting for it to all dissolve)
FC - 50 ppm
CC - 0 ppm
pH - 7.6
TA - 170 ppm
CH - 130 ppm

I periodically take my trichlor dispenser out because my chlorine is so high, but I was finally able to vacuum all the algae off the bottom of the pool. My main issue right now is cloudy water. Not any particular shade (green, yellow) - just cloudy. I'm not quite sure how to fix that or if it is an effect of my high chlorine. All suggestions are welcome!

I filled out the Pool Form so hopefully it adds my details to this post. :-)

Stefanie

[Watermom]

What kind of chlorine are you using other than trichlor tabs? How often and how much at a time are you adding? Surely your chlorine reading is not really 50ppm. Try that test again.

List exactly what all you have put into the pool. Also, run the alk and calcium hardness tests on your fill water.

[AggiePool]

Not sure what was up with the chlorine test (I actually saw that number twice over two days), but now it is down to 0 ppm again. pH is still at 7.6

TA on my fill water is about the same - 180 ppm
CH is also about the same - 120 ppm

The following details are from after I refilled the pool. I have the 1" trichlor tabs that I'm using and I put three in every other day when the first three have dissolved. On the 6th I noticed the chlorine was down to 0 so I added the last 2 cups of bleach I had. I added about 1/2 lb of KemTech stabilizer on the 7th, so that makes about 1 lb so far. I also lowered my pH with one small box of baking soda (can't remember how much that was). The water was really cloudy yesterday after we were in (I noticed the KemTech had dissolved really fast because my kids swim in circles to make a whirlpool). The pool was clearer this morning, but still cloudy.

Any suggestions?
Stefanie

[BigDave]

What kind of chlorine test do you have?

[aylad]

Lowering pH is done with muriatic acid (read the link in my sig) or dry acid. Baking soda raises alkalinity. Yours is already high, so I wouldn't add any more. Odds are pretty good that your cloudiness is either dead algae from the last bloom that just needs time to filter out, or possibly algae that didn't get killed off. Try measuring your chlorine at night after the sun is off the pool, and then measure it again in the morning before the sun hits the pool. Compare those two numbers, and it will tell you if you have algae still trying to bloom (there will be more than a 1 ppm difference in the numbers).

Janet

[AggiePool]

I tested the chlorine and found it was the same evening to morning. So I believe this is dead algae. I have been running my filter nonstop for several days and it has cleared up some. I will keep working at it and hopefully it will eventually clear up.

Thanks!