Cloudy water not clearing

[PoolDoc]

One thing you can do to help is get better cartridges. The Intex cartridges are cheaper, but don't last long and don't filter as well. If you get 2 Unicel cartridges and clean them properly, they should not only improve filtration, they should last all summer:

Unicel C-4607 Replacement Filter Cartridge (Easy Set Size A or C) @ Amazon @ Amazon
Unicel C-5315 Replacement Filter Cartridge for 15 Square Foot Intex B Filter @ Amazon

[Watermom]

Don't use the shock that you have if it is cal-hypo. Instead, either use bleach or dichlor. (Please go back and reread post #2 about dichlor if this is what you want to use.) Let us know which you plan to use and then someone here will help you go from there.

Also, the limits on the chlorine test that the HTH 6-Way kit can show is 5. (That is one reason we like the Taylor K-2006 because it can test high chlorine levels.) So, when you get a chlorine reading of 5 on your kit, all you know is that it is 5 or higher. You can force it to read higher although it does lose some accuracy.

Read here: Testing Without a Good Kit

Try and keep your chlorine at shock level which would be around 12. See the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in Ben's signature. As your CYA level comes up, so does your shock level.

[Maurie]

I'm fine with using bleach. Saving money sounds good too. I do know the HTH drops don't test the chlorine high enough, but I can't afford the Taylor kit currently. I will have to use the best guess method. Can someone clarify? I read it several times and the method doesn't make sense to me.

I retested today (with HTH drop kit):
Chlorine - over 5 ppm - on strips it read around 10 ppm
pH - 7.5
TA - 240 ppm
TH - 400 ppm
CYA - 30-35 ppm

The water is still cloudy. It started to turn a light green color. It's possible we haven't killed all the algae. I know the TA and TH are also adding to the cloudiness in combo with the calc-hypo. Of course, our filter isn't the greaters either.

What steps should we take at this point to try and clear the water? We are still running the filter practically 24/7 and cleaning cartridges once or twice a day.

Thanks for the help.

[PoolDoc]

The HTH test uses OTO -- the color block only goes to 5.0, but OTO itself registers MUCH higher. What you want to do is keep your chlorine in the 'dark yellow with a orange tint' range (15 - 30 ppm), till there is NO green left. Once you get the chlorine up to that range, brush the pool completely. There may be piles or areas of algae that will survive high chlorine, but not being brushed + high chlorine. However, you do not want to brush those spots while the chlorine is low -- you could end up restarting the algae!

[Maurie]

Ok, but how much bleach will raise to that level? Can I keep the tricolor tabs floating? Thanks.

[Watermom]

For reference, in your pool, each quart of 6% bleach will add about 2ppm of chlorine. Use that to help you figure out doses to add. With a CYA level of 30-35, you want to try and keep the chlorine around 15ppm while you are working to clear this up. You can continue to use the trichlor tabs for awhile longer but you're still going to need to use bleach as well. When your CYA reaches around 50, you'll want to stop using the tabs and just use bleach.

[Maurie]

I've been brushing the pool every morning thinking I should to help filter the dead algae. I did not this morning. I added 6qt of 6% bleach and chlorine was very high - dark orange. It is now a lighter orange. I did brush once it hit the dark orange. Now our pool looks even greener. What happened? My husband will want to add calc-hypo shock and algaecide if it doesn't change color soon. What do I do now? Do I keep adding bleach to keep it a light orange? (remember I can't afford Taylor kit now). Thanks.