Cloudy water not clearing

[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.

[PoolDoc]

There are two different issues here:

#1. Kill all the algae, including any on surfaces or in piles on the bottom. High chlorine is ESSENTIAL for that.

#2. Filter the DEAD algae, out. Bleach doesn't help with that, at all. Polyquat -- the ONLY algaecide we recommend -- will help, because it's also a very good clarifier. Cal hypo can, but ONLY if have a sand filter and ONLY if you use it just the right way. Regular foamy algaecides may actually make the cloudiness WORSE.

[Maurie]

So I've been keeping the chlorine up with bleach. I haven't had to put in as much as I expected. It's still high this morning. I get an orange color with the oto test. I did a three to one dilution with bottled water and got between 12 to 15. On the strips I got TC maxed at 10 and FC maxed at 20 (maybe slightly less). These last two numbers seemed off - the math doesn't make sense. Anyway, I know the chlorine is high.

However, nothing seems to be changing yet. All I know is once I decided to use bleach my pool got greener. The chlorine is holding better with bleach, but it's much greener and cloudier. Why did adding bleach do this? The hth shock and algaecide would turn the color some overnight. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks for the help.

[CarlD]

You'll need to keep up with the bleach--you are fighting something.
1) Ignore T/A. Vinyl pool: Not a problem.
2) Figure your pool at 7000 gal, not the pool store's 7500. 1 gallon of 6% bleach should add 8.5ppm of FC.