high pH and TA, cloudy water

[aylad]

Acid isn't the only thing that will cure cloudy water--and with a CYA of 50, a Cl of 1-3 isn't nearly enough to keep algae from growing in the pool. I would shock the pool to 15-18 ppm, using bleach, and hold it there until you can go from sundown to sunup without losing more than 1 ppm of chlorine. I'm betting your cloudy water is an algae bloom, not a pH issue.....

Janet

[fiveUNDERfive]

Thanks Janet. That's what I am now wondering, since my cloudiness has turned greenish. I added a gallon last night, and my walmart kit is reading "at least" 5 (it's slightly darker yellow than that). How do I know if I am at 15-18? Add 2 more gallons and "hope?" This am my TA is down to 180 and the pH is 7.5 Should I add some more MA too?

[aylad]

I wouldn't worry about the TA and pH right now. pH is fine where it is, and TA isn't going to be critical right now, as much as clearing up the algae is. Here's how to force your kit to read higher chlorine readings than it was designed to....
http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/how-...d-testkit.html

If your pool is 24' diameter, and 48" from floor to water level, then I'm estimating about 13,500 gallons. Do I have the dimensions right? In 13,500 gallons, each 1 gallon of 6% bleach you add is going to raise your FC by 4.4 ppm. Each 3.5 cups of bleach will raise your FC by 1 ppm, so you can use those as a reference point. You need to get it up to 15-18 ppm and hold it there by testing as often as possible and adding whatever amount of bleach you need to get back up over the 15 ppm mark, until you can measure at sundown and then again in the morning before the sun hits the pool, and not lose more than 1 ppm of chlorine in that time. When you get to that point, and the pool has cleared up, then you can let your chlorine drift back down--but only to the 3-6 ppm range. Any lower than that, and you're going to have algae growing. If you can, brush the pool after your chlorine additions, and keep your filter running 24/7 during the process, cleaning the filter as your pressure indicates.

Janet

[PoolDoc]

If your pool is 24' diameter, and 48" from floor to water level, then I'm estimating about 13,500 gallons. Do I have the dimensions right? In 13,500 gallons, each 1 gallon of 6% bleach you add is going to raise your FC by 4.4 ppm. Each 3.5 cups of bleach will rai

She listed 24 round x 3.5' depth on the pool chart. Assuming that the 3.5' is overflow, and her WATER depth is 3', her volume is ~10,000 gallons as she estimated. If the WATER depth is 3.5' (48" walls) then her volume may be closer to 11,800.

[fiveUNDERfive]

Thanks guys. Off to add more chlorine. Hubby says its closer to 4ft. He was estimating about 14,000 gallons, not the 10K I thought. I ordered more CYA reagent from the Amazon link last night, so hopefully that will come soon. can I get distilled water at Walmart? Will need to run there and get more bleach bc I think I only have 1-2 more gallons at home.

J

[aylad]

You should be able to get distilled water there--if you can't find it with the rest of the water, check the baby section...sometimes the stores here put it there for mixing formula bottles with.

In 10,000 gallons of water, that same 1 gallon of bleach will raise your Cl by 6 ppm. In 11,800, 1 gallon raises it by 5.1. So...you're still in the ballpark, just add what you think you need, test, and then adjust from there.

Janet

[fiveUNDERfive]

Well, hubby added two packs of HTH Super shock and swim that he "found" while I was getting more bleach at Wallys. Ugh. The previous owners left a LOT of stuff. We bought the house last summer, and they had not opened the pool the previous year so the shock is at least 2-3 years old. Reading the package, my est is that the chlorine should be around 15 by now, and by using the distilled water method, I dilute 3 times and it still looks the same- the bright yellow that is the 5, or sl brighter. The pool is still very cloudy (can not see the bottom) and green. So I am guessing I wait until morning and test again? How long can I expect it to be like this? I have no clue how it got this bad. Last year, we had little trouble with adding chlorine a few times a week, and using the trichlor pucks 1-2 times for CYA (it never seemed to add much). This year, it seems (tho I don't have the CYA reagent yet, and I guess the sticks are inaccurate) that my CYA is much higher bc the same amt of chlorine was not enough. Last year, if it ever got slightly tinged, I added a bit more bleach and it cleared up overnight. I never had the clear (not green) cloudiness that started this whole downslide. It was nearly 100 today and we can't use our pool (that right now looks more like the Erie Canal). YUCK! I hope we didn't mess anything up with the shock and swim, though I don't think it can get much worse! We will definitely be sticking to bleach after this (DH got an earful!).

J