Help-Cloudy Greenish Water

[bacrocker]

We have a 25,000 gal pool. We have been taking the water to be sampled at a pool place but don't seem to be getting much resolution. The water looks greenish, very cloudy, can't even see the shallow end. A couple of weeks ago we had to use Pool Magnet Plus to pull the copper out of the water. It did a great job, even took the stains off the steps. Took another sample of water & they had us add 15lbs of Balance Pak 300 to bring up the hardness. Went out there this evening & now the water looks green, feels thick when I brush it & the steps are starting to stain again.
Here are my numbers:

TC 2.5
Free Chlorine 0
PH 7.7
Tot Alk 183
Adj Tot alk 147
Tot Hardness 44
Iron 0.2

Did not show any type of algae.
These were the numbers yesterday before we added the Calcium. Now the water looks worse.
What are your recommendations?
Thanks,
Beth

[waterbear]

First, please post your CYA (stabilizer) level.
Second, you need to keep adding chlorine because you have 2.5 ppm combined chlorine in the pool from the algae (greenish cloudy water is uaually a good indicator of algae, so is a CC of 2.5 ppm)! How much you need to add is determined by what your CYA level is.
Third, RUN (don't walk) from that Bioguard dealer you are going to and get a drop based test kit, start testing your own water, and take control of your pool just like everyone else on here does. This forum and the good folk who hang out here will give you all the help you need to do that!

[bacrocker]

Thanks, I am figuring that out. After doing some reading here on the forum I am seeing that it was not even necessary to add the Calcium Chloride to our pool since it is vinyl.

Our CYA level is 200.

I truly appreciate your help. You were recommended by a friend on my Biker Forum.

[mbar]

If your cya is truely 200, you may want to drain and fill a lot of water - draining 1/2 your pool will take you to a cya of 100, and what we usually recommend is to have your cya somewhere between 30 - 50. Here is a chart to see where you have to keep your chlorine levels accoriding to how much cya is in your water:

Stabilizer . . . . . . Min. FC . . . . Max FC . . . 'Shock' FC
=> 0 ppm . . . . . . . 1 ppm . . . . . 3 ppm . . . . 10 ppm
=> 10 - 20 ppm . . . . 2 ppm . . . . . 5 ppm . . . . 12 ppm
=> 30 - 50 ppm . . . . 3 ppm . . . . . 6 ppm . . . . 15 ppm
=> 60 - 90 ppm . . . . 5 ppm . . . . . 10 ppm . . .. 20 ppm
=> 100 - 200 ppm . . . 8 ppm . . . . . 15 ppm . . .. 25 ppm

So you see if your don't keep a minimum of 8ppm chlorine in your pool you will have algae - which is what seems to be happening to your water now. You will have to take your chlorine up to 25ppm to reach a shock level and keep it there by checking it a couple of times a day, to get rid of the algae.

Your alkalinity is a little high, and by adding calcium you may get cloudy water too. Stay away from the pool store, they will have your putting all kinds of stuff in the water, then they will tell you something is too high and you need something else to bring it down! Right now put enough bleach to get to 25ppm, keep your filter running 24/7, brush the pool and backwash frequently.

[waterbear]

First thing to deal with is the CYA! My suggestion is to drain and refill to get the level down to about 50 ppm. That would mean draining about 75% of the water. Is your pool AG or IG? Draining vinyl pools is not my area of expertise but I know it can cause liner damage if you drain much below the skimmer without a liner vacumn going. You can drain a foot of water and replace it and repeat this process until about 3/4 the depth of your deepest point has been reached. For example, If the deepest point in your pool is 4 feet then you can drain and refill a foot of water 3 times. This will be the same as draining 3 feet all at once and will replace about 75% of the water in your pool. Once that is done retest and post your numbers.

If you really don't want to drain and don't mind running your FC at at least 8 ppm and shocking to 25 ppm (which can be iffy with a liner) then I would get the FC level up to 25 ppm and KEEP IT THERE until the pool starts to clear and your FC level is holding overnight with no CC. Then let the level drop to between 8 and 15 ppm FC and keep it there for normal operation.
Your iron level of .2 ppm is strange since you just used a sequestering agent. It might mean that you have not put enough in the water to deal with all of the metals. I would have the water retested for metals and if there are any present I would treat with a sequstering agent BEFORE bringing up the chlorine to avoind possible staining.
BTW, there are a lot of seqesterants besides Bioguards Metal Magnet. Jack's Magic is a good line and Proteams Metal Magic works well also. They are, for the most part, all the same....phosphonic acid derivatives. This is a good place to comparison shop and to READ THE LABEL directions since most of them have special requirements for such things as pH and chllorine levels when you add them.

Hope this has been helpful

[bacrocker]

Thanks, I appreciate all your help.