Can't clear cloudy water

[ScrltOTara]

We opened our pool a week ago. It was green and a little foggy. We shocked it and the green went away, but it got really cloudy.

The pool store said to shock it again, which I did. Usually when I shock it, it reads high chlorine on the strips for weeks. I usually don't have to add any daily chlorine for days. This registers none, doesn't smell like pool water either.

I took a sample into my pool store. They said everything reads fine, my chlorine is even a bit high (even though the strips still say there isn't any in there, and it doesn't smell like any). They gave me a flocking agent which we used, but it didn't help.

We were away all weekend for the holiday and came back and the pool looked really clear. So we vaccuumed it and it looked a different color where we vaccumed, but as we went, it started stirring up the "dust" and getting cloudy again.

Anyone have any ideas how to get rid of it? We are on a well, so draining and refilling is a hard thing to do.

Thanks in advance.

[ivyleager]

First, get yourself a test kit. Don't rely on others to tell you what your pool chemistry is.

Second, what product did you use to "shock"? Granular or bleach? And if granular, what was the ingredients (cal hypo, di-chlor, tri-chlor)?

If you have contaminants in the water, that will use up chlorine very quickly, and your pool will not hold chlorine for long.

It would help us if you would post all the relevant water chemistry numbers:
FC, TC, CC, T/A, CA, pH. We would be better able to help you.

CaryB

[Ryan Gravener]

I'm not a pro, but I've solved this problem by adding some clarifier.

[wrinkleigh]

Sounds to me like you killed the algae because it all settled to the bottom, making your water clear. But when you turned on the pump, and circulated the water, it stirred it off the bottom, and made everything cloudy again.

Only cure for this is to run the filter 24/7 until it filters all the dead algae out. It took mine about 3 days running 24/7.

You can floc, and shock and clarify all day long -- but filtering and time is what you need.

[Wayne LaBanca]

Keep the filter running until it's clear. I have been running 4 days now on a 12,000 AG and I'm almost there.

If you are holding your proper cl level based on your cya through the day, and your CC is 0 then you should be done with the shock phase but you do need to get rid of the dead algae, that's the cloud you are seeing.

IF I may add to the mantra here: BBBP; Bleach, Baking Soda, Borax, and Patience.

As Ben says: POP; Pool Owner Patience.

Follow EXACTLY what you are told to do in this forum and you will succeed, these folks really know their stuff!

Wayne

[vinnygnj]

Although I don't have a valving system on my filter, I found that some valves can recirculate the water without filtering. Make sure you're filtering.