still have cloudy water

[timmie]

Hi, I put 80 litres of bleach in my pool last saturday...........and got rid of the algae, but now I have cloudy water and I still cant see the bottom of the pool. I hav my filter turned on 24/7.
my readings are

FC 34
TC 34
PH 7.2
hardness 150
alkalinity 200
CA 15

why is my pool still cloudy?? I have vacumned it and nothing, still the same. cant see to get the suction to stay when I put it to waste......so, I am wasting........lots of water, and algae in the bottom of the pool stays

[Watermom]

It takes awhile to filter out dead algae. Continue running your pump 24/7. I hope this isn't a vinyl pool. With a cya (which is what I assumed you meant by CA) of 15 and a chlorine reading of 34, that wouldn't be too good for your liner.

[timmie]

Yes, this is a vinyl pool.........the people at the pool store told me to add 80 litres of chlorine. I now have a reading of 26, it is going down........

[pairadocs]

I had same cloudy problem, did all that you were told, and got skimmer socks from pool store (cheap filter thingy) and each morning they had a nasty slime layer in them, gross, and it may have sped up the healing (not sure if the jedi's would agree)

[brent.roberts]

You will get yourself going in ever widening cirlces if you take advice from difference sources and mix them. Nobody here has an axe to grind ( profit ) from helping you.

Download the bleachcal program from Micheal Smith link
at http://www.hal-pc.org/~mwsmith2/BleachCalc262.exe and it will give you a good basis for how much of anything to add:
bleach, CYA, muriatic acid, borax, baking soda etc, even calculate your pool volume. great tool

In the meantime keep the cover off the pool and hope that the sun shines to knock you chlorine levels down quickly.

The cloudiness can come from 2 sources I am aware of and not knowing the background of your situation ....

Anyway a high level of chlorine will kill of an algae bloom and leave all the cells in the water and white, making cloudiness. The type of filter you have, how well it is functioning, and how long you run it will affect how fast it clears up. Could take a couple days. If you have a sand filter, get a package of DE from the pool store (and hopefully nothing else ) and add it slowly to your skimmer with the pump running until you see the pressure in the filter go up about 1 lb. Then keep it running. Many folks here have used this trick to filter out the fine stuff more quickly.

2) the high levels of shock can sometimes cause calcium to percipitate into cloudiness. Got to filter that fine stuff out the same way.

You should be cleared up in a day or two.

Meanwhile, while you're at the pool store, and after consulting the Bleachcal program, get enough CYA ( aka cyuranic acid, stabilizer, etc. ) to raise your CYA level to something around 40. Don't put the CYA in until the pool is clear because when it clears you will want to backwasy the filter and start fresh. CYA takes forever to dissolve ( days ) and if you put it directly into the water and then backwash, you could lose it before it dissolves. Some folks put it in a skimmer sock of nylon stocking hung in the pool where there is some flow, then they can vacuum and backwash without losing it.

Hope all this helps.

[timmie]

hi, yes this helped. My pool is clear, and I have some algae left that I brush and leave for the chlorine to eat up. My pump is on 24/7, and I backwash everyday. I have to find some borax as my Ph is 7.0. I dont think they sell it where I live. I may take a day trip to the U.S to pick up a truckload! ( just kidding, will get some boxes). I was going to put in a salt water system, but I think I will just use the 3 B's. I can't believe the good info I am picking up.
I had told the guy at the pool store that I kept my pump running and that cleared my pool up. He looked at me funny,.he told me to turn my pump off.............Thanks again everyone, what an awesome site!!
Timmie

[brent.roberts]

You should be able to get 20 Mule Team borax at any reasonable grocery store.

If you can't, I'll send you some from Toronto.

[Marsden]

Hi, I put 80 litres of bleach in my pool last saturday..

Okay, stupid noob Q:

Where (and how!) do you get 80 litres of bleach? I've bought out both of the grocery stores near me and don't have any more room in my recycling bin or trash cans for empty containers. Several dozen laying about now...

Seems as though I need to switch to granulated from a pool supplier, despite everything. Where's the best place to get that? My chemistry is similar to yours and I'm getting desperate! TIA!

[Marsden]

Yeesh. NOW I read " Sticky: To all newbie posters " and see that I should have made that Q its own thread huh.
Oh well, call me an idiot