Still Cloudy

[Islander2C]

I have an AG 27" Round pool. Took water sample to pool store yesterday because my pool went from green (just opened after winter) to cloudy blue after I shocked it 2 days ago.
Here are numbers from pool store reading of water:

ph - 8.0
total alkalinity - 70
calcium hardness 200
total disolved solids 180
Base Demand 0 drops
Acid Demand 5 drops
Acid Type Easy Down
Langelier Index 0.2
Free Chlorine 0.0
Total Chlorine 0.0
Combined Chlorine 0.0
Stabilizer 0
Bromine 0

Last night I put in 4 kg of buffer. Waited a few hours then I chlorinated with 3.0 kg of shock. This a.m. I put in 3L of Algon (Algaecide)

This evening, it is still very cloudy and I can't see the bottom.

What does everyone think? Am I missing something? Should I be worried about this cloudiness staying FOREVER!!! LOL Is there such a thing as over shocking?

Any comments would be welcomed!!

[ivyleager]

Yes, you can overshock w/ granular chlorine (calcium hypo) which contains more calcium than you need, which can cause cloudiness. Your vinyl liner pool will be just fine at the low end of the calcium scale (no pun intended), but if you have a heater you'll need to keep it up around 200.

We advocate using plain old household bleach for chlorination. It doesn't contain added ingredients that can mess up your pool water. You'd be wise to add chlorine to raise up to 10ppm, keep it there for a few days, making sure to filter 24/7. Lowering pH can be done during this time also. Use either muriatic acid or dry acid (pHDown), either of these can be purchased at HomeDepot.

I find it hard to believe your combined chlorine is ZERO. Either way, if you don't get some chlorine in there soon you'll be dealing with another green mess.

I'd not add anymore algaecide, or other products for that matter, until you get your water cleared up. Stay with the bleach for now to increase your chlorine levels, Hope this helps.

CaryB
Go 'Canes

[Watermom]

What is buffer? You need to shock your pool up to about 10 and try and hold it there without letting the cl level bounce up and down. Just use bleach instead of shock - which I assume is either powdered dichlor or cal-hypo. In a pool this size, each quart of 6% bleach should raise your cl level by approximately 1pm. Test 2 or better yet 3x a day and each time raise the cl back up. Run your pump 24/7.

After your water clears, buy some cyanuric acid. (It is also called stabilizer or conditioner.) Add enough to the skimmer while the pump is running to get to an initial dose of about 30ppm. Then, don't retest for it, add more or backwash for about a week to let it dissolve. After you start to get a cya reading, you'll be able to just test and dose with bleach once a day - in the evenings. However, in the meantime, it is going to be necessary to test several times a day. You'll also need to add a little muriatic acid to lower your ph to about 7.4 - 7.6. Add only about a pint at a time slowly in front of a return jet. Be careful not to breathe the fumes or splash it on you. After several hours, retest and redose as needed.

Don't add anything else to your pool. This should help your water clear up. Hope this helps.

[Islander2C]

Thanks for the replies! Unfortunately, I work all day and I don't have an opportunity to test several times a day. I took the sample into our pool store where they test it and printed out those results.
We still have pretty cold weather here (Canada) only around 17 today. I don't have a heater for our pool. I think that will be next year.
Because my Total Alkalinity was low, I was told it could cause loss of pH control (pH Bounce) and corrosion and staining of pool surfaces. So they told me to broadcast 6.5 Kg of BUFFER over the pool's surface.
I don't remember having this much trouble last year gettin this pool clear?
Anyhow, I will keep shocking and vacuuming and praying to the pool gods for a clear pool sometime this week!

[brent.roberts]

To help make sure you understand, shocking is an action, not a product.

Shocking is raising the chlorine level in the water to a point that will oxodize the combined chlorine and organic dead stuff.

Pool stores sell "Shock" like it was something different. It is only an expensive packaged form of chlorine. The liquid chlorine that you see the pool store selling is exactly the same stuff as household bleach but at about double the strength. You can shock you pool just as well with bleach as you can with any other product and it will cost you less and here is the big thing ... it will add nothing else to the pool that will have side effects.

You might want to raise the TA as the pool store suggested but you don't need to by their "buffer" at thier inflated prices. The owner of this site "Pooldoc" suggests 50 to 200 range is fine. If you read more on this site and still want to raise it then use baking soda. Far less expensive than the same stuff under fancy labels at the pool store ... and purer ... baking soda from Wal Mart or the grocery store is food grade. Most pool store types will argue that one so don't even bring it up and save the hassle.

Do you have an in line automatic chlorinator that will take tablets or sticks ?
These tablets or sticks might be good for you now. You could get the same effect by dropping a couple of tablets in the skimmer and leaving the pump running. They will do 2 things for you. First they will continuously add chlorine to help keep it up and secondly they will add stabilizer (aka CYA) which you have none of if the test was correct. You will have trouble keeping chlorine in the pool on a sunny day without getting the CYA up to about 40. Once you get there you will want to stop using the tablets because they will continue to add CYA and you can get too much and its a real pain to get rid of it if you get too much.

A word of caution. If you have kids around you may think twice about using tablets in the skimmer. They have pretty high concentrations of chlorine and a kid could pick one out and create a problem.

Good luck

[Islander2C]

Thanks again...All great advice.