New guy with cloudy water!

[micmlm]

Hi everyone, I am sure you have answered this question many times but I need help. I have always had good luck with minimum effort on my pool but this year I can't get rid of the cloudy water so I bought a taylor k2006 kit and came up with the following numbers

Ph 7.5 or 7.6 son say 7.6 looks more like 7.5 to me
Alk 120
CYA 50
Calc 50
FC 5
CC 1

Water is cloudy but not green cant see the bottom

[micmlm]

Oh yea it is a 27' above ground that I calculate 18400 gallons of water.
I calculated FC wrong I am now coming up with 1.6

[PoolDoc]

For a start, I should explain that the K2006 can provide you with the information that makes it *possible* to have a clear, clean, enjoyable pool . . . but it doesn't guarantee any of those things.

+ Your pH, Alk, Calc, & CYA levels are all fine for an AG vinyl pool.

+ Your chlorine is too low for a pool with cloudy water from uncertain causes. Maintain at least 3 - 6 ppm, till things are better. At the first sign of slime (slippery-ness on the walls, hold the chlorine over 10 ppm. (Read the Best Guess page linked in my signature for more info.)

+ AG pools notoriously have over-sized pumps and under-sized filters. As a result, the pumps tend force dirt through sand or substandard cartridges. Ironically, in some cases this breaks the particles into even finer particles that are hard to filter with GOOD filters or cartridges.

If you have a sand filter, or a cartridge filter with an old cartridge OR an Asian-made cartridge, there's a high probability this is an important part of the problem. Tell us what filter, and what pump you have, and if it's a cartridge filter, what the history of the cartridge is.

[BigDave]

With a FC below minimum on Ben's Best Guess Chart and a significant CC reading, I'd say the cloud is probably the beginnings of an algae bloom.

I recommend you shock this pool. Shock is a verb, not a noun. Here's an outline of the process:

Add enough bleach to bring the FC above the shock level for the pool's CYA accoring to Ben's Best Guess Chart and keep it there.
Run the filter 24/7 cleaning as necessary.
Test the chlorine and add bleach to keep it above shock level, at least twice a day - more often is better.
Brush floor and walls of the pool daily.

You can let the chlorine drift back down to normal levels (never below the minimum on Ben's Best Guess Chart) one day after meeting all three of these measures:
The pool is clear.
The pool loses no more than 1ppm FC from sundown to sunrise.
The pool has nearly zero CC (less than one drop).

How are you chlorinating?

Sorry Ben, I was posting at the same time.

[BigDave]

Combined Chlorine.