cloudy water, please help a newbie :)

[mrsjones]

Hello everyone,

I have been reading some of the posts here for a couple weeks now and can tell that you all have lots of good advice for residential pool owners.

HELP!

I have an 8,000 gal Muskin AGP that was left open all winter, in Illinois. Needless to say, it was a big goopy green mess waiting for me when spring hit us. I drained it halfway, then refilled it, then drained halfway again. added 5 gallons over the course of 2 weeks of 5.25% bleach. Also a bottle of clarifier, and a bottle of stabilizer to the skimmer. (I have a sand filter) Adjusted the PH and my numbers are:

CL-3.0+ (it turned dark yellow, off the chart...)
PH-7.6

I am waiting on a test kit, but I do have the solutions to test for acid demand & alkalinity, total alkalinity and also chlorine neutralizer. Right now the only test kit I have is the cheapie two-way. At the moment I do not have the 4-way kit with instructions, so I have no clue how to use these solutions, besides testing for CL and PH.

Right now, pool water is a cloudy blue. Clear up to halfway down, then a big cloudy layer at the bottom. I am filling it up right now to the top (with the hose a little above the water for aeration) and plan on vacumming to waste that bottom layer, since when I vacuum through the filter it just comes out in a white cloud through the filter and back into the pool.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[quenterry0]

this is just what I did...not from an expert!

After dealing with algea, adding tons of bleach my water turned to a big blue cloudy mess. I put in some Floc and let the filter run for 2 hours as instructed on the bottle then turned off the filter. The following morning it was still cloudy but not nearly as bad as it was. I continued to brush and vacuum several times a day and running the filter 24/7. 2 days ago I added clarifer and I have crystal clear water! I've been testing my water 3X a time or more making sure everything was staying where it should.

Again, this is just my experience.

You say you don't have instructions for you 4 way test kit. What brand is the test kit? Maybe someone can give you some instructions.

Good Luck!

[mrsjones]

Thanks! I already tried the clarifier but that isn't helping. The kit refill I bought is for the Ace Hardware 4-way test kit.

Is "floc" sold under a brand name?

[mrsjones]

Thought of something else...

When I added the clarifier, all the junk settled to the bottom of the pool overnight. My little darlings had thrown rocks in the pool making it difficult to vacuum so I got in and picked up all the rocks, and created a whirlpool by walking in a circle to move all the debris to the center of the pool. That was when the water became cloudy. So, do you think that I "broke up" the particles again by moving the water and I need to add more clarifier?

BTW, this is a vinyl-liner pool if that matters

[quenterry0]

I'm not sure about floc being sold under a different nae - the one I had was by BioGuard and it just said floc.

Yes absolutly I think you "broke up" the particles by moving - the stuff that settled at the bottom of my pool was very fine dust, dirt, etc...if I moved the vacuum too fast it got cloudy. It took 2 nights of adding the clarifier to get it sparkling...after the first night everything settled and I vacuumed to waste b/c it was so fine and I was afraid my sand filter wouldn't catch it all. Also, there were several directions on my bottle, one being if your pool is very cloudy add 3 oz per 3,000gal of water. I followed those directions and it cleared up overnight.

Good Luck!

[duraleigh]

Mrsjones,

If you can see cloudy water coming out your return jets, you have two issues to resolve that should be your priority.

1. You have a filter problem. Pool filters, functioning correctly, will not return cloudy water to a pool. I'd get that fixed.

2. You need to get a test kit that will test For FC, CC, pH, Alk, and CYA. Short of that, take your water to a pool store and have them test it. Post those results back and you will get lot's of good help.

Clarifier (floc) may or may not temporarily clear up your water but it will be a band-aid....not the cure for your issues.