cloudy and still balancing metals

[mrszaff]

TODAY'S NUMBERS:
FC 2.0
cc .5
PH 7
ALK 60
CYA 80

Hi, and thank you in advance!
The water is not green, but it is very cloudy and I cannot see the drain, the shallow end is starting to stain, but I can deal with that after the cloud is gone. I have Culator bags in the baskets, Ascorbic acid in the pantry and metal free on hand.

Water turned cloudy 48 hours ago, I added polyquot 60 and also 3 gallons bleach slowly over 2 days since it was almost 0, The ph was at 6 so I have been adding borax .
yesterday I also added a clarifier but its still cloudy. filter running 24/7

Should I keep adding bleach ? borax?

[Pappy]

I'm not the expert by any means, but,,,
With CYA at 80, you need to keep your FC above 5ppm ALWAYS. This explains why.

http://pool9.net/cl-cya/

More borax is in order, pH should be 7.2 - 7.8.
Since your water is cloudy and you said FC was around zero, you very likely have an impending algae bloom. If it were me, I'd run the FC up to 20 or 25 ppm (with bleach or liquid chlorine) and keep it there until 24 hrs after,

1. There is less than 1ppm loss of FC between sundown and sun rise.
2. There is no more than .5ppm CC present
3. There is no hint of green in the water.

There are lots of reasons, other than algae bloom, that water turns cloudy and it is entirely possible that algae is not the problem. Bleach (liquid chlorine) is the least likely to complicate your issue if algae isn't the problem, and a little time will solve the high FC issue.

Good luck

Pappy

[mrszaff]

thank you, the water is clear today. I can see the drain! I now have to remove the metal stain on the liner, I will follow the process posted thanks!

[CarlD]

I'm not the metal expert either but if you add a large amount of bleach and your pool does NOT turn green or some other color, but, instead, reacts as we normally expect with an algae bloom, you probably don't have serious metal problem.

When you do have a metal problem the metal remover first must dissolve and suspend the metal before you can raise your FC level--or it goes jello-green.

Have you posted the results of metal tests here? If you haven't done the tests, the local pool store can probably do that...they'll try to sell you stuff, including useless calcium for your VINYL pool--but you don't have to buy it.

[mrszaff]

pool store wont test for metal , but I just added polyquat to prevent algae and ascorbic acid and the stain lifted. I put the sequestering agent in next with culator bags and skim socks in baskets. Then, my chlorine dropped to almost nothing so i will adjust it and ph levels tomorrow after ascorbic acid is dissolved, that is how I understand the directions posted in the sticky about removing stains with ascorbic acid. Please let me know if that's ok... This has been an issue for the last few years, perhaps I should drain the pool at the end of the season, but I dont know where the metal comes from. We are not on well water...

Is it safe to swim or should we wait till tomorrow?

PS After adding sequestering agent and running filer for 30 min the water is cloudy, is that from the ascorbic acid or metal free sequestering agent? it was fine all morning when I had it on circulate,now its cloudy.

[mrszaff]

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/009...g?v=1383262547
natural chemistry metal free
This is the product I used after the ascorbic acid. I can't believe I finally cleared the water with shock and got rid of the stain and now its cloudy again! No CL left in pool and ph is low, I will run test i morning but with the strips it looks lower than 7

[PoolDoc]

Metal Free is a bogus product, based on citric acid. You could call citric acid "Chlorine-Free" since it destroys chlorine and is destroyed by it. It's a low grade version of ascorbic acid. Ascorbic acid is ALSO incompatible with chlorine, which is why our guides have you dechlorinate and use polyquat FIRST.

Why in the world did you put Metal Free in? Pour any you have left down the toilet and flush it away!

Turn your pump on 24/7, get your chlorine back up to at least 10% of your CYA level, and use the polyquat if you have any remaining trace of algae. Polyquat will ALSO use up some chlorine -- but it is transformed into another form that STILL helps with algae.

Get your pool back to algae free and correctly adjusted with respect to chlorine, pH and alkalinity. Keep your pH at the low end of the range.

Then, see if any stains have returned. Unfortunately, it often takes several cycles to actually REMOVE the metals from your pool. Stain removers like ascorbic acid just MOVE the metals from the pool surface back into the water. You STILL have to get the metal OUT of the water. The CuLator packs do that, but only slowly.

[mrszaff]

Polyquat was used first, then ascorbic acid, then liquid metal free, doesn't say anything about citric acid on the bottle. I Thought it was the same as metal magic sequestering agent. Is that why the pool went cloudy?
pump has been on 24/7 for a week.

here are my numbers
FC 0
cc 0
PH 6.8
ALK 50
CYA 55

I just added 1 gallon Clorox concentrated bleach 8.25% concentration and a cup of borax

pool is not green just hazy and blue, can't see drain yet I will get more bleach when stores open....THANKS!!!

[PoolDoc]

Yes, the pool companies try to hide ingredients, so they can make it seem like THEIR product is special.

And, yes, there's a fair chance that the Metal Free is the source of your current problem. Get your chlorine up ASAP.

[mrszaff]

Thank you I can see the drain, I keep adding clorox , 6 gallons so far today, it rises and drops a few hours later, I will keep it up till it sticks, hopefully tomorrow...