Very Cloudy/Foaming issues

[Apatton]

Just tested my tap water, it's at 300 ppm CH.

CarlD - I'm open for any and all suggestions on how to reduce my CH, hopefully this will resolve my cloudiness issues.

[Watermom]

I'm going to ask Ben to chime in on your thread.

[PoolDoc]

Ok -- let me start by quoting stuff from earlier posts:

Pool became a green monster . . . Tons of shock and green algecide later (Swimtrine Plus - full container) pool turned a beautiful blue with all the dead algae on the bottom...sort of a cream color. I've been running the pool 24/7 every weekend in addition to my 8 hours at night, lots of back washing, vacuuming, and trying to keep my chemicals up No matter what I do I cannot get rid of the following:

- Pool is insanely cloudy, cannot see bottom. I have put in tons of clarifier, including BioDex - Clearex 500, no beneficial results.
- When pool is circulating there is a TON of foam buildup on the surface. I thought it would pass after weeks of cleaning/back washing/maintenance, but so far it hasn't seemed to dissipate.

Items used to clean up very green pool: Fresh n clear oxidizing shock (non chlorine shock), Hydro clear shock, and a gallon of Swimtrine Algecide (63% copper ethanolamine). I understand that I probably used too much, but having battled this pool for weeks with zero improvement (in fact it was getting worse) I was getting fed up.

I have also added a ton of pool clarifier to try and clear up my cloudy pool, everything from your basic buy one get one free stuff at shady back alley pool stores, to Clearex 500 that I get at the larger retail pool stores. Once I determined the Clearex did nothing to dissipate the cloudiness, I knew i had a problem.

FC - .4
CC - 1.2
pH - 7.0
TA - 100
CH - 625
CYA - 75

I should also note that your filter performance seems doubtful -- I don't know whether it's working properly or not . . .

SO . . .

First, you've got pool chemical voodoo soup. That means, we can't be sure how anything we suggest will work out. There are many reasons we tell people to avoid useless chemicals in their pools, but one important reason is to keep things simple enough so that we can offer advice that will work. Unfortunately, in your case we can only offer suggestions that we HOPE will eventually work.

Second, it's not likely that calcium is part of your current problem . . . UNLESS you've done something that you forgot to mention. With a pH of 7.0 and a TA of 100, a CH of 600 is actually on the LOW side!

Third, given your high doses of foamy algaecide, and your low levels of chlorine, foaming and cloudiness were INEVITABLE!. Unfortunately, your situation is complicated by having added copper algaecides that will tend to stain your pool once you begin raising chlorine levels.

Your chlorine level SHOULD be 10% of your CYA level -- 7.5 ppm. You have a level of about 1%, far, far too low.

Do this:

1. Turn your pump on 24 hours per day, 7 days per week till this is resolved.

2. Cautiously, gradually, raise your chlorine level to 5% of your CYA (~3 ppm) over a 48 - 72 hour period. This page, http://pool9.net/cl-cya/, partially explains the chlorine-cya relationship.

3. Meanwhile, use borax (http://pool9.net/borax/), 1/2 box at a time, to raise your pH to at least 7.2.

4. AND, order these cal hypo tablets: CCH Calcium Hypochlorite 2 5/8" Tablets 50 lb bucket. If you can get equivalent tablets locally, that's fine. BUT, make SURE that you are buying UNDILUTED, UNMIXED calcium hypochlorite in tablet form.

The reason is that, used in a skimmer in conjunction with a sand filter, the chlorine + calcium carbonate mixture will help strip the goo -- INCLUDING COPPER -- from your pool and put it on your filter where you can remove it.

However, while you use these you will need to (a) turn off any heater, (b) empty any feeder [cal hypo MUST NOT come into direct contract with any other form of chlorine], (c) make SURE that you don't add chemicals on top of, or next to, the cal hypo tabs.

When you receive these, I'd recommend splitting them into 3 heavy duty garbage bags. Seal 2 as best you can, and return them to the bucket. Be SURE to open the OUTSIDE when you're ready to use them; the bags will accumulate fumes, though the dryer they are, the less they will fume. Use the tabs in the 3rd bag, for now.

Once are ready to begin suing these tabs, retest pH, TA, CH and post results. You may need to raise the pH a bit first. (There's some complicated stuff going on here, and I doubt you want to read all the details. I KNOW I don't want to type all of them )

[Apatton]

Great info, thank you PoolDoc. I will get the materials, but before I do, I wanted to update where my pool is at as of today. Due to the weather systems rolling through AZ, it has been unusually cool for this time of year, so I jumped at the opportunity to partially drain my pool last night and refill. I also began to work at increasing my chlorine content since I was told it was quite low. With the partial drain (3 feet) and refilll, my applicable levels as of this morning:

FC - 8ppm
CC - 2ppm
CH - 400ppm
pH - 7.0

Am I still ok to proceed with the process mentioned above? Also, I've attached a photo of my soupy pool. Water doesn't look bad, but once I kick that system on you can just see the nastiness being placed back in. This is what made the DE test very hard. Really wish I had the VAC 2 WASTE ability.

[PoolDoc]

1. Check the sand, as above, if possible.

2. Do NOT cycle your pump on and off -- disable your timer for now.

Instead, run it continuously till EITHER the water is clear OR the pressure has risen at least 6 pounds over the clean pressure. At that point, BACKWASH, then RINSE, before returning the multiport valve to FILTER.

[PoolDoc]

My bad. I was confusing this thread with another one.

If possible, you should check your sand filter for LEVEL and for QUALITY. Get a bag of LABELED filter sand from a pool store (NOT: Lowes or Home Depot). Open the filter and check the sand LEVEL and quality (gummy, lumped, etc.) If there's sufficient sand, and it's OK, remove a handful and dry it on a pan in the over. Place some sand from the new bag side by side on a smooth white cloth (old pillow case) with the dried sand. See if they are the sand.

Also if possible, replace the push-pull valve with a multiport valve. It will make managing your filter much easier.