Cloudy Water & CL Going Going Gone

[Simmons99]

Also I do not have any CC so again how does this figure into the need to shock equation.

You are using chlorine overnight? If so - it is because you have something alive in your pool that is using the chlorine. Right now it has not grown to a level that looks bad, but it will continue to grow and use chlorine until you kill it with high chlorine levels.

[Jakebear]

OK and thanks to all ----- BUT

How long do I maintain the FC at 20 ppm?????

I've been searching this site since my last post and have not found that information.

[mbar]

I would suggest taking it up to 20ppms until your water clears up, or you hold it overnight. It probably won't take long, because you have not shown any combined chlorine. You can tell it is all dead because your water will be clear, and there will be dead stuff on the bottom of the pool. Once the water is clear, or you don't use any chlorine overnight, you can let the chlorine fall back down to normal levels for your cya.

[Jakebear]

OK --- Here goes nothin' --- NO swimming tomorrow though -- I still don't buy it's healthy!!!

[mbar]

Read this post:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...hlight=dangers

Read them all, especially the one by Pool Doc

[duraleigh]

Hi, Jake,

Our family swims all the time at shock level. It has actually improved my son's grades. He's (we call him "three-hands") at the top of his class in Computer Science....his keyboard proficiency is astounding.

Seriously, no one should do anything they're not comfortable with but the ppm of chlorine in pools is amazingly low. When you wash your clothes and add Clorox, the chlorine ppm in the machine approaches 200ppm as nearly as I can figure.

[KurtV]

I think you've gotten sound advice from Marie (mbar) and Dave (duraliegh) on shocking your water because of the high overnight chlorine consumption you're experiencing, but I wouldn't overlook the cal-hypo as the possible cause of your cloudy water. Cal-hypo can cause cloudy water temporarily and because you've been adding it regularly, it could well be the culprit here (for the cloudy water only, not for the chlorine consumption). Try bleach as your chlorine source instead and see if the cloudiness problem is ameliorated or eliminated.

[duraleigh]

Hmmm. Good catch, Kurt....that's a good thought.

[Jakebear]

Dave --- last time I climbed into my washing machine, I “Got all shook up” so I don’t do that very often any more.

Thanks to all for the responses.

Just for grins we visited three pool stores today (See my post on CC testing) and believe it or not one of them mentioned the Cal Hypo and told us to turn off the pump over night to let it settle and then vacuum.

My free chlorine level only dropped .5ppm last night but was still cloudy this morning. We put 5 pounds of K-MPS in before we went to town. It was pretty clear after 5 hours of circulating while I was gone. I will probably shock tomorrow anyway --- bought bleach today.

[CarlD]

Yes, good catch Kurt. I hadn't been really following this thread but when I saw cloudy and cal-hypo and suggesting swimming at 20ppm...well, I had to look.

Quite frankly, I would NOT swim when keeping the pool at shock levels. If you look at Ben's writing, he's kind of iffy about it. What he's very CLEAR about is that higher levels of chlorine aren't an issue if they are the residual level for the CYA put you there--if your CYA is 120 and your FC is 12, go swimming. But at shock levels? I don't think that's what he meant.

I noticed the calcium level wasn't posted. I'll bet it's now through the roof. Each time you add a mass of Cal-hypo you may get clouding. If that IS the cause and NOT an excessive calcium level then a good dose of muriatic acid should clear it.

Meanwhile, switch to bleach/liquid chlorine instead.