Cloudy water

[CarlD]

I'm not surprised your pool isn't clear:
If your T/A is 170 and your Calcium Hardness is 600, it's hard to keep a clear pool--but the cloudiness that happens is calcium, not algae, so you can swim.

What I suggest you do is one of two course:
1) Drain at least 1/3 of your water and refill (assuming, of course, your fill water isn't calcium saturated). This should lower your calcium level to 400--and the cloudiness should go away.

or

2) Lower your Total Alkalkinity. (T/A) Normally, we recommend 80-125 for all pools, but vinyl can go to 180. HOWEVER, with your calcium levels SO high, I would aim for 100-110 as my T/A level and that, too, should help clear your water up. To lower Total Alk., read the Alkalinity forum to see the method. You'll need to keep your pH between 7.0 and 7.2. Then aerate your water to raise pH w/o raising T/A. Add acid to lower pH again to 7.0-7.2 (which rachets down T/A) and aerate again to raise pH only.

Those are my two suggestions.

And my personal thanks to you and your husband for your service to our country. I believe wherever you fall in the political spectrum from the far right, to the middle, to the far left we should ALL be grateful to the military people and their families. And I believe most of us are.

And then we can argue about the politicians separately...