Cloudy water in freshly re-filled pool

[chem geek]

• BalancePak 100 raises Total Alkalinity (TA) and is just sodium bicarbonate, aka sodium hydrogen carbonate, EXACTLY the same as Arm & Hammer Baking Soda. It comes in 4 pound and 12 pound containers.
  
• BalancePak 200 raises pH and TA and is just sodium carbonate (aka soda ash), EXACTLY the same as Arm & Hammer Washing Soda. It comes in 2 pound and 6 pound containers.
  
• Since most products appear to be BioGuard brand, I assume the weekly oxidizer is Smart Shock which is 63% Dichlor with a very small amount of metallic copper (probably to be used as an alagecide). This comes in 1 pound and 2 pound bags and in 25 pound buckets. [EDIT] It actually contains 39% copper citrate, so has lots of copper ion. [END-EDIT]
  
• The Smart Sticks are just Trichlor but formulated in a way to not dissolve readily unless there is water flow so they are (in theory) safe to put into the skimmer.
  
• The Burn Out 35 is 29% Lithium Hypochlorite (a very expensive source of chlorine), 19% sodium and potassium sulfate, 9% of various Lithium Chloride, Carbonate, Chlorate and Hydroxide. Essentially, this is just very expensive chlorine.
  
• The Metal Magic sounds like it is from ProTeam and this is 30% diphosphonic acid plus other (proprietary) ingredients.
  
• The Vision Cartridge is usually used in spas, not pools, but it is essentially just silver that is an alternative, though somewhat slow, disinfectant against bacteria. In other words, it's a very expensive waste of money.

So here's what I think happened. One box of Balance Pak 100, if it was the 4 pound box would raise your TA by 15 ppm. If you used the 12 pound box, then this would raise your TA by 45 ppm. Your pool store said your TA was low, but they could of course have been very wrong about that. Your pH would also rise somewhat (perhaps about 0.2, though that depends on your true starting TA).

Next you added Balance Pak 200 though you did not say how much. If you added a 2 pound container, then assuming a TA level of 100 (and CYA of 30), this would raise the pH by 0.3 to go from around 7.2 to 7.5. If you added the 6 pound container, then your pH would go from around 7.2 to 8.4. Your TA would also increase in this latter case by over 35 ppm. I'll bet the pool store didn't realize that the use of Balance Pak 200 would raise the TA as well as the pH.

The water turned cloudy because you increased the TA and pH too high to 130 ppm for TA and 8.2 for pH via both the Balance Pak 100 and the Balance Pak 200 -- both increase both TA and pH though the 100 increases TA more while the 200 increases both pH and TA. Your resulting numbers of a pH of 8.2 and a TA of 130 along with a presumed Calcium Hardness of 300 (which is unusual for a vinyl pool) mean that your pool is way over-saturated with calcium carbonate (the saturation index is +0.8) which is making your water cloudy. The solution to this is simple. Simply add 46 ounces (5 cups, 6 ounces) of Muriatic Acid to your pool which will lower the pH to 7.5 and will also lower the TA to 120. Though this TA is still on the high side, your using Trichlor is quite acidic so this is OK (though read on since you need to test your CYA). Your resulting saturation index will then be +0.1 which is fine (however, keep reading since you said your pH came down to 7.4 -- possibly due to the Smart Sticks -- you do not need to add any acid as I indicated above).

Your addition of the presumed Smart Shock oxidizer caused the water to turn green because the copper in this product precipitated out of solution (possibly as copper carbonate which is blue-green) due to the higher level of carbonate ion due to the high pH and TA. It also adds chlorine and CYA to your water.

Your addition of Smart Stix simply adds Trichlor which adds chlorine and CYA to your water. It is an acidic source of chlorine that would slightly help reduce the cloudiness through lowering of pH. It certainly isn't the best way to lower pH.

The Metal Magic got rid of the copper color by binding with copper ions in the water (causing the copper carbonate to dissolve some more), but such copper is still in your water and can only be removed (eventually) through drain and refill. In the meantime, it is being sequestered by these phosphonates. The downside is that the phosphorous in such compounds makes great food for algae (though the copper inhibits algae -- I guess it's sort of a poisoned meal).

Your addition of Burn Out 35 would do nothing since this is just like adding chlorine from bleach. If anything, in the short run, it increases pH until the chlorine gets used up and this would just make the water even cloudier and precipitate even more copper carbonate.

Since now your pH is back down to 7.4, you would normally not be seeing any cloudiness in the water unless your TA and CH are too high. You need to test for both of these and also need a little bit of patience as the cloudiness takes some time to dissipate as your water turns over in your pool and all these chemicals mix together and equilibrate.

Be sure to test your CYA level since you've been adding lots of it via the Smart Shock oxidizer (which is mostly Dichlor) and the Smart Sticks (which are essentially Trichlor). You should try and switch to BBB after you get all the chemistry sorted out.

The main lesson here is to avoid getting pool-stored and take charge of your pool's water by testing it and adding only what is needed, one thing at a time.

If you don't mind, I'd like to use your particular story in my communications with Chemtura who bought Bio-Lab that makes BioGuard and SpaGuard products. Your example is a good one of what typically happens from pool stores who don't understand the chemistry of what goes on and just throw products at a problem in trying to fix it. Let me know if that's all right. I can refer them to your post or copy the info separately in an E-mail.

Richard

P.S.
If bleach were truly the reason for weakened vinyl, then you should see a definite fading wherever you pour bleach since it should fade the color in vinyl (in a pattern where you pour the bleach) long before it starts to weaken its structure. If you pour bleach slowly over a return with the pump running, it won't be concentrated enough to do any harm. Acid conditions are far harsher to vinyl than bleach, as far as stretching and wrinkling are concerned, so using Trichlor in a floating feeder would not be good. At least the Smart Sticks are designed to not dissolve without water flow (I don't know how effective they are at doing it) so a buildup of high chlorine and acidic conditions should be avoided (and they are in the skimmer rather than floating around parking themselves near the vinyl).

[CanuckPool]

All hail the chem-god... all hail the chem-god

[nater]

Lynnybug55,
Wow, I feel your pain! About 2 years ago, I was like your husband. Bought a house with a pool, quickly turned to the "experts" at the local pool store. After all, its what they do for a living, they wouldn't possibly stear me wrong right? Well, after a summer of spending more money than I care to admit only to swim in a cloudy/green/smelly pool, I gave up. (I've spent less $ on my SWC and Robotic cleaner than I did on Chemicals that season) I turned to the Internet and discovered the magic of SWC systems. Bought one on Ebay, then stumbled across this site while searching for information on how to hook it up.

Long story short, my pool has been crystal clear since then Luckily, it sounds like YOU already knew that. I suggest you go on a nice shopping spree, spend $500 on yourself, then take control of the pool maintenance again. Tell him that every time he goes to the pool store, you go to the mall

PS, my parents got 17 years out of a vinyl liner, his pool guy told him it was the longest he'd seen one last in a long time. You should be proud of your 15 year liner! Good luck...