Cloudy Pool

[dustybecca]

Here's my Numbers
Chl. over 5.0
Ph. 7.6 *although when left to sit for several minutes the numbers creep up to 8.2*
Total Alk. 130 *I usually dont fool with muratic acid and aration until it gets close to 200*
CYA 40

Ok Im cloudy, our area stores no longer hand liquid shock at a reasonable price *1 gallon for over $6* So I went to liquid ultra bleach. Still trying to get the hang of it. I got the chl. up to 5.0 then added another gallon of bleach. Thinking the cloudiness was due to algea in the water. I added 8oz of polyquat. And have been using stabilized pucks in the skimmer to raise my CYA *when first opened CYA was well lower than 20* Im I doing something wrong? I thought all my numbers were well inline. But what's up with the cloudyness?
Another question I had was, one guy at with a pool store in town told me I needed to change the sand in my sand filter every year. I'll admit I dont know how often to change the sand but every year seems like alot.
Oh and I have an IG 22,000 gallon pool.
Thanks
Becca

[mbar]

You don't need to change your sand unless you had baquacil. Most of us have had our sand for many years/Your water is probably cloudy due to algae. You need to get your chlorine up to shock, which at a cya of 40 would be 15ppms. You need to check your chlorine level 3x a day and get it back up to 15 each time to kill off the aglae - do this until your chlorine holds overnight. It may take a couple of days.

[joliecharlie]

Not sure what the weather has been like in your area, but we are have had no rain in weeks and we are in drought conditions. I feel sure my less than crystal clear water is because of dust, pollen that is blown in. Skimmer sock always has debris to wash away.
Chlorine is holding appropriately for my CYA and I do not algea. We run pump 8pm-8am and 1pm-4pm, it probably would be crystal clear if I ran it 24/7 like I have in years past. I am experimenting with the power bill...so far not a great deal of difference.
Until we get rain, I think I will just live with it since I know it is not algea driven and to the uneducated eye it looks clear.

[CanuckPool]

are you saying that the difference between running your pump 24 hours a day and running it 15 hours has not made any noticable difference in your electric bill??

[joliecharlie]

About $15-20. So no that is not much money to me in the trade-off of having debris that must be removed and pool less sparkling than I like.