CYA/crystal clear green water

[purplegirl]

Thanks again Pool Doc, this is just so frustrating because our neighbor has always had a clear pool, it's starting to feel like it's our bad luck.

You say chlorine is part of the battle, we have a SWG, which I know makes chlorine but will this "type" of chlorine be suitable for our purposes? Sorry if this sounds like a silly question - I only barely understand the salt conversion process.

[Watermom]

Chlorine is chlorine regardless of the source. SWCG will produce chlorine; however whenever you need to shock or superchlorinate it is usually better to use another source (like bleach or liquid chlorine) and save the wear and tear on your cell and thus extend its life.

[CarlD]

Having had an Intex 15' donut for 3 years I can assure that if you keep your water properly maintained the filter should be sufficient. But I can also assure you that if you run into problems you will be washing down that cartridge every 24 hours and it STILL may take weeks to clear up. About the only thing you can do with confidence is sanitize the pool with lots and lots of chlorine--but clearing cloudy water or constant precipitation? VERY hard to do.

But if it's sanitary and you check your chlorine levels every single day, you CAN keep it safe enough to swim in.

[purplegirl]

how high should i keep the chlorine to help nix the iron problem? I'm curious does CYA usually occur naturally or does it always need to be added? When I filled the first time I had a 0 CYA reading, should I expect I will I have this same problem?

[aylad]

CYA doies not occur naturally, you're going to have to add it each time you start the pool up. However, once you get it up to your target, the only way to lower it is drain/refill, so be careful when adding it not to overshoot.

As far as managing water with iron in it, read through the metals forums, particularly any thread/post by mbar, to get an idea of what you'll need to do. High chlorine levels and high pH levels are going to make the iron tend to drop out of solution, so it's going to requre regular doses of metal sequestrant to keep the metals suspended in the water and not discoloring your pool.

Janet