Cloudy Water I Think I Know The Answer But I Will Ask

[tnt2000]

My brother called me and asked me what I do to my pool as it is crystal clear and his above ground is cloudy and he can't get it to clear. I went down with my test kit and took the readings..

His pool is about 18000 gallons

free chlorine was low at a .5 on my scale

Tot. chlorine however read at a 5 +

Total Alk I think was off the chart at 210-220 ppm

Cya seemed low at 25 or less, thats as far as my test goes.

unfortunately (spank me) I did not take a ph reading as it started to rain heavy.

Also we have had a lot of rain lately.

The cloudyness is not green.

What do you think...Thanks TNT

[PaulR]

Check the pH first just to make sure it's reasonable. Then he needs some CYA and lots of bleach. Keep shocking until the CC (CC = TC - FC) is no more than 0.5, the FC holds overnight (lose no more than 1ppm), and the water is clear.

--paulr

[imnay]

We never learned higher level pool chem. - cause we never needed to.

First - a question - what are your disciplines for maintaining your pool since your water is crystal clear and clean?

I get flak when I say having clear/clean water in a pool is not rocket science. What has worked for us for over 20 years with our AGP is:

Check PH - if low add Soda Ash - If high add a cup or two of muriatic acid at a time til it improves - get PH in good range.

Check Alkalinity - if low add Sodium Bicarbonate - if high add liquid acid - get Alkalinity in good range.

Thoroughly shock the pool.

Make sure after shock the chlorine level is in the good range and stabilized. Sure, you can use bleach and add your own stabilizing agent - like CYA OR you can do as we have done all the years and just used tri-chlor tabs with stabilizer built in.

There are good and bad to be said about every method - take your pick.

Regardless if you use an all-in-one or play chemist and mix the individual stuff into the water the result should be the same.

Then filter, filter and filter some more and if all levels are good including stabilized sanitizer (chlorine) the water should clear right up.

Problem with trying to filter out debris from otherwise good water in a AGP is most AGPs only have one water inlet (skimmer) and a single water return and also usually a sub-powered pump and inefficient filter so the filtering can take longer than you might think.

Okay - the "rocket scientists" can disagree but the above simple steps has kept our 22k gallon AGP crystal clear and clean for over 20 years.

GoodLuck

[chem geek]

See this post for the information inmay is leaving out about his pool including the use of a copper-based algaecide and regular water dilution through rains and having a vinyl liner instead of a plaster pool that can stain [EDIT] and needing to shock every 4-6 weeks and having algae on spring opening and 3-4 times with insatiable chlorine demand. [END-EDIT]

Trichlor pucks work well for those that use a supplemental algaecide or phosphate remover and/or have significant water dilution. For others, the buildup of CYA has algae grow faster than chlorine can kill it.

inmay, if you continue to describe your experience without giving the pertinent details that make your situation different from others, then I will continue to fill in those pertinent details so that others without similar situations won't follow your advice and end up with problems; or will hope that others will do so. Thank you for correctly describing that TA is raised with sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and pH is raised with soda ash, though this also raises TA as well. To raise pH with half the rise in TA, one can use 20 Mule Team Borax. To raise the pH with no change in TA, one can aerate the water.

[EDIT] tnt2000, I do agree with inmay's specific advice (not the part implying ignoring CYA for most pools). The cloudiness could be a combination of high Total Alkalinity (TA), Calcium Hardness (CH) and pH in which case the TA and possibly pH should be lowered with acid. However, given the low FC and the high CC it is more likely that the cloudiness is an impending algae bloom and that shocking with chlorine (chlorinating liquid or bleach) is required. See Defeating Algae, but I would check the pH first and lower it if it's high (even if it's 7.5 I'd lower it to 7.3 or so). You can use The Pool Calculator for dosing. [END-EDIT]

Richard

[linusabestain]

Rainfall is the cheapest source of natural water-supply for crop plants! Is it true please gratify to answer me