Cloudy Water

[nexxceleb]

So I have a problem with my pool. It's been almost a week and my pool is extremely cloudy. My father usually takes care of the pool but since I was having a party coming up and my father was too lazy to do it, I decided to take care of the pool myself. The pool was opened a month ago and no chemicals were added except shock since the pool was opened. So I knew something needed to be added so I took a water sample to my local pool store and have them help me with what my pool needed, which was basically everything.

The pool store told me I needed almost everything. They told me what to add and how much to add. They said to add a new chemical every 45 min from each other to prevent cloudiness. My filter was running the entire time. Based on the questions I was asking, they should have known I was new to this and should have told me that all the chemicals needed to be stirred in a bucket of water. All they told me was to put everything directly into the pool. So that's what I did. I even read the directions and still didn't see that it need to be diluted.

So now I need help with my stupid mistake. I put the chemicals directly into the pool without diluting it. First I added 50 lbs of calcium. Forty five min later, I added 5 lbs of pH, an hour later 8lbs of stabilizer, then the next morning 18 lbs of alkalinity. Because it started to look cloudy I added 4 gallons of liquid shock like they told me then I backwashed the pool. It was still cloudy so the next day, I backwashed the pool again like they said then added 1lb of powder shock(without diluting it) because the instructions said DO NOT ADD WATER.

Its been almost a week and the pool is still cloudy. I couldn't use the pool during the party and something fell in the pool so I had to take the net to get it out. I cannot see the bottom so I had to fish for it. That is when I noticed tons of chemicals at the bottom and moving it around made it even more cloudier. I put my robot in there and it has been picking up alot of the chemicals at the bottom but I know for sure there's more. Today I tried to take the net and pick some up but now its rough and seems like it is stuck to the pool. I just got this pool liner last summer and I know it is discolored for sure which is pretty upsetting.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to make sure I covered the basics of what actually happened. I cannot see the bottom so I am not sure how much is still down there. BTW I have a 30k gallon pool and it is 9 feet deep. I cannot drain it because it vinyl. What should I do?

[waterbear]

sounds like you have been pool stored and added a lot of unneeded chemicals. My guess is that you precipitated out calcium carbonate by adding the calcium, the pH increaser, which is sodium carbonate AKA washing soda (I would presume it was this and not dry acid or pH decreaser), and the next day the baking soda AKA sodium bicarbonate (THIS is all that alkalinity increaser is!) I would be very interested in your initial test results and a current set of test results. Good new is that IF is is just calcium carbonate precipitate it's pretty easy to get rid of, VERY easy, but I do need a full current set of test results and the initial results before you added the chemicals.

[nexxceleb]

I don't have the initial results but here's the current results:

Chlorine 0

pH 7.8

Alk 120

[waterbear]

Need to to free chlorine, combined chlorine (or total chlorine so the combined chlorine can be calculated), pH, Alk (or TA--either name is correct-and if they say adjusted Alk or TA post that since it might have an effect, dependent on how high the CYA is), Calcium hardness (not total hardness which is what test strips give) and cyanuric acid (CYA or stabilizer) to be able to help you. These are the basic water parameters that are needed to balance a chlorine pool. When the pool store tested your water and sold you all the chemicals they did they did all these tests or they would not have been able to recommend the amounts needed to (over)dose your pool.(Pool store testing software is notorious for overdosing on chems but it does help them sell more of them!) They should have giving you a print out with all these test results.

[nexxceleb]

So, its been 9 days and still extremely cloudy. The robot has been picking up chemicals and now lots of sand. I decided to open the filter and see if there was any dissolved chemicals that the filter couldn't handle. When we opened it, it was filled with water with a white layer over the sand. Once we got past that, the sand looks exactly like what the robot is picking up. I have attached a pic of it.

Oh and the CYA is at 100. I did get a print out, but misplaced it because I didnt think it was that important at the time.

[nexxceleb]

Actually I cant post pics

[waterbear]

sounds like you either have broken laterals or channeling in your filter if sand is returning to the pool. The white stuff sounds like calcum carbonate that precipiated out when you overdosed on calcium, pH up, and baking soda as I said before. The pool store didn't have you add any phosphate remover, did they? That WILL cloud the pool until it is filtered out but it seems that your filter is broken and needs to be serviced.

If you want to post pics put them on a hosting site like :Picassa or photobucket and then put the links to them in your text.

[nexxceleb]

No they didn't sell me phosphate remover. I figured the white substance was one of the chemicals. I guess the whole time it was my filter. I will try and get it serviced.

[nexxceleb]

So finally my pool is Crystal clear. I can see the bottom perfectly so thanks for your help with that. The water is nice and blue. However, there is a bunch of sand at the bottom. I put my robot in and it picks up nothing. I tried vacuuming it but its not picking up. When you touch it with something it just moves around in the water. I tried brushing it but it made the pool cloudy again for a few days then when it cleared, it was still there. What to do?