. . . Cloudy All Day (and Night)

[memphoman]

Hello. I'm new. I'm also really tired of a cloudy pool. Chemistry is checked daily with strips, and weekly by my pool supplier. My chemistry is always fine, yet the cloudiness persists. Switched clarifiers twice, and now using Pool First Aid to see if there's problems beyond the normal--no help.

Side notes: Kept the pool open during the winter--crystal clear (I live in Memphis so temps are moderate to really HOT). Algae has been a constant battle this year since the spring rains, and in the past it seemed the chlorine level always affected cloudiness--almost to the point where almost NO chlorine meant clear water. Also have a lot of air coming out of jets off and on this season.

I realize I may be throwing a lot on the table first time out, but my resources have nothing left to offer, and I'm at my wits end. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Angela]

Memphoman

I noticed you havent had a reply to your post yet.

Not sure what happened there - we are normally quite good at responding on this site. Probably everyone waiting for someone more expert to come along.

I think you would have been able to clear up your problem by checking out the other posts but if not I think you should let us know and give us another chance to help.

[chem geek]

If the Free Chlorine (FC) level was not kept at least as high as 7.5% of the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level, then the chemistry was not fine and the chlorine level not high enough (relative to CYA) to prevent algae growth. The other possibility for cloudy water is that your water is over-saturated with calcium carbonate -- too high a pH, TA, CH or combination. You can use The Pool Calculator to calculate the index and chemical dosages, but test strips are often not accurate. Instead, you should be using either a Taylor K-2006 test kit you can get at a good online price here or the TF100 test kit from tftestkits.com here with the latter kit having 36% more volume of reagents so is comparably priced per test.

If higher chlorine levels cause more cloudiness, then either you are using Cal-Hypo which increases Calcium Hardness (CH) and can make water cloudy if the water is already near saturated.

If you find that no one responds to your posts here, you can try posting at Trouble Free Pool which is more oriented towards pools while this site seems stronger in hot tubs (though both have sections for both).

[memphoman]

If the Free Chlorine (FC) level was not kept at least as high as 7.5% of the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level, then the chemistry was not fine and the chlorine level not high enough (relative to CYA) to prevent algae growth. The other possibility for cloudy water is that your water is over-saturated with calcium carbonate -- too high a pH, TA, CH or combination. You can use The Pool Calculator to calculate the index and chemical dosages, but test strips are often not accurate. Instead, you should be using either a Taylor K-2006 test kit you can get at a good online price here or the TF100 test kit from tftestkits.com here with the latter kit having 36% more volume of reagents so is comparably priced per test.

If higher chlorine levels cause more cloudiness, then either you are using Cal-Hypo which increases Calcium Hardness (CH) and can make water cloudy if the water is already near saturated.

If you find that no one responds to your posts here, you can try posting at Trouble Free Pool which is more oriented towards pools while this site seems stronger in hot tubs (though both have sections for both).

[memphoman]

Thank you for the acknowledgment—I was beginning to think I did something wrong. Based on some additional conversations locally, I am now suspecting one of the (thingys inside the filter that bring the water back to the pool) could be broken because I have sand caught in my polaris daily. Also I suspect the filter could use a new gasket. I will also keep tabs on this advice as well, and report back.

-michael

For the record, i did look around for a while, but I'm not good at the right keywords, or something else.

[chem geek]

A filter that is not operating properly could certainly be one cause of cloudy water. This link gives 100 possible causes for cloudiness, though most commonly it's either nascent algae (from FC too low relative to CYA), over-saturation of calcium carbonate, or poor filtration.