cloudy pool please help

[Mary eaton]

Hi. It never cleared all the way but improved-now it's as bad as before. We have added chlorine regularly and the FC has always been 5-10. CC on one occasion was .5 but most of the time zero. We added some sodium bisulfate and that brought the alkalinity down some but it has never been within range. We stopped the pucks/chlorinator. The filter runs 24/7. Mary

[aylad]

Is the filter pressure rising at all? Can you see any debris blowing back from the returns? Keeping in mind that the filter is the key to clearing up whatever is making it cloudy, if your filter pressure isn't rising at all, I would first try a new cartridge and see if you get any result from that. If that doesn't work, and you're sure that the issue isn't algae-related (to be sure, try testing your water at night and then again in the morning before the sun hits the pool--if your chlorine loss is less than 1 ppm, then you can pretty much rule out an algae problem), then the only thing I know to do is to try a clarifier. Note that in other posts in this thread I consider using a floc/clarifier only after everything else has been tried and failed, but that's what kept me from having to drain/refill my pool after the filter startup catastrophe. The one I used was a Natural Chemistry product called Clear and Perfect, and is supposed to be concentrated. I used a couple of ounces more than the label dose one afternoon, left the filter running all night, and by the next morning there was a very, very distinct difference in the clarity. I also noted that my filter pressure was rising, which told me that it was starting to filter out some of the junk. I added the label dose again that afternoon, kept the pump running, and by the next morning it was crystal clear and has been ever since. Here's the thread and the resulting discussion on clarifiers, if you want to check it out. http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=9373

Janet