cloudy water

[Watermom]

What are you chlorinating with? If you aren't already, I would suggest just using bleach. Try running your cl up to about 10 for a few days and also run your pump 24/7.

[slowtan]

This is my 1st year of bleach and only my 2nd year owning a pool. Last year I listened to the pool store and spent lots of $$.

I just checked and chlorine was 0. I added 2 gallons which should be 14ppm.
According to my CYA shock would be at 20 ppm. Should I get my chlorine up to 20 and hold it there or is 14 going to be ok. How long do I need to keep my chlorine high?? 2-3 days and try something else or just keep it up until it clears up.

Cloudy has now gone to murky. I am no longer able to see the bottom of the pool.

Please help

Stephen

[aylad]

Get your chlorine up to 20 and hold it there until it clears. You really need to test 2-3 times daily, and each time add whatever amount of bleach necessary to bring it back up to 20. Keep your filter running 24/7 during the process, and scoop out any debris you can. It'll clear up, just pour the bleach to it!

If you have a test kit that will test for combined chlorine, when that test result is zero, you're ready to let your Cl come back down to normal levels. If you don't, then keep the cl up until the water is clear.

Janet

[slowtan]

added 2 gallons of bleach last night and no chlorine in the pool this morning. I added 2 gallons again this morning and 2 hours later 0 chlorine.

Do I have a more serious problem??

I really can only look at this twice a day. 3 gallons should add 20ppm for my pool which is the shock level because of my CYA. Can I just add 4 gallons before bed and check in the AM and over shock again. I am out of bleach and I am going to bed (work 3rd shift). Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I have a bunch of pucks (tri-chlor) left from last year and shock leftover from last year. Should I use either of them or stick w/bleach?

Stephen

[aylad]

With a CYA of 95, I definitely would NOT use the pucks--they're what got your CYA so high in the first place. I also would steer clear of the powdered shock--dichlor is going to raise your CYA, which is already high, and cal-hypo will raise your calcium, which is also already high. If you have a vinyl lined pool I wouldn't over shock with bleach to keep from bleaching your liner, but if it's concrete, then it wouldn't hurt to go a little overboard with the bleach. Keep hammering it with the bleach--something in there is consuming it! It may take a good bit of bleach to get it cleared up, but your other levels are really too high to use anything else.......

Janet

[slowtan]

I wish I read your thread earlier but I would put 2 big jugs of bleach (1.4x gallon each) which should raise my cl near 20ppm and in the morning I would have 0. I was adding 4 jugs a day. 2 in the morning and 2 at night only to see #'s of 0 and no improvement in the water.

My pucks are tri-chlor and I added 1 in a floater and with the 2 jugs this morning and now my cl is staying in there. Last time I checked it was at 10ppm , so I added only 1 jug this evening. When I checked the pool around 7PM I could see the bottom of the pool but it was still pretty cloudy. I haven't been able to see the bottom since Wed last week when my problems started.

I will get the puck out in the AM. My theory is algae eat cya and pucks put cya in there so hopefully it will negate each other. I hope I didn't raise the cya level. I haven't checked anything else other than CL since Wed last week. I will run a full test tommorrow and post results.

Stephen
Still a rookie and learning

[aylad]

If your Cl is staying in the water today, it's not because you put a puck in the floater....and anytime you have a puck in the water, you are raising your CYA. Adding CYA is not going to kill the algae. What will kill the algae is keeping your Cl above 20 for an extended period of time.

Janet