Cloudy Pool Water

JimMorrissey · Jun 10, 2005

Just opened our pool today. Ahhh, chemicals, it's amazing how well they eliminate aquatic life.

So...now the water is cloudy, it's blue, but hard to see the bottom. I checked the alkalinity, the chlorine, and the PH. All are right on the money. Any ideas how to clear up the water and what might be causing this? -The pool was just opened yesterday and was green with algea 48 hours ago. Maybe the cloudy water is from all the dead algea and I just need to let it sit and filter out for a few days.

Super hot here....Can't wait to swim!

techman · Jun 10, 2005

Could be dead aglea. Usually I find that cloudiness is PH related. If it doesn't start to cleat in 24H pust the PH a little more acidic.

paul

Bob_Skurka · Jun 10, 2005

Jim,
If it is a white cloud then you have to balance the PH and the alkalinity. It would be VERY UNLIKELY be algae if it was white. You need to test the water for the ph and alkalinity levels and get them set, if you do an accurate test, know the number of gallons of water in your pool and measure your chemicals reasonably close to the recommendations, you can clear of a cloud in a couple hours. I struggled with them for a couple years until I finally decided to look into buying a garden center/pool store. The guy who was trying to sell me the store taught me how to balance my water, but I ended up not buying the store. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

JimMorrissey · Jun 10, 2005

That's possible....I threw a bit too much pH down in. I was high on the pH.

JimMorrissey · Jun 10, 2005

Bob, It's not white...hard to describe, just cloudy and can't get real good look at the liner below.

I'll give it a day. I think I'll get some new sand for my filter too. I've heard they can "channelize" if you haven't changed it in a couple of years. Once it channels, it's like you are just recirculating.

seapea · Jun 10, 2005

( Bob, It's not white...hard to describe, just cloudy and can't get real good look at the liner below.

I'll give it a day. I think I'll get some new sand for my filter too. I've heard they can "channelize" if you haven't changed it in a couple of years. Once it channels, it's like you are just recirculating. )

Is it sort of a whitish gray? I've run into this 3 or 4 times before when the Chlorine went to 0. I think it might be a bacterial bloom, but maybe it's algae. I shock the pool real well and dump in extra algaecide. It clears up in a day or two, after which my DE filter needs cleaning.

imported_OWDouglas · Jun 10, 2005

Jim, try using a chemical called Floc (any pool store should carry it) put it in following the directions at night, the next morning it should be crystal clear. What happens is, all the particles in the water coagulate and sink to the bottom then you just vacuum it up. I had to do it last year and was amazed how great it worked. Good Luck.

Volfandt · Jun 10, 2005

When I opened mine up, it was slightly cloudy but clear, like you indicate. I took a sample down to my local pool supply store and it tested out good, everything was good and within specs. They recommended that I backwash it, shock it, add some algeacide, vaccum then back wash it again. I did this and now it's crystal clear.

I gotta say that my pool is the biggest PITA I've got going now. The kid will be a Jr in college come fall and the pool just doesn't hold the facination for her or her mother that it used to several yrs ago so, the only activity it gets is my weekly cleaning /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif I don't care if a tree is a mile away, it's leaves will find that danged pool!

I told the Mrs that it's just an accident waiting to happen and hopefully /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif the BH or FEL won't accidently clip it and make it leak....

Volfandt

heehaw · Jun 11, 2005

i went thru the same problem this year, till someone suggested pointing the eyeball in the deep end, down,
did that and it cleared up in a couple days..
heehaw

Dargo · Jun 11, 2005

This year was odd for me. For some reason I just couldn't keep my chlorine at the correct level. While I was battling the chlorine level, I too had cloudy water. After finally getting the chlorine level stable at the correct level, my cloudy issues vanished. I've now had perfectly clear water for a month now.

EastTexFrank · Jun 11, 2005

( I gotta say that my pool is the biggest PITA I've got going now )

I couldn't agree more. I've had an inground pool for 20 years at 2 different homes and not one spring goes by without me threatening to fill it in ... I wish ... the wife loves it. I don't know why. She only uses it a handful of times a year. Still it gives all her relatives grandkids some place to hang out during the summer and they help to keep all the sand and grit on the bottom stirred up. She doesn't appreciate just how much work looking after that thing is, not to mention the expense. Have you noticed how a $1 piece of plastic seems to cost $10 when it's for a pool????? It never fails to amaze me.

Ah, I'm just ranting because I've spent the past week getting it all sparkling and beautiful. When you're working outside, it's nice to walk to one end, dive in, swim to the far end, get out and get back to work. That's about how much time I spend in it.

kenmac · Jun 11, 2005

Have you noticed how a $1 piece of plastic seems to cost $10 when it's for a pool????? It never fails to amaze me.

Your right. I just bought a small plastic clip for my polaris ,I thought $2.50 -$3.00. It was $9.95 /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Treed_in_TX · Jun 11, 2005

try using a chemical called Floc

This is good advise. I own a pool service in Austin Tx. Cloudy water is almost always a filtration problem. Flocc is short for flocculant which does exactly what the poster said. You may have to use several applications over a few days to settle all the dirt out. Changing the sand may help if the sand is older than 4 to 6 years. Sand gets contaminated with suntan oils, skin oils and dirt, and it CAN cause channels of unfiltered water to run through it. One thing you can do immediately that can help, and it's cheap, is set your filter to run 24 hours daily until the water is crystal clear. The pool is designed to pump the whole volume of water through the filter in 8 hours. Running it 24 hours a day will filter all the water 3 times. You should see an improvement in clarity every day. If you do it's working and no further action is necessary. If it fails to begin clearing after a couple of days, I would change the sand.
The chemicals can kill the algae very effectively, however they do not remove the algae from the water. That's up to the filter or vacuuming. Good luck!

woodchuckie · Jun 11, 2005

I've been told that the algae killed by the chemicals was too small to be filtered by a sand filter. The blue stuff called by the brand name " drop out" makes it cling together and drop to the bottom. You have to vacuum to waste and then backwash real good. You have to vacuum real slow so as not to stir the sediment up again..

EastTexFrank · Jun 12, 2005

I know all about Polaris but wait until you have to do some work on the pump and motor. Two or three weeks ago I had to replace the motor because a bearing was screaming. In order to get it off, I had to remove the bolt that runs through the center of the impeller. To cut a long story short, I messed up the head of the left hand threaded bolt so got a replacement when I got the new motor. $14.95 for a left hand bolt. They must have seen this poor old country boy coming. Next time I'll actually look at the price of some of the stuff I buy before I pick it up.

skent · Jun 13, 2005

I suspect it's water mold. We had that problem two years ago, every time we would shock it (2 pounds @ 12,000 gallons), the chlorine level would peak, then drop to zero within an hour or two. PH and TA were perfect. Ended up using 5 times the normal amount of HTH powder to get the chlorine into correct range, then used floc to clear it up.

The mold is hard to kill and takes lots of chlorine to beat it.

I usually add chlorine (liquid) to the water in late march to keep the water mold in check.

Had no problems this spring!

Highbeam · Jun 13, 2005

The blue stuff you speak of that acts as a flocculant is called polymer. It is basicly sticky stuff that makes the wee little particles stick together until they become big and heavy enough to fall out of the water or be filtered out of the water.

Polymer is cheap and blue. It works real well but the bigger chunks need to be removed after fallout. We use it to treat drinking water and sewage effluent to get the real small stuff to floc out quickly.

Cityboyfarmer · Jun 13, 2005

( So...now the water is cloudy, it's blue, but hard to see the bottom. I checked the alkalinity, the chlorine, and the PH. All are right on the money. Any ideas how to clear up the water and what might be causing this? )

I've had this happen before. Don't add any more chemicals if your PH, chlorine and alkalinity are correct and you added algacide along with the other chemicals. Run your filter pump 24/7. Keep the water circulating and it will clear up in a day or two.

Do your weekly maintenance of PH adjuster, chlorine and algacide, run the filter pump 24/7 during the swimming season and you will have clean clear water all summer. Hopefully you have an automatic chlorinator. You can also place a chlorine tab in your skimmers to keep the chlorine level up in the really hot weather.

I think a lot of folks make pool maintenance harder than it needs to be. We want instant gratification and keep adding chemicals until we have a real mess. Sometimes it just takes a couple of days to filter out all the dead critters for the water to get crystal clear.