White Cloudy Pool For Over A Week

by Wayne
(North Augusta, SC)

I've had white, cloudy water for just over a week. This has never happened in 10 years of maintaining this pool.

I shocked Thursday and added 32 ounces of 60% algaecide 2 hours later. NO change, probably a bit more cloudy. Pump has run non-stop. Water test results from Mon June 27:

FC 6.3

alkalinity 44

PH 7.6

calcium hardness 23

CYA 26

saturation index -1.27

The pool store is recommending I had half a bottle of flocculent, run pump 2 hours then shut off and let sit overnight, vacuum several times next morning. I'm skeptical. Suggest solutions. Your help greatly appreciated.

I really enjoy your webpage, it is informative. I especially like your About Me page.

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Thanks for the question and complement Wayne

Your chlorine and pH are fine, so don't touch those. Chlorine is a bit high but will come down because of the sun and heat. The question didn't mention the kind of pool you have, whether an inground or above ground, or if has a vinyl liner. The reason is for the calcium.

It seems a bit low, but if you do have a vinyl liner, don't worry about it too much. Plaster pools need the calcium to be between 150 - 250ppm or else you'll get pitting or scaling.

It's the alkalinity (TA/total alkalinity) and CYA we need to deal with. The TA could be part of the problem for your cloudy water. The TA needs to be 80 - 100ppm. 120ppm is fine, but not any higher, and the CYA between 30 - 50ppm.

You can use sodium bicarb. (baking soda) to bring the TA up. Do this with the pump motor off. You can go to these links to learn how to do that. They have charts for your size pool:

You can also go to the Q&A page in the alkalinity category for lots more information about other people having the same issues:

Swimming Pool Questions and Answers

You'll want to raise the TA in a few application, not all at once. Make the adjustment in the evening then test in

the morning. Allow for one full turnover of the water before test. This is where many pool owners fall short. They adjust, then test an hour or two later. The chemical, regardless of what it is, needs to go through the entire system.

If it doesn't you may hit a spot that hasn't gotten anything yet and you'll get a false reading. Then you'll make another adjustment.

You've just overdosed the pool and now have another problem. Floccs are really over stated. It doesn't address why the pool is cloudy in the first place. The next one is how to you save money and help balance your pool with items from the grocery store.

You can use a PolyQuat 60 algaecide, but if your chlorine is 6.3 you don't need it. The chlorine kills the algae. If you keep that level between 1.5 - 3.5ppm, you won't get any algae and an algaecide won't be necessary.

There are a couple of exceptions on when to use an algaecide, but that's for another time. The CYA is just a bit low so you can use granular Dichlor to raise it. For every 10ppm of chlorine with Dichlor, you'll raise the CYA by 9ppm.

Be careful with this because constant use of Dichlor will cause your CYA go keep going up and the only way to reduce it is to do a partial drain and refill. Use Trichlor tabs for weekly maintenance of CYA. For every 10ppm chlorine added with Trichlor, it will raise the CYA 6ppm. Using the saturation wheel from my DPD K-2006 kit, I estimated that your saturation index is about -1.5, which is right near what you have. That's assuming your water temp. is about 80 degrees.

If you get the alkalinity to 100ppm, calcium to 200ppm, and water temp. at 80 degrees, you should have an SI level of about -0.2. This is in line where you should be. Anywhere between -0.5 through + 0.5 is good. Keep filtering 24/7. If you have hard water be sure your using liquid chlorine, not granular.

Have a great Summer

Robert