HELP!!!! Pool Full of milk!!! What went wrong???

Ha, Ha!! Anyone ever have this happen to their pool? Water look's like milk!!s is the first time for me!! Anyone know the secret potion to get it clear? I've already tried about $300.00 worth. I'am ready to take the 12ga. to her. Let me know what you fellow's think.

Try something called "flocculant"

http://www.waterwarehouse.com/poolsuppl ... ulent.html

jpete wrote:Try something called "flocculant"

http://www.waterwarehouse.com/poolsuppl ... ulent.html

Yep, or HTH Clarifier.

Put on your most serious face, and tell your kids, "This is what happens when you pee in the pool!" Watch how Wide-eyed their eyes get At least my kids did.

I've tried everything under the sun!! Pool place has me backing the van up to there door to keep loading up this and that! I've used the floc. 3 times and vacum to waste, had it pretty clear till last trip to pool place. They say it's the mineral's in my well water so they sold me bio-dex mineral remover, that's when the pool turned to milk!! Anyone have a spare box of Honey Oat's? I already dumped in 6 box's, and a little surger!! That's a man size bowl of cereal!!!! I just put more floc. in, see how it look's tommorow.

theo wrote:I've tried everything under the sun!! Pool place has me backing the van up to there door to keep loading up this and that! I've used the floc. 3 times and vacum to waste, had it pretty clear till last trip to pool place.

My pool always looks like that the first time I fill it up for the summer. I add lots of SHOCK and Clarifier. Nothing else. But I don't vacuum to waste, I let the filter catch everything, then Back-flush once a day. Within 3-4 days, the water is crystal clean.
If you are vacuuming to waste, you have to refill the pool with the garden hose again? Your in a perpetual loop of never removing the minerals. Let your filter do some work, then back-flush daily.

Edit: I also add Stabilizer with the Shock. It stabilizes the clorine.

Mine typically went "green---algaecide---white---flocculant---let stand 24 hrs---clear"

I have to say, I'm glad to be rid of my pool.

I HEAR THAT!!! It might take me all summer to clear this mess up!! Well at least i can look out back and see my 10 ton of rice coal safley snuggled under the tarp's ( Probalby the bird's are carrying that away right under my nose! ) Yep everytime i look out back and see the coal i get a little smile on my face,,, and i really need it right now...

Do yourself a favor and stay out of the pool store. They will keep selling you stuff everytime you go in there whether you need it or not. My pool has been crystal clear ever since I stopped bringing my water in for them to test and all I spend is $150 per year.My guess, you probably put two chemicals in at the same time. Probably shock then algecide right? It will take two days to clear up so dont do anything but run your filter like normal. One other thing it could be but doubtful is IF your have a diatomaceous earth filter it could be blowing by the fingers or gasket right into the pool. I know because that happened to me once. More than likely you have a sand filter so that wouldnt be the case. Remember KIS... keep it simple less is more. Good luck!

Almost all pool problems boil down to two issues. Not enough sanitizer in the pool or poor/bad filtering.

Do you have a sand or cartridge filter? If you have a sand filter you could try adding a little DE.

Backwash your filter, get it running and check the pressure, mix up some DE in pool water (1/3 cup of DE in ~gallon of water) and pour into skimmer. Wait 10 minutes or so and check the pressure again. You want about 1lb rise in pressure... repeat the DE add step until you see 1lb rise.

You could also ask the experts here...

http://www.troublefreepool.com/

Mr1precision is spot on... keep it simple and DO NOT spend any more $$$ at the pool store. Although... the if you don't have a good test kit the first you should do is purchase one (one that tests for free chlorine, combined chlorine, total chlorine, ph, alkalinity, stabilizer)... Read everything on the above site and you'll be on your way to pool enlightenment.

Most folks there use the BBB method (Bleach, Baking Powder, Borax) and rarely make a trip to the pool store. I used the BBB method with great success until I installed a Salt Water Chlorine generator last year. Now Ijust add Borax and Baking Powder as necessary.

Try adding Calcium Chloride, test the water and adjust to 80 to 100 parts per million. Pool water has to have the proper level of hardness as well as the correct PH and Sodium Hypochlorite levels.

Wood'nCoal wrote:Try adding Calcium Chloride, test the water and adjust to 80 to 100 parts per million. Pool water has to have the proper level of hardness as well as the correct PH and Sodium Hypochlorite levels.

Looks like he's got a Vinyl liner pool so adding calcium chloride to adjust the hardness up would be a waste of $$$ for him. Check out this excellent article...

http://www.poolsolutions.com/tips/tip03.html

Keeping it simple...

Sodium Hypochlorite = Bleach or Chlorine
pH up = Borax
Alkalinity Balance (up) = Baking Powder

All of the above can be usually be bought cheaper at the grocery store/wally world/target than at the pool store (although sometimes the pool store is cheaper). I usually only go to the pool store for specialty chemicals (stabilizer, metal treatment...) or parts/equipment.

Here's a handy calculator for balancing the pool water with the above household "chemicals".

http://www.poolcalculator.com/

Alkalinity Balance (up) = Baking Powder

Are you adjusting PH or baking a cake???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baking_powder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baking_soda

Re: Calcium Carbonate in pool water, vinyl or in-ground:

It is used in swimming pools as a pH corrector for maintaining alkalinity "buffer" to offset the acidic properties of the disinfectant agent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_carbonate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffer_solution

Also, I agree, pool chemistry is relatively simple, stay away from the pool-store "know it alls" and their magic powder$ and liquid$.

DVC500 at last wrote:Put on your most serious face, and tell your kids, "This is what happens when you pee in the pool!" Watch how Wide-eyed their eyes get At least my kids did.

LMAO on this one

We have one of those blow up pools (blue ring on top) and fill with tap water which turns brown as soon as the chlorine hits it. A couple of good sunny days and lots of filter cleanings later it is fine for the rest of the summer.

Repeating some good advice, make 1 last trip to the pool store to buy a good test kit.
You must have the Ph within the proper range for any other chemical to be effective, so start there. It's easy to over do Ph + or - in a small pool but if you add soda ash or baking soda give it a day or two to work.
Work your way up total total alkalinity and free chlorine levels within the recommended ranges.

Also what type of filter do you have? When I was in the business many moons ago the smaller pools had DE filters and if they weren't cleaned properly before winter the filter medium would actually harden like cement. We would soak the fingers in a bucket of Muriatic acid over night and rinse off, in severe cases we would replace the tubes(PIA job but $$$ for us).

One last thought, how's the weather been? Mi wife adds algecide to ours and leaves the cover on so when you get in the water is bubbly/frothy. I keep telling her to leave the cover off to let the chemicals oxidize in the sunlight but she insists she's keeping the water warm during the rainstorms

mr1precision wrote:Do yourself a favor and stay out of the pool store. They will keep selling you stuff everytime you go in there whether you need it or not. My pool has been crystal clear ever since I stopped bringing my water in for them to test and all I spend is $150 per year.My guess, you probably put two chemicals in at the same time. Probably shock then algecide right? It will take two days to clear up so dont do anything but run your filter like normal. One other thing it could be but doubtful is IF your have a diatomaceous earth filter it could be blowing by the fingers or gasket right into the pool. I know because that happened to me once. More than likely you have a sand filter so that wouldnt be the case. Remember KIS... keep it simple less is more. Good luck!

+1

I split a 40 pound container of TriChlor from Sams ($91) every other year with a buddy. I use 10 pounds a year in the pool. I never test the water. I close it clear and it opens clear. If it starts to look cloudy, I shock it (about once a year) and then vacuum the next day. Your eye will tell you much about the condition of the water.