Despite what many pool owners may think, the secret to clean and clear swimming pool water is more complicated then just balancing the chlorine and pH levels. Sometimes that alone just isn’t enough. What do you do when you are faced with cloudy pool water? Or how about if you are confronted with green pool water despite your best efforts?
Basic chemical requirements for clear pool water
I shocked my pool, so why is it still green?
Even though plenty of swimming pool owners shock their pools, the problem may be the source of chlorine. Over time, if you use tablets to supply your pools chlorine, levels of the stabilizer from the tablets can become elevated. This causes them to essentially trap or lock up the free chlorine.
Even in circumstances where you get a very high chlorine reading on your test kit, the chlorine can’t kill algae since it’s not in the right chemical form. You need to lower the stabilizers in your chlorine.
I shocked my pool, so why is it still cloudy?
If you have a cartridge filter, a good cartridge is necessary because a cartridge can only handle so much for so long. If you are experiencing cloudy pool water, the cartridge needs to be cleaned everyday until the pool is clear once again. If you have a DE (or diatomaceous Earth) filter and your experiencing cloudy pool water, you are either not running the pump on a long enough cycle, or the DE needs to be backwashed.