Cloudy Water after baking soda and calcium hardness increaser

[Jen77]

This is our 3rd season with our vinyl, salt water pool. Our pool has always been crystal clear. As I started learning about maintaining our pool I made notes about what to adjust first if needed. This year, I noted that our CH level was 140 and the recommended level was 200-400. I bought calcium hardness increaser, but noted that my alkalinity was slighy low at 70 with a recommended range of 80-100. I first added baking soda to get my alkalinity to 80. The next day we added 25lbs of the calcium hardness increaser directly to the water. I am reading now that this was a mistake. After a day or two all my numbers are good (testing with Taylor test kit) but the water is very cloudy. I have been running the pump 24/7 and changing the filter, but it doesn’t seem to be getting better. Any advice or help on how to clear it would be appreciated.
TC 2.4
TA 80
PH 7.4
CH 240
CYA 50
Salt 3,544 ppm

 

[pjt]

This year, I noted that our CH level was 140 and the recommended level was 200-400.

Unless you have tile grout, CH doesn't matter for a vinyl pool. A heater may have a recommended minimum CH (~200).

alkalinity was slighy low at 70

TA of 70 is great. TA down to 50 is perfectly fine.

I first added baking soda to get my alkalinity to 80.

Not needed. A non-trichlor pool will likely never need baking soda. What's the CH and TA of your fill water?

testing with Taylor test kit

Taylor makes dozens of kits. What model are you using? You need a FAS-DPD test.

TC 2.4

This is very low FC for a CYA of 50. Add liquid chlorine now. Keep your FC in the target range for your CYA level.

water is very cloudy

Perform an OCLT. What's your CC level?

Perform the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT)

The Overnight Chlorine Loss Test tells if the SLAM is finished or if you need to start a SLAM. This article says how to do the OCLT.

www.troublefreepool.com

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[Jen77]

Pjt,

Thank you so much for your reply and your help. Sorry I didn’t respond sooner, I had a hard time figuring out how to get back to this post. And, you were absolutely right! I needed to bring my Free Chlorine up. That is doing the trick. Thank you!!!