Water in above ground pool is cloudy... not sure what to try next

[Alex]

Hi Everyone --

Thanks for the great replies! I'm now at a few weeks in trying to get this water cleared-up, and though it's MUCH clearer then it was, it's still cloudy as heck. I can at least see the bottom alittle (sometimes). I've been working with the guys at Leslie Pools and I've used about three different products. They think there's probably some leaves or something at the bottom I'm missing with the vacuum and algae or something is growing under it and releasing more crap into the pool.

I'm currently draining about 1/4 to 1/2 the water to refill, and hopefully that'll give me a good starting point where I can see the bottom and vacuum up whatever the heck is down there. I've actually gotten in it a few times and walked around, though I couldn't see the bottom.

The pool does have a sand filter, and the sand was just changed out two years ago -- so I assume it's still okay.

But I'll post another message in the next few days after I've filled it back up and ran more chlorine through it.

Thanks for all the input though... it's encouraging to know that it'll be clean at some point -- even though we've already missed out on most of the summer thus far :-/

Take care --

Alex

[Peabody]

I ran into some objections in another thread I started on a related subject, but I just want to ask if you considered draining all the water out of it in the first place, cleaning out any debris, and then filling it with new water? Your pool appears to hold about 18,000 gallons, and where I live that would cost $37 for the water. It would have taken maybe three days at most to drain, clean and refill, instead of weeks or even months of summer swimming time wasted trying to get it right, and you would have saved all the money you spent on flocs, clarifiers, and other chemicals.

And now you've drained it half way, and are gonna refill it when you still can't see the bottom. Unless there are structural reasons why you can't drain it all the way and clean it out, or unless water simply isn't available to do a complete refill, it just seems that all the logic, and the relevant costs in both money and time, strongly suggest a complete drain and refill was the way to go. Maybe still is.

It isn't in a pool store's interest to suggest this. They don't make any money on the new water, only on the chemicals they sell you to get the old water clear.

Most places, water is cheap. Maybe it shouldn't be that way, but for the moment, water is cheap.