At the Bensonhurst, Brooklyn Bally's I swim at the water is always cloudy. They did pool maintenance last month and emptied the pool. Right off the bat the refill was cloudy and has remained so. I mentioned it to the lifeguard and he assured me in broken English that it was very clean, despite the inability to see the bottom at the six foot end.
It was cloudy before the refill if I remember correctly too. I see the guards testing the water now and then with a test tube and some kit of something, for whatever that's worth.
What could be going on here?
Tom,
There are many reasons for it. When they emptied and refilled UMD, it was very cloudy the first week and didn't really clear up for a couple of weeks. Once they stopped sanding down the new whitecoat and let it sit and filter, it came back as clear as could be!
The cloudiness could come from all sorts of things: your water has a lot of minerals in it, they're using solid (ie granular HTH, chlorine tablets, etc.) water cleansers, dirt, skin, hair gel, a shedding whitecoat, sand from the filters after a bad backwash... it could be all kinds of things.
My bet is it is the solid chemicals. Down here, I don't know of many health clubs that spend a lot of time on pool maintence, and thus go the very cheap, painless, and easily trainable route of using solids like a once-a-day dumping of granular, or tablets in the skimmers. Granular can easily generate cloudiness as each grain falls apart as it disintegrates and leaves a bunch of smaller grains behind. All easily stirred up by swimming; also easily removed w/ vacuum.
Back when I managed pools, I used HTH as a very effective at quick stain removal (read algae killer). Would put a bunch in the affected areas and along the walls at night, but would have to brush it all off the next morning. Although I did my best to brush slowly and towards the drains, the deep end was always cloudy the next day and the brushing always made it worse.
Tom,
There are many reasons for it. When they emptied and refilled UMD, it was very cloudy the first week and didn't really clear up for a couple of weeks. Once they stopped sanding down the new whitecoat and let it sit and filter, it came back as clear as could be!
The cloudiness could come from all sorts of things: your water has a lot of minerals in it, they're using solid (ie granular HTH, chlorine tablets, etc.) water cleansers, dirt, skin, hair gel, a shedding whitecoat, sand from the filters after a bad backwash... it could be all kinds of things.
My bet is it is the solid chemicals. Down here, I don't know of many health clubs that spend a lot of time on pool maintence, and thus go the very cheap, painless, and easily trainable route of using solids like a once-a-day dumping of granular, or tablets in the skimmers. Granular can easily generate cloudiness as each grain falls apart as it disintegrates and leaves a bunch of smaller grains behind. All easily stirred up by swimming; also easily removed w/ vacuum.
Back when I managed pools, I used HTH as a very effective at quick stain removal (read algae killer). Would put a bunch in the affected areas and along the walls at night, but would have to brush it all off the next morning. Although I did my best to brush slowly and towards the drains, the deep end was always cloudy the next day and the brushing always made it worse.
