When i test my water the chlorine is about 5 P.H. is at 7.5 Alkalinity is 160 but the hardness is the big problem. I fill the test bottle with pool water. I put in the 5 drops and it turns the water orangie yellow instead of blue. Then i add one drop of the other one drop at a time. I finally get it to turn at 270. The water is cloudy
Hello,
I don’t know what you mean by filling the test bottle with water. You may have a test kit that I’m not familiar with, but most test kits use comparator tubes.
And most test kits that use reagents have 3 steps for calcium hardness. First you have to add x drops of calcium buffer and swirl the sample. Then add the 5 drops of calcium indicator liquid (the blue drops) and swirl the sample. Finally add the hardness reagent drop by drop, swirling after each one until you reach the final hardness count. If your kit requires the calcium buffer and you didn’t add it, that could be the cause of the sample turning orange yellow instead of blue.
If your calcium hardness numbers are accurate, they are fine. I would suspect something else is causing the cloudiness.
Low free chlorine could be part of the problem. You said the chlorine reading is about 5. But that is meaningless without knowing the CYA (stabilizer) level along with Combined Chlorine level.
The type of chlorine that you use to sanitize the pool could be the culprit…cal-hypo has been known to cloud the water until the pump has run long enough to clear it.
But my first suspect would be the high total alkalinity number. Most sources list the TA range between 80-120, again, depending on the type of chlorine you use and the CYA levels