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I have a 18 ft. x 4 ft. pop-up pool. We put it up this weekend. I added 1/5 of a gallon of algaecide as preventative maintenance, added 1 inch chlorine tablets in the cartridge filter, and I also used one packet of shock treatment to prepare the water. Are these amounts enough for a pool of this size? I tested the pH and I think I have to raise it. Any other preventative maintenance tips? Last year I had a heck of a time keeping it clear and want to make sure the pool doesn't turn out like that again. Thanks for your help.

Well first off you need to get exact readings of your water chemistry. Without accurate readings it's a guessing game. You can take a sample of the water down to your local pool store and they will test it for you, then post the results back here.

Unfortunately the way your question there isn't enough information to make a 100% accurate suggestion on what you need to do to the pool.

Feel free to contact me at robandliz1992@yahoo.com for more personalized advice.

2007-05-29 12:01:02 by Cass_17_7

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I've had fish tanks in the past (10 gallon aquarium) and they've never gotten like this.

Within 1 week, the water has become extremely cloudy. I only have 2 fish in there. I bought a new cartridge for my filter, used water treatment liquids in it... nothing has worked.

Could it be the ornaments?

Could it be the tank? The reason I ask this is because inside of the tank, where the faces meet at the 90 degree angle, there's a glue there. It's really soft glue, but there's a lot of it. My previous tanks never had that.

The water keeps getting worse. Should I buy a new tank and try that out? Or what? I'm confused.
I have gouramis. (They're freshwater fish.)

Don't I have to buy a vacuum thing to take the water out? I've never had to do this before.

Cloudy doesn't sound like "gross" to me, it sounds like you may be going through a cycle. If that is the case, it will most likely clear up within a few days, but you will want to be testing your water for ammonia/nitrites/nitrates, and do partial water changes as necessary.

The "soft glue" that you've never had before is just aquarium sealant, and you've probably only had acrylic aquariums before, which are built as one solid piece. This is perfectly normal for a glass aquarium.

What kind of fish do you have in the tank? Did you rinse the tank and substrate (Gravel) out thoroughly before using them? Has this only happened since you added the fish? You should be using the normal amount of dechlorinator and doing smaller water changes, as necessary. Do not change the filter cartridge again until it's time is up.

2009-02-03 12:35:15 by Chelsea

I have two small Oscars (2.5) inches in length in my 55 gallon tank. Yes I know this will not be sufficient for them when they are grown, and I will buy a new tank for them. I initially planned on keeping a tropical community at first and decided against it when all of them died in the new tank within 2 days. I got the Oscars now and I love them and do not want to get rid of them.
After much research, I plan to get a new tank when they grow larger and keep the smaller 55 gallon for a community tank. I have become addicted to my fish already! My Albino got ich its first week and my Tiger was fine. I treated with salt and heat and a mild protozoan treatment, he was perfect within 48 hours. Now my tank is ridiculously cloudy.
I put the filters back in after doing a 25% water change after the treatment to clean out the tank. I know they are messy fish! I tried to clear the water with a water clarifier, I did two treatments in 2 days, and all I see is some of the clumped together dirt particles, but the water is still cloudy. I added another dual filter yesterday, so now I have two back of the tank bio-filters running, with a total of 4 filter cartridges. Water is still cloudy. Tested PH, and it was 7.0. I tested for ammonia, nitrate and nitrite and its fine.

1.Is my water cloudy from the ich treatment?

2.Is it cloudy because it is still a new tank? (3 weeks in, cycled with live bacteria (not stresszyme, I go to a specialty store for cichlids and other exotic fish, they gave a treatment they use in their tanks, basically live bacteria from older tanks) from an aquarium store, put directly on filters, so the tank may already be well cycled using this method)

3.How long will it take for my tank to clear up with this new, extra filtration system put in?

4.Do I need to do another water change and vacuum the gravel? The fish seem fine, its just cloudy water!

5. I have two zebra danios in there still, my Oscars cant seem to catch them, but they had no problem killing a couple minnows, lol.

Any info would be great... How long before I change out these filters on a new tank and if I rinse them, how do I do that? In the sink? Im a little new to that part.
My two filters run 630 GPH, is that not good enough?

I added about the Danios just to let you know of anything else in the tank. My Oscars basically leave them alone because they are too fast. I would take em out, but wat would I do with em? I cant give em away, so its either let them eat them or flush em. I figure I will just see what happens, since they have lived together for weeks.
The tank is new and the method of ich treatment I stated above, so if I have to do another change, I will. Didnt know if I should do it so often in a new tank. It was cloudy the first week and went away, up until I treated them.
Oh one more thing, no I did not remove the entire filter, sorry it came across that way. I only removed the carbon filter cartridges while I did the ich treatment. I left it running other wise! :)

2009-09-19 12:28:12 by Angel L

We have added so much clarifier over the past, almost 3 months and it didn't do anything. I took a water sample into the pool store 2 days ago and the analysis came back very, very hard water. They asked me what kind of shock I had been using, which over the past 3 years, we have been using powdered shock. They showed me the first ingredient on the shock was calcium. The sample that I brought in was full of tiny white particles floating around. They gave me a treatment for calcium and scale build up and after administration of this treatment, don't shock for 4 days and run pump as you normally would. This minute white material is clogging the every couple of hours. My husband pulls the cartridge out, hoses it off, replaces the cartridge and this goes on all day. Thanks so much for your taking time out of your day to answer. It's appreciated.

2009-06-17 07:23:32 by Carole G

I've had my 5000 gallon metal frame pool for 3 weeks now. It took 8 days to fill the pool with water from my well. The water turned a nauseating color of brown. After tons of chlorine, many shock treatments, and 2 bottles of algaecide, the water is green. I've shocked again, added chlorine directly into the filter cartridge, and added another bottle of algaecide. Still green. Pool supply store tested water. It's safe to swim. Didn't really suggest doing anything different than what I have been doing. Tomorrow I will be buying 2 big tubs of oxyclean and tomorrow night before it gets too dark I'm going to dump them in. If anyone has ever done this please let me know.
Update. I poured a big tub of Oxiclean in the water last night. It immediately turned a cloudy white. I swished it around and let the pump run for about 5 minutes. White foam covered the pool. Then I turned off the pump and went to sleep. This morning the water seems clearer. I turned the pump back on and there is no foam. I haven't taken any readings yet. I really hope this worked and I'm not going to burn my skin off when I get in it.

You've got mineral problems! Ours turns chocolate brown every start up from the new water and chlorine. The chlorine causes the iron in the water to precipitate out, that is become free. The best answer is the filter. It takes us 36 hours of continual filtering (thru the night, yes) to clear it up. Even then a lot falls to the bottom and must be vacuumed up.

I've tried mineral out stuff, etc but find for the smaller pools like 5,000 gallons, you best bet is keeping the chlorine level just right and filtering often, vacuum often. The more chemicals I used, the worse my problems.

I no longer take the alkalinity reading since it's off the charts,pH runs a bit acidic---6.8 or even down to 6.5......too low according to the manuals. I let my eyes and feet tell me what's going on. Eyes for color, feet and hands to feel the walls and bottom for "slimy" which means more filtering/vacuuming/ and a splash more chlorine for a while.

Good thing about the browns, they are just a start up problem. Once your pool has the excess iron out, you probably won't have the problem again all year as you won't be adding that much water at one time.

Try filtering more, vacuuming more before you dump more stuff in. Take those chlorine and pH readings daily to get a feeling for what your pool does. Each one is a little different.

2009-06-13 19:13:52 by VOE