Water still cloudy after shocking
- Thread starter syedsam
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John Faulkner
Member
Could be dead algae or fine particles. Try adding a clarifier or floc, then vacuum.
Michael Young
Member
Same thing happened to me, after shocking and the filter running non-stop, the water was still cloudy. Turns out, the filter wasn’t trapping everything, so I tried backwashing and adding clarifier. After a few days, it started clearing up! Might help you too.
Elara Brooks
New member
I’ve run into that before too, shocking kills stuff, but it doesn’t always make the water look better right away. What finally helped me was brushing everything down so the filter could catch the dead material, then throwing in a little clarifier. Also worth checking if your filter media is due for a change, because mine was worn out and that made clearing the cloudiness take way longer than it should have.
Katherine Morgan
Member
I’ve noticed sometimes people focus only on chlorine levels, but overlook water balance. If your calcium hardness or pH is off, the pool can stay cloudy even after shocking. I had to adjust mine once and the difference was night and day, the filter finally started clearing things properly. Might be worth running a full test panel to rule that out.
Sean Whitaker
Member
This is one of those situations where the chemistry has technically done its job, but the pool hasn’t finished the process yet. Shocking wipes things out, but it also leaves behind a ton of microscopic debris that doesn’t settle or sink on its own. If the water looks uniformly cloudy (not green or milky white), that’s usually suspended junk just hanging there.
Something that gets overlooked is how the water is moving through the pool. Even with the pump running 24/7, dead zones behind steps, ladders, lights, and corners can keep feeding fine particles back into the water. A slow, thorough brush of those spots can make the cloudiness noticeably improve within hours because it finally gives the filter something it can grab.
Also worth checking: is the pressure on the filter staying steady? If it hasn’t risen much since shocking, it can mean the particles are too fine and just slipping through. In that case, time and patience matter more than adding more products. Let the chlorine drift back down naturally, keep circulation steady, and avoid stacking chemicals on top of each other, that can actually stall clearing.
Cloudy after a shock is annoying, but it’s usually the last stage, not a failure. When it starts to clear, it often happens fast, almost overnight.
Something that gets overlooked is how the water is moving through the pool. Even with the pump running 24/7, dead zones behind steps, ladders, lights, and corners can keep feeding fine particles back into the water. A slow, thorough brush of those spots can make the cloudiness noticeably improve within hours because it finally gives the filter something it can grab.
Also worth checking: is the pressure on the filter staying steady? If it hasn’t risen much since shocking, it can mean the particles are too fine and just slipping through. In that case, time and patience matter more than adding more products. Let the chlorine drift back down naturally, keep circulation steady, and avoid stacking chemicals on top of each other, that can actually stall clearing.
Cloudy after a shock is annoying, but it’s usually the last stage, not a failure. When it starts to clear, it often happens fast, almost overnight.
Abena Tesfaye
Member
You probably did not miss much. Shock can kill algae, but it leaves dead “dust” that keeps water cloudy until the filter catches it. I would brush the walls/floor, then clean the filter (backwash/rinse) since it loads up fast after a shock. If it is still a light haze, try a small dose of clarifier and then vacuum. Also check pH, because off pH can keep water cloudy even with high chlorine.
George Kelly
Member
Yeah, this is one of those annoying spots where everything technically worked, but it doesn’t look like it did.
I ran into this a couple times and thought the shock failed. Chlorine was sky high, pump running nonstop, but the water just stayed hazy. What was actually happening was the shock did its job and killed whatever was in there, algae, organics, gunk, but all that stuff was now dead and floating around too fine for the filter to grab right away. So you end up with clean but ugly water.
Two things made the biggest difference for me. First was pH. After shocking, my pH was a little out of range and that alone kept the water looking dull even with high chlorine. Once I nudged pH back into the mid 7s, the filter suddenly started making progress. Second was brushing. Like really brushing, behind steps, around lights, corners I usually ignore. Filter pressure jumped a few psi after that, which told me it was finally catching the dead junk instead of it just circulating forever.
If it still hangs as a light haze, that’s when I’ll use a small dose of clarifier from aquadoc, not floc, just enough to help the fine particles clump so the filter can grab them. Then I clean the filter sooner than normal because it loads up fast after a shock. Let the chlorine come down naturally and don’t keep stacking chemicals on top of it, that usually slows things down instead of helping.
When it finally clears, it often happens fast, like you wake up and it’s suddenly fine. Cloudy after shocking feels like failure, but most of the time it’s just the last messy step. What kind of filter are you running, sand or cartridge?
I ran into this a couple times and thought the shock failed. Chlorine was sky high, pump running nonstop, but the water just stayed hazy. What was actually happening was the shock did its job and killed whatever was in there, algae, organics, gunk, but all that stuff was now dead and floating around too fine for the filter to grab right away. So you end up with clean but ugly water.
Two things made the biggest difference for me. First was pH. After shocking, my pH was a little out of range and that alone kept the water looking dull even with high chlorine. Once I nudged pH back into the mid 7s, the filter suddenly started making progress. Second was brushing. Like really brushing, behind steps, around lights, corners I usually ignore. Filter pressure jumped a few psi after that, which told me it was finally catching the dead junk instead of it just circulating forever.
If it still hangs as a light haze, that’s when I’ll use a small dose of clarifier from aquadoc, not floc, just enough to help the fine particles clump so the filter can grab them. Then I clean the filter sooner than normal because it loads up fast after a shock. Let the chlorine come down naturally and don’t keep stacking chemicals on top of it, that usually slows things down instead of helping.
When it finally clears, it often happens fast, like you wake up and it’s suddenly fine. Cloudy after shocking feels like failure, but most of the time it’s just the last messy step. What kind of filter are you running, sand or cartridge?