I had this problem with some very fine dust in the pool. Floculante had some effect but the dust goes through the filter and back into the pool unless you pump to waste.

I did find a product that really does clean the water. It's called Miraclear and it is a small blue block of stuff which you put in the pump filter. It dissolves and coats the sand in the filter making it more efficient with really small particles.

Run the filtration until it clears. It really does work!

Details here http://www.lo-chlor.com.au/clarify_miraclear.php

You should get it in most pool shops - about 5 euros.

Liquid chlorine is unstabilised so it is good for a pool which already has a high level of cyanuric acid although I actually use calcium hypochlorate which is the same thing in granular form. The disadvantage with liquid chlorine is that it has a very short shelf life and is probably more dangerous to store.

Flocculant in tablet form can be used without putting the pool out of operation and does a similar job to the product referred to by Fred. The pool cannot be used when dosed with liquid flocculant and you cannot circulate it or hoover it through the filter.

When you use flocculant tablets you have to wait a couple of days after they have dissolved before hoovering to give their coagulant properties a chance to take effect.

Mitzyboy, have you checked the cyanuric acid level in your pool?

Mitz we had a simalar problem last year, the water was really cloudy (it got so bad we could not see the dolphin on the bottom) with a yellow sand that covered the bottom of the pool, Mal tried everything for weeks to solve the problem. In the end he put it down to the weather that we had been having. Over a couple of weeks there had been a fine sand blowing over from North Africa in the end the only thing left for us to do was empty the pool give it a good clean and start again. The water had been in the pool for 3 years casing us no problem, we were amazed at the amount of sand that was left in the bottom of the pool. Hope you get it sorted out and it doesn't come to that.

I don't like sand filters. I come to this from a different angle, ie keeping koi, but certain physics and biology laws still apply.

Sand filters are a compressive particulate filter and as such are nitrate factories. This in turn boosts bacteria and algal numbers.

(As the sand is in simple terms silica grains, there is no way realistically that you can damage the sand in any way, shape or form. All you can do is clog the gaps between the grains.)

If you use an open structure particle filter with a media in it like kaldness, held static with the water flowing gently thru it, the levels of particle removal have to be seen to be believed.

Plus it strips nitrogen out of the system provided there are no bacteriacides in the system.

Just fill the pool to max and leave the hose on while you vac to waste it.

Not yet, I'm going to the pool shop as you suggested tomorrow to get a tester

I think I'll give that a go to, sent you a pm as I want to be sure I have the settings right

You may have to get them to order it or ask someone to bring one from the UK. When I mentioned the problem in my local pool shop they had never heard of cyanuric acid and certainly didn't have a test kit for it! They thought I was talking about a test kit for pH.

Did a vacuum to waste this morning, and although I must have lost at least 14" of water doing it, it does seem to have cleaned up nicely.

A job well done Mitzy

Well a day or so in and the pool is milky / cloudy again and as if to make it worse my daughter and her boyfriend went in with loads of sun tan lotion and there is an oil slick effect all over the pool

Im going to try another go with floculent on Monday as I remember it cleared it up before (and I've managed to get rid of the dirty residue in the pool) .... any ideas for treating lotion residue or will the filter take it out in time?

Probably the best way is to shock the pool and leave the filter running 24 hours.
Get liquid chlorine or granuals and mix it with water and pour in the pool.
Check that the PH is right or it will take ages to clear.
Have a read here it is a good site and loads of tips etc.

Are you filtering your pool for long enough?

Once the water temperature exceeds 28º filtration and chemical dosing becomes much more critical. The pool should be filtered for at least eight hours during the day and at any time that it is being used especially with people coated in oil.

Insist that they shower before going into the pool.

Yes Ive got some granules ready for tonight
Ph is fine

Ahh, well I'm filtering for 6 hours & the water temp is about that temp and a bit more. I'll set it for 8 hours tomorrow, and also maybe leave it on all night anyway

Yes ..... they were wearing waterproof sun lotion, but I suppose its never 100% - trouble is if they dont wear lotion in these temps they get burned!!

We had similar symptoms,and upped the filtration from 9 hrs to 12.......cured it

I'm on it