Irene ruined the water chemistry and I needed to drain and do some repairs anyway. I was delayed in doing them so my pool turned into a small swamp. I drained most of the water out (left about a foot) and removed all debris. Finished the repairs and started refilling. We are o a well; part of the delay came because the aquifer apparently dropped below (or just at) the level of the intake (shallow well jet pump). I dropped the intake to about a foot above the bottom. We have a softener for the household water. Normally if I fill the pool with raw water the dissolved iron precipitates with sun light, I vacuum to waste and all is fine. This time the water didn't turn red. It's brown. I've been filtering for over a week with little change. Backwash shows some dirt being removed, but not as much as I would expect from the amount of discoloration. My first idea was that the algae simply grabbed the dirt and held it in suspension. But I've maintained high chlorine levels with no result.

Chemistry is: FC 7
CC 1.5
TA 180
CYA 0
Ph 7.8
salt 0

Before I dump it and refill (softened water will take 2 weeks) are there any suggestions? Pic shows the color.

Thanks, all.

Vickery

Take a 5 gallon bucket of the pool water and put about 1/2 cup of bleach in it and post back what that does to the water.

Your shock level is 10 ppm. Anytime you let the FC drop below 10ppm before the shock process is completed the algae will continue to grow. Try completing the shock process first and see if the water clears.

There may be quite a bit of mud in the water since the aquifer dropped so low. Once you complete the shock process, if the water is not clear, try turning off the pump 24-48 hours and see if the mud drops out of suspension.

Thanks. I'll let you know!

I'm reluctant to add any CYA since I'm not sure if I'll have to dump and refill. With cc so low I would think that most of the chlorine loss is due to sunlight. Is this correct? Or can the cc be low in the presence of dead algae? Also there is still little debris being backwashed.

You can actually have zero CC's with active algae. Not having CC's doesn't mean anything but having them greater than .5 does.

The test results you posted show 1.5 CC. 1.5 CC is not low. Over .5 CC is indicative of organics in the water.

FC stayed over 12 for several days....barely detectable cc. I stopped the pump to let the dirt settle. A small amount (more like a film) accumulated on the ladder steps. Very little change in appearance. The water in the test bucket is also still cloudy. Any suggestions on a precipitating agent? Or is it time to start over?
Thanks, all.

If it was dirt, it would have settled out in the bucket once you stopped agitating it. Did it change color when you added the bleach to it?
Have you tried to see if a skimmer sock would catch any of it?

There was a slight clearing in the bucket, about as much proportionally as in the pool. I haven't tried a sock. If the sand filter isn't catching it I didn't think a sock would, either. I'm thinking more that it is dissolved solids rather than suspended. We have very hard water...typically the dissolved iron precipitates by sunlight. If that is the case now it has settled and I can't see it through the haze. There was no evidence of iron in the bucket which is quite surprising. Apparently the summer drought has changed the migration pattern of the aquifer, perhaps dropping the level below the source of the iron.

I've drained it, started to refill. Raw water seems to be turbid as well. Any way to easily determine what might be the culprit and whether it can be precipitated? I suspect calcium and that I will have to use softened water. There was a very small amount of iron on the bottom when I drained it, just little spots in the lining texture; in the past there would have been a couple of inches of precipitated iron, but the water was pretty clear down to the iron layer.
Any suggestions?