Try lowering the PH to 7.2. (CSI of -0.5 is fine, for limited periods of time you can go much lower than that, especially if you have scaling problems). If the cloudiness is calcium clouding, lowering the PH will take care of it.

I ordered a Taylor salt test kit to try and determine the level.
Test strips (fresh) said 3600, pool store said 3100 and swg said 4500-4600 when the intellichlor first started flashing the high salt light. This was at the beginning of the thread.

Now the swg says 3650 which should allow it to work. PS said 2600 (I know I know dont let them test your water! ). waiting on salt drop test to see what it says. I think the level is probably really around 3600 because last season it was 3200ish and I couldn't taste the salt nearly as much as I can now.

To further complicate matters I'm not sure the swg ever worked this year. I did so much better in the beginning of the season before I tried to dial it in. I had it off for the first 3 weeks and used liquid Cl and did fine. The 2 times I tried to dial the swg in, the pool went from clear to hazy. The first time, I had to shock. This time, we will see.

I appreciate all the comments and if I evr get this resolved, I'll post how I did so, to hopefully
help others with the same issues. Although I have read a lot of posts and I don't feel like my exact scenario fits anything I've seen.

edit: just saw jason lion's post. can scale coming out off the plaster cause clouding like that? will I need to keep the pH really low all the time or just till the water clears?
sorry still really confused! and getting a little freaked out!

You only need to lower the PH for a short time to clear calcium clouding. After that the PH will come back up on it's own. Of course, it might not be calcium clouding. But lowering the PH will help lower TA, which is a good thing, so worth doing regardless.

Added MA and turned off swg

ok, checked chlorine loss overnight. Pool lost 2ppm (7.5 down to 5.5, .5cc)
so something must be growing at a low level.
I'm trying to make sense of all this so I can get it fixed.
Looking through my notes, In a nutshell, here's what has been going on:

passed oclt form 5/15 to 5/16

on 5/16, fc dropped from 24 to 8 during the day. I guess I should have realized that was excessive. the high salt light started blinking, or at least this is when I noticed it when I restarted the filter after a power surge of some sort made it shut off.

but oclt from 5/16-5/17 didn't drop at all, no ccs so I thought I was done shocking. water was very clear at this point.

salt cell fluctuated back and forth between "hi salt" flashing light and salt good on 5/17-5/21.
I had it running at 60-70%, losing 3ppm cl per day, but I was adding 3ppm per day of liquid chlorine. water still looked good, .5cc

on 5/21 and 5/22 I drained 6" of water (1 foot total)

added 3.5# cya on 5/23. ran swg at 70% all day. water tested from the union at the swg was 2 ppm higher than the pool, so the swg must have been making some cl, at least intermittently. end of day levels: cl=4.0, cc .5, pH =7.8

added liq cl to bring to 6.0ppm overnight. kept swg on overnigHt, cl=6.0 in am. i would have
expected it to have gone up.

water started to cloud up on 5/24, so I thought I'd try keeping the cl a little higher than normal to help. used liq cl, kept swg on at 70%, went from 7.0 down to 5.5

acid washed cell on 5/25. it really didnt foam up much. swg 40% all day, fc went from 8 to 4.5 by 6pm, so I added a gallon of shock. (should bring up to 8.0).

5/25 9pm fc 7.5, 0 cc
5/26 (this morning) fc 5.5 or 6.0, cc .5

Hopefully this is not too much info. I thought a summary would help the mods figure this out.
My best guess at this point is I have a faulty swg, whether it's from high salt (my bad). or the power surge (power company's bad). with my cya being 65 to 70 now, my fc was just a hair too low for that cya level, and with the weather heating up, and plenty of leaves and dirt blowing into the pool with the crazy hot, dry weather we have had, I'm just fighting a low level algae issue.
Nothing more exotic than that.

Does this make sense? Also, if so, what am I not doing correctly when I shock the pool, since I keep having to redo the shock process? I'm using a fresh set of tf100 reagents.

thanks

had another question:
I'm assuming I'm going to need a lot of 12% cl to shock. Each gallon adds 7ppm salt. I may end up using 20 or more since I used 16 last time. That will add quite a bit of salt into my pool 140ppm). I probably have no choice but to shock, but it seems like I'll end up draining more water if I do, to keep salt in range. I geass as long as the high salt light doesn't come onm the swg, this is not a big deal?

The salt added by liquid chlorine into your pool is not enough to be concerned with...disregard it.

good because I have a feeling I'll be adding a lot

Remember to brush everywhere while the pool is at shock level. You should probably also look around for places algae might be hiding out from the high FC levels, inside light niches or ladders, and make sure they are algae free as well.

Another update and a couple of questions...
I know it is hard to help people who don't follow your advice to the letter, but of course my family has no interest in being kept out of the pool this weekend, so I have not shocked yet. I have been keeping the Cl between 6.5 and 10, hopefully to keep the pool clean for swimming until I can start really shocking on Tuesday. The haziness was subtle to begin with, and may have gotten a little better every day. It's hard to tell, but the water definitely does not look worse.

My first question is does my plan of keeping the Cl a little higher until I start shocking on Tuesday sound reasonable? (Cya is in the 60's)

My second question is if I am not able to be certain that the swg is working, can I treat my pool like a non-swg pool for the summer? I'm having a bit of a hard time getting a technician out here who can test it. I really liked the exact nature of adding liq cl at the beginning of the season vs. all the trouble I have had with the swg.
here are my chems:
fc. 10.0. cc 0
pH. 7.5
TA. 150
CH. 200
cya. 65
salt. 3400 on Taylor test, 3800 on swg
I'm sure I would need to follow the cl/cya chart recommendations and keep the cl higher than with a swg.

There are various easy ways to test to see if the SWG is working. I don't see any reason to have someone look at it.

Yes, you can add chlorine manually, or use the SWG, or switch back and forth, without any problem.

Swimming is not safe unless you can see the bottom.

we can see the philips head screws on the drain in the 8.5" deep end! so we're good there.
I just think the water has the slightest haze to it, which of course bugs me since I know how nice the water can look. I'm sure something is "off".

ok, update:
lost 3 ppm Cl overnight, so need to shock.
started shocking today, fc seems to be holding pretty well already.
removed the ladder, soaked the skimmer baskets and lids in bleach, brushed etc.
I did not really find anything that looked algae-ridden like I expected to given how hard it has been to completely clean out my pool and keep it that way.

I have been targeting Cl=28, does that seem reasonable? It's not quite mustard shock for my CYA level (34) but there seems to be something fairly persistent in the pool.

Thanks

That sounds good. Remember to brush everywhere while at shock level.

it took me 2 or 3 hours to brush this a.m!
no need to go to the gym!

i was planning on more brushing in the evening.

thanks for your help

You can test to see if the SWG is working by simply taking a water sample directly from a return and comparing the level with the rest of the pool. It should be higher if the unit is working.

thanks, chiefwej.
I did test at the return, it was 1ppm higher than pool water. Water that I sampled from the union of the swg and the return line was 2ppm higher than the pool. I think the swg works, at least intermittently, but I think I had the awesome trifecta of putting too much salt in the pool, not enough CYA, and some organic stuff growing.
You'd think I was brand new at this In fact, probably most new pool owners make fewer mistakes than I do!

okay, shocking and brushing still and a few more questions...
i'm not letting the Cl dip below 25.5. 24 is shock level for my Cya. did lose 3 ppm overnight last night, so have to keep shocking.
water really looks awesome.

#1. my swg reads the salt level as 4250. it read 3800 a few days ago. Taylor salt test said 3400. I have added 16 or so bottles of shock but no more bags of salt. Any thoughts as to why it would do that? i think salinity sensor may be faulty, or does not like high CL levels
#2. even with all the salt I have in the pool, is chlorinating with liquid instead of the swg this summer ok? I'm tired of troubleshooting the swg and it seems simpler to test and pour in exactly what the pool needs.
#3 Should I bite the bullet and do a 20% drain to decrease the CYA? The pool is in full sun all day.
#4. CH is 210. Tap water is only 80 so the CH probably will not come up on it's own. I'm sure I need to be done shocking before I increase it, but I get nervous about calcium clouding (I'm very tired of cloudy water!). Any tips on how to avoid CH addition from clouding the water?

okay, any thoughts as to how close to the finish line I might be? This seems to be taking a ridiculously long time:

last night: fc 30, cc.5. fc 31 cc.5
445 this morning. fc 29.0 cc0. fc 28.0, cc.5. added 1 gallon 12% (=32-33)
11 am. added 1 more gallon 12%
12:00 fc 33.5 cc0. no additions
3:00. fc 30.5 cc 0
its raining today so not much uv light using up the Cl
water is very clear, no signs of algae. brushing everything 2x per day.

I do not know how people keep this up for weeks (hopefully I don't have to find out). I'm tired!

day 4 shocking
I have kept Cl between 25 and 33 all 4 days.
oclt's were 3.5, 2.5, 2, 1.5 on nights 1,2,3,4
It's taking fewer gallons of 12% Cl to maintain shock level.
I have scrubbed, removed the ladder etc. I scrubbed at the light, but can't get it out. It seems to be plastered in a bit (don't ask!) butI flushed a lot of water around it and haven't seen any algae.
water has sparkled since day 2

I seem to be making headway, but I had a question. The pool had lost 8ppm Cl today so far. It has been mostly overcast today. I'm unclear whether this Cl use is abnormally high, or is expected given how high the Cl level is to start with. I guess I'm asking if you think I'm close to being done getting rid of the organic stuff. I sure hope so!
thanks