AHHHH help!

[lindzy90]

This is my first year having a swimming pool and it has been nothing but trouble. I bought an Intex ultra frame metal 18 ft round x 52" (roughly 8000 gallons). We have a cartridge filter that I have been changing daily. We also have well water so from the get go the water was cloudy and green tinted.

I have taken my water to get tested yesterday and the results are as follows:

FC 10
Total CL 10
Combined 0
Alk 233
PH 7.5
Ch 174
CYA 9
Iron .4

At the pool store they told me just to add a stablizer because everything else was good and that my filter that came with the pool isnt adequate and tried to sell me a new sand pump. I went home and added the stablizer and also some metal control. The water hasnt changed. We use the chlorine tablets and I also have been shocking once a week and adding 4 oz of the algaecide.

Just wanted some input on my number because my Alk seems high and thought maybe the pool store was just trying to get $$ from me. Don't want to spend more money on a new filter as this pool is temporary for us to decide if we want a "real" pool.

Please help :-D

 

[lindzy90]

I feel like I should clarify.. the water is green tinted, i said cloudy but I can see the bottom of the pool just not very well

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

The Intex cartridge filters really aren't very good. They can take a very long time to clear cloudy water. And of course, if you haven't killed all the algae the water will never clear up. From your levels, I suspect you have killed the algae, and are just waiting for the filter to do it's job. Make sure you clean/replace the filter every day while the water is cloudy murky like that. The cartridges coming out should be fairly dirty, if they aren't there may be additional problems.

High TA (alkalinity) tends to cause the PH to go up. If you aren't having any problems with PH going up you don't need to worry about TA.

Iron in the water can tint the water green when the FC level is high. Using metal control should eliminate the green tint.

 

[lindzy90]

The filters coming out are a rusty orange color.... is this normal?

can high TA cause the green tinted water? This is a brand new pool so I dont think we ever had algae issues since the water was this color from the well water hose.