Battle weary with clouded pool

[eca88]

I have followed your site and advice for a couple of years now and have usually been able to resolve my issues without having to ask a question myself. This time, however, I am so overloaded with information that I am going to give it a try. Our pool is 20 years old and we are on year three of a new liner and concurrent switchover to a SWG. Last fall the leaves got ahead of me and we just shut down and have been fighting it out with the water for the past couple of weeks. I believe, though there is no way to be sure at this point, that I have most of the leaves and debris out of the pool. I started SLAMming 10 days ago. Filter and Polaris running round the clock. After about 3 to 4 days I achieved the water I have now and I have seen almost no change since, in spite of keeping chlorine levels between 20 -24 ppm and applying algaecide twice. Just today I have let the chlorine drift down below 20. Current test results are:
FC 18
CC 1
pH 7.2(but I know this reading is whacked up because of the high chlorine, so who knows?)
TA 50
CH 100
CYA 40 -50

The pool is a milky light jade color. Hopefully the pic will help, but the reflection from the sky is pretty intense. I have never before NOT at least been able to turn the rascal white and then proceed from there. I also don't know how much of this color that I am seeing is reflection from sky and this liner which is patterned all the way up the side as opposed to the old one that had a sizeable band of white below the border (haven't really had this issue since we got the new liner).

I have purchased new sand for the filter, but haven't changed it out yet. Thought I would see what suggestions someone here might offer. I am pretty sure that people are starting to wonder what I am doing with ALL the bleach I've been buying!!

I have tried to include all info requested, but if I left something out, please let me know.

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! Forget the algecide they will not help at this point. Your pH would be reading high with high FC, so the fact it is 7.2 tells me you either have testing errors, or started with very low pH. What are you using to test the pool? Also how large is your pool?

If your CYA is 50 then slam level is 20.

 

[eca88]

Good afternoon, and thank you for your response. I use a Taylor test kit and I am pretty sure the pH may really be that low or worse. It was off the charts high when I first began testing and I added muratic acid as calculated for a then-current reading of 8.0 (which was a conservative estimate) and it tanked. I was having trouble circulating water at first due to the debris, but I had to start somewhere My pool is an 18 x 37 Grecian shape. CYA was 30 or less when I began but have wiggled it back to between 40 and 50 in the last day or so. (Didn't think to go back and look up new shock level.) Part of my problem is that I don't know which "dragon" to slay first!

 

[zea3]

When you have a swampy mess with a lot of debris it is best to scoop out as much as you can with a leaf rake, even if you can't see through the water. Once you think you have scooped it all out then you can adjust the chemicals and start the slam. Hopefully you won't let your pool get this bad again, but if it does you'll know what to do.