The lake in my backyard, oh I mean pool

[polyanna73003]

Hello. I have a 30X30 round above ground pool. My pool looks like a lake and smells like one too. I started by adding five bags of shock and 3 large 3" chlorine tablets once or twice a day. Not much change. I poured a bottle of algaecide in it. Then I visited to pool store and he sold me 99% pure chlorine powder, which I dumped 4-5 pounds in the pool, I had a significant change overnight to the color, it changed to a lighter teal. Then we have had rain off and on, so I poured another 6 pounds of that in there over a week. My water is now a dark green. I have been testing the water and I can't seem to get my ph up (oh i did add two bottles of ph up) and I have added alk up (about 1 pound). This brings us to yesterday. Now the rain has stopped and I have a chance to do something. I am broke from all the expensive chemicals I have been using so I looked on the internet and found people have been using bleach, baking soda and borax in place of those 3 main chemicals. I dumped 4 pounds of baking soda in yesterday and 4 pounds of borax. The biggest thing I have noticed is that when I backwashed this morning for the first time the backwash was thick and dark green and there was a lot more of it. Am I making progress now? I have poured on bottle (gal) of bleach in this morning. I was told I needed to get my ph and alk in the right place before shocking. I only get six weeks of summer off and two weeks is already gone, I just really want to enjoy this pool before I have to go back to work. Help. please

 

[woodyp]

First off, welcome to the forum. I sure would like to know the name of this miracle product they sold you that is 99% pure chlorine powder. Adding 1 gallon of bleach in a 30 ft. round pool barely makes a dent. STOP with the algaecide. STOP with the pool store recommendations..........Start by ordering one of our recommended test kits and visit Pool School to learn how to properly SLAM your pool when it arrives.

 

[Richard320]

Welcome!

As you've discovered, the pool store chemistry training is more about emptying your wallet than fixing your pool. What does your pool need today? Spin the wheel and see what it says!

So stop listening to their advice. And stop blindly dumping chemicals into the water. Not every pool needs Borax and Baking Soda. It's not a miracle cure.

What you need is a proper test kit. And I know it's a chunk o'change and your wallet is now empty, but it is what it is. Without a test kit, you're working blind. It's like painting a portrait in the dark. You'll get paint on the canvas, no doubt, what the end result will not be what you wanted. All you'll have accomplished is wasting a lot of paint and ruining a blank canvas.

You don't want to end up like this

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There is a ton of information in pool school. Link is upper right of every page. Before anything else, you need to read Pool School - Test Kits Compared Then go look through some of the threads in Recovering my old inspirational links Do what they did. We'll help.