First time pool owner with some questions!

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Oh we have a fix for Mustard algae as well................ready for it?????????? We fix mustard algae with..........BLEACH! LOL

What we do is follow the SLAM to get the pool clear then IF we think there is mustard algae we do one day of extra high FC.

There a change of color heading towards blue. Keep it up! You ARE beating it!

Kim
 
Hang in there. I love reading these threads. Seems like everyone at some point gets frustrated and wants to quit. Stick with it. You have to realize that your pool was BAD before. Some of the 4 day or even 10 day SLAMS might make you reconsider the process, but keep in mind that your pool is way WAY worse than those.
One thing you might do if your still worried is to do a deep clean on your sand filter. There is a video on here somewhere that demonstrates that. With everything you've been filtering out, it might be worth it. At least you would know for your own personal benefit that the filter was clean and doing its job.
 
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During today's backwash. I thought you guys might find this amusing!
 
Just a word of encouragement...

You are doing great, asking all the right questions and following the advice you get to a tee. Just keep doing what you're doing. I've seen this a hundred times here. A swamp can take quite a while to clear up, but it WILL get there. Based upon the last photo, I'd say you're only a few days from that water turning blue.

Hang in there - these folks know what they are doing. And keep the pics coming. We LOVE pictures!
 
I should have taken a picture of what just came out of my skimmer basket. There were some bad storms last night and I have a lot of trees around my pool, so before the storm hit I switched my pump to pull more from my skimmer than my main drain. I woke up this morning and went out. The pool had a little floating debris, but the skimmer basket was absolutely full... including about 8 tree frogs that I suspect blew in with the storm. I think 3 made it out alive. The others couldn't take the chlorine or the suction one.
 
I had to run to the local pool store today. Looking for cleaner parts. I brought a water sample with me to see what their machines said. They ran the sample, FC and CC were as I expected. TA and pH were as I expected. What was strange was CYA. They said my CYA was at 5ppm. I said that's impossible and told them I'd just added stabilizer a week ago, etc. They proceeded to tell me I may have back washed too soon etc... they may be right, but my Tf-100 is saying around 35-40 ppm of stabilizer so I'm working on the assumption it's correct. They then proceeded to bash me adding CYA during a shock, having my FC that high for that long, and using bleach to add FC to my pool. Too many other additives, phosphates etc. They then told me there is no way no how my CYA turned into ammonia and that ammonia can't exist in a pool. At this point I was tired of hearing her and her 30 years of experience. It wasn't that I know she was wrong or right or anything. It was her holier than thou attitude. I did not care for it and I won't be back there. Just thought I'd share.
 
She also proceeded to tell me that CYA could be 100-200 ppm and it wouldn't hurt anything and that it didn't effect shock levels at all. I was done with that conversation already, but that really spent it. She then tried to sell me "Back to Blue", which I researched and found is 78% cal-hypo as part 1 and alum floc as part 2. Nothing special. I got what I needed and some alum floc by itself, ($27 for my pool size...thought I'd give it a shot). I'll let you know what happens. The pump has to be off and the water still before it starts according to the packaging. I'm at 18ppm FC anyway and it's overcast today so it's a good time for me to give this a shot. Here's todays photo pre-floc.
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Here's the picture 48 hours after putting the floc in the pool. Needless to say it didn't work as I hoped. I put it in Saturday morning and haven't added chlorine since Friday morning. FC is still at 13. CC is at 0. I'm not sure what to make of the very little FC loss. Only around 5ppm in 79 hours or so.
 
Just to be 100% clear, that was 48 hours with pump not running, no filter, no recirc after allowing it to mix right?

That almost looks like some kind of metal. Hopefully someone will have a good idea because I don't, sorry.
 
Yes, 48 hours completely still. It made some things float up. Leaves and a small limb. I vacuumed to waste as much of the floor as I could estimate covering. I'm not sure what exactly happened here. I followed the instructions on the container and definitely used enough.
 
You need to keep up with the slam. I know it doesn't seem like much progress but its worth it in the end. Just take a look at your first photo and the last photo side by side. Thats a big difference. I can promise you I was in the same boat as you and was skeptical but it works. Just keep you pump running and the chlorine where the slam level is supposed to be and it WILL become crystal clear.
 
Ok here goes. I want to first thank everyone here for all the knowledge you've given me. I am 100% certain that it will keep me from ever having to do this again. I also fully believe in the TFP method and that it would have worked for me if my filter were more capable and my situation hadn't gotten so bad. All that being said I did end up purchasing a product called Back to Blue from Poolife and it worked a miracle for lack of a better word.

Here is the last image I took before putting it in my pool.
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The next 3 images are approximately one hour after adding the cal-hypo and proprietary floc.
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This is about 10 hours after the initial entry.
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The final 2 images I just took about 31 hours after the process began.
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That is the bottom of my pool. I will vacuum to waste tomorrow if at all possible, but you can see the changes were absolutely mind blowing. The amount of product to do a 30k gallon pool cost about 48 dollars shipped to my door. It took 3 days to get here. The pictures speak for themselves I think, but I'd love to hear your comments and thoughts.
 
Right. That sheet is for Back to Blue part 1 which is ~75% cal-hypo. The kit comes with 2.6lb of it and I used two kits. That's enough to raise my FC by 23. The equivalent of 7 jugs of 8.25% bleach. Which would have cost me around 23 dollars. Part two is the floc though, and I'm not sure what exactly is in it. It was orange/red. I put 4 pounds of it in the pool. It's definitely what is causing the difference. Just basing the cal-hypo vs bleach price comparison I'm acting like I paid half for the chlorine and half for the floc and 23 dollars for a floc that is this effective is worth it to me. Now I just wish they sold it separately.
 

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