cloudy pool advice/encouragement

[sneekyeye]

This is my father in law's pool I've been working on. The pool was left alone for about a year and got all green. He's tried this year to clear it up under the advice of the pool store locally. It would turn less green then it would go back to green again. I found this site recently and was able to convince him to let me work on his pool. We ended up going through so far about 18 174 and 182oz bleach bottles.
I kept the FC high over the course of a weekend and the green seems to have completely disappeared. Now the pool has been cloudy for about 3 days with very little improvement in clarity. The pump runs 24/7 I've been backwashing the filter every day, and getting what appears to be a lot of debris through the sight glass. I've swept the pool many times and there is very little, if anything in deep end on the bottom. Some leaf pieces come up but not a lot.

readings are:
FC 3
PH 7.2
TA 60
CYA 30+ (unsure exact, that's what they put)
TDS 150

I put 64 oz of baking soda in to raise TA since the test.

Pics:

Any advice as far as clearing it up? They have mentioned flocking it, but I'm trying to keep them from putting everything the pool store says in it.
Thanks

 

[PaulR]

You're not done shocking until the pool is clear. At CYA 30, shock level is FC 12; back to the store for more bleach!

If it's a sand filter, clearing can take some days after the algae is all dead.
--paulr

 

[reebok]

the green is going to come back fast if you don't keep on top of it per the instructions in pool school, and an fc of 3 definitely isn't going to cut it. at this point, how to shock your pool is the most applicable article to read, though I recommend reading all of the articles at least twice. on the other hand, not knowing your CYA level pretty much inhibits you from being able to clear the pool with any kind of accuracy...you'll either have to pick a cya level and shock it per the chlorine/cya chart shock level and see if it works, but your best way is to get a good test kit. you can pick up a 6 way test from walmart that does test for cya while you wait on one of the kits recommended in pool school.
pool-school/

 

[sneekyeye]

I've been keeping the FC about 5-7 the last couple days, We have a Leslies Deluxe DPD test kit. The chlorine loss has slowed considerably. I don't place a lot of faith in the pool store CYA test, there have been readings of 100, 30, 40+, and 30+ from the same store, different employees.
When I first started, I added to FC 18 according to the pool calc, and added more throughout the day. I would run to the store for a good FC test and took it back up from there. Generally it would have fallen to 10 or so through the day. Now it drops 1-2 through the day and the same at night.

 

[PaulR]

I don't place a lot of faith in the pool store CYA test, there have been readings of 100, 30, 40+, and 30+ from the same store, different employees.

This is why we always say to get your own kit. As the owner you will take the time to be careful and do it right. The pool store has no investment in giving you the right answers. Well, a rare few do; but mostly not.
--paulr

 

[reebok]

I thought I got good FC readings from the pool store too, since their setup looked like a chemistry lab and they were always nice and seemed knowledgeable. then I got totally different readings from two stores. you absolutely need a good test kit, otherwise you're shooting in the dark. you need a fas-dpd especially for what you're doing (or need to be doing, which is shocking) right now. but in the meantime, getting a good cya reading with the walmart kit will suffice while you wait on the good test kit. I understand it's not even your pool so you may not want to spend the money, but between it and the mods and knowledgeable members on the forum, it will fix the pool. try to make the sell to the father in law.

 

[sneekyeye]

I believe we are switching to 73% cal hypo for chlorinating. Our calcium hardness levels were 190-220 per testing, so we have a little room to play there with the powder we'll get more bang for the buck chlorine wise with that. The pool is still the same cloudy wise. I've at least kept it from turning green again for the week now with bleach. Once we pick up another tub of that stuff I'll be able to pull it back up to real shock level, and will post results or additional questions here.