Pool Pea Soup Green for 3 weeks NOTHING Helping

[ShepardFamily]

Hi, I want to start off by thanking anybody for help they can provide. Let me start off with what all has been done to the pool. 3 weeks ago the guy that winterizes our pool came out to open it and shocked it. He told us then it was in bad shape because we didn't get a cover on it and thus allowed a lot of debris to get in the pool. He came back out a second time and shocked it a second time. He had instructed me to do the leaf skimmer and get as much debris out as possible and also to backwash. I did this for several days and nothing changed and my wife got frustrated. We are both teachers and she was about to be out of school and wanted her pool ready! :-D She then went to a local pool company and the told her we needed to floc the pool. To turn everything off, dilute the floc and then vacuum to waste and repeat this process twice. Well we did that and carried in a water sample and then another person said that we had a pool overtaken with algae and the floc was unnecessary. They then recommended $200 in chemicals and very precise instructions on how to put them in and the order to follow. We did it all to a tee and was so excited thinking we would wake up and see a change the next day but NOTHING!! So I then called a guy recommended by a few friends and he said we needed a stronger algicide (quash) and to shock again and to put the shock in the skimmers. He said that after doing all of that we should have blue water by the next day, cloudy blue, but blue. Well, that's today and pool still pea soup green! We went today and got 15 gallons of bleach and put that in there because we just were at our wits end. We feel like we would have been better off draining the pool and preasuring washing it and staring fresh. We have dropped over $400 and have a pool that looks the same as it did the day it was opened. I am pretty sure all the debris is removed, I have skimmed and vacuumed several times.

We have a in ground pool and sand filter. It measures 43x19 with roughly 25,000 gallons.

The printout from the water test from the pool store that has been no help has these results (they would be very different now I'm sure from the bleach)

Saturation Index: -3.5
TDS: 500
CYA: 42
Total Chlorine: 1
Free Chlorine: 1
pH: 7.2
Alkalinity: 135
Hardness: 186
Optimizer: 14

PLEASE HELP

 

[Bama Rambler]

The best thing you can do for yourself is to read pool school, especially the part about how to correctly shock your pool. You've done correctly by getting all the debris out. Now you need to shock and hold it for as long as it takes to kill the algae.

You'll need a good test kit too. I hate to tell you that you need to spend more money but a test kit is the best money you can spend. I recommend the TF-100 with the XL option for you. You won't regret it.

Keep your pump running 24 hours a day while you're shocking.

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! I'm sorry you have had such a bad experience with your pool this season. I would like to ask a few questions about your pool.
Is this an inground or above ground pool? If it is inground is it plaster, fiberglass, or vinyl liner?
What kind of filter do you have?
What chemicals have you added to the pool so far? (brand names, or chemical names, either will do)
Please post a fresh set of test result when you can. Let the pool store test it but don't buy anything. Don't worry about results for total hardness, total dissolved solids, or optimizer. We need results for FC (free chlorine) CC (combined chlorine) TA (total alkylinity), pH, and CYA (cyuranic acid, also known as conditioner or stabilizer).

The best way to clear your pool and keep it clear is to know what is going on in the water. The only way to know what is going on in the water is to have accurate test results. The best way to have accurate test results is to have a high quality test kit such as a TF 100 or a Taylor k2006. In order to know how much bleach to add you will need to know the FC (free chlorine) level. That means you will need to test FC levels higher than 10ppm. The FAS-DPD drop based test in the two kits mentioned above will enable you to test higher levels of FC so you can shock the pool correctly. This is one of the reasons why we will push the need for a high quality test kit. Test strips are highly inaccurate and will cause you to add too much or too little when you are trying to balance the water.

As Dave said, keep the pump running 24/7, and backwash or clean when the pressure rises 10 pts. Read the Pool School articles on defeating algae and we will help you clear this mess up.

 

[ShepardFamily]

Ok, we went to the pool place yesterday and got a new test and here are the results:

Saturation index: -2
TDS: 700
CYA: 10 ( could be higher pool place said they only go up to 10)
Free Chlorine: 10
PH: 7.5
Total Alkalinity: 37

 

[Richard320]

Something ain't right with those test results - 10 CYA probably wouldn't read as anything. 100 I'd believe. 200 is more probable.

You need a test kit, a whole bunch of chlorine, and these instructions.