We set up the pool (Coleman above ground 16 ft round x 48 inches deep) mid June and filled with well water took a day and a half to fill. Water had yellow tint and instead of being a smart person and taking in a water sample I decided to shock right away. Water turned brown within a few hours. For the following two weeks I only had one of those cheap filter cartridges (index/walmart style). The lightbulb turned on and I immediately brought a water sample to Leslie pool supply where I was told that the shock I had spread oxidized with the iron from well water. I was given a jug of metal free to disperse and told to bring in a water sample 24 hrs later. Metals were zero on the next visit but I wanted a clear pool for the kids and got suckered into buying as ascorbic acid to remove the brown. 24 hrs later pool was no longer brown. But green. Took in another sample and was told I had algae now (by this time I had upgraded to my sand filter as I was trying to clear this mess up quickly so kids could swim). Leslie's convinced me that now that I had a sand filter. The quickest way to rid algae was to add ten lbs of alum! The pool then turned whitish green. I was repeatedly told over a period of three days, that I just had to let the alum settle with no circulation and no chlorine. It was at this time that I decided to try a different pool company, aqua leisure. They told me to add de to my sand filter and filter from the bottom (set vacuum on bottom of pool on its side through the skimmer and eventually everything would filter out) after four days of this method and no results my husband and I decided to scour the Internet for any possible solution and we stumbled on this website. I immediately added a gallon of 6.25% bleach to my pool at 10 pm last night and scoured my house for another one to add this morning. I found an off brand type with no chlorine value and added it. When I came home today, for the first time in almost three weeks I could see down into my pool at over a foot and a half deep and got extremely excited!!! This afternoon I took two pool samples and took one to Leslie pools and another to Aqua leisure. Here are the results: Leslie pool (uses eyeballs, vials and color matches with test strips)- free available chlorine: 4, total available chlorine-4, calcium hardness-160, cya-60, ta-90, ph-7.6, copper-0, iron-0, tds-800, phosphates-200 and temperature-80. Aqua leisure (uses some machine that shoots light through samples and feeds data into the computer): ta-120, ph-7.1, calcium hardness- 272, total chlorine- 1.57, free chlorine- 1.29, chlorine stabilizer- 15, and iron- .4. I'm so confused in the huge difference between numbers!!!! I have ordered a tf-100 test kit and it will be here on 7july. Until then both places had my chlorine low so I added two gallons of Clorox with 8.25% of chlorine. I also decided to deep clean my filter since I knew it should be caked with iron, alum and de. It was and was disgusting after only operating for a week and being back washed on a twice to three times daily basis. What can I do until I receive my test kit? My plan was to add a gallon of bleach in the morning and again 12 hrs later since I've already had such good results. Is this a good idea? Would love to be able to swim on Fourth of July! Thank you for your patience in this long post! Have pictures from beginning to now but can't figure out how to post.