This is my first post. I have been searching the site for quite a while and have learned a lot, but I haven't found our exact problem. Not knowing exactly how all the levels interact, I'm not comfortable making assumptions from kind of similar situations, so I would very very much appreciate input from you all. (I have 4 kids under 6 who REALLY miss their pool!) We are very new pool owners (moved to house in November) and we converted what was a cloudy chlorine pool to saltwater at the end of May and all seemed fine and the water was crystal clear. Our automatic pool cover broke 2 weeks ago and so the pool was closed and unused (and chemicals unchecked) for about 10 days. Cover was replaced on Friday, opened the pool on Saturday and the pool is very cloudy and a bit on the greenish side.
My husband did the following things:
-Saturday - Tested chlorine level that showed very little chlorine so he turned the SWG to super-chlorinate for 24 hours and used the Polaris pool cleaner
-Sunday - chlorine still low- put in 12 pounds of granular shock (SWG remained on); added algaeside and Leslie's Perfect Weekly; brushed the pool
-Monday - Pool sample to Leslie's (sample was in a bottle for several hours, I assume this reduces validity...)
FAC- 0 (!)
TAC- 0 (!)
pH- 7.2
TA- 160 (High? treat?)
AA- __ (? not tested?)
CYA- 40 (is this low for a SWG?)
Calcium Hardness- ___ (? not tested?)
TDS- 4700 (is this too high?)
Salt- 3300
Cop/Iron- ____
Phosphates- 200 (High)
-Monday Continued - Leslie's told him to turn up the chlorinator to 100%
-Tuesday- Sample to Leslie's (sample again was in a bottle for several hours)
FAC- 0 (!)
TAC- 0 (!)
pH- 7.2
TA- 150 (high)
AA- __ (? not tested?)
CYA- 30 (low?)
Calcium Hardness- ___ (? not tested?)
TDS- 4900 (higher?)
Salt- 3300
Cop/Iron- ____
Phosphates- 300 (higher?)
-Tuesday Continued- Leslie's questioned the SWG chlorine production, BUT my husband then talked to Hayward and went through diagnostics which indicated the cell was working properly and Hayward's said that the phosphate level (feeding the algae) was using up the chlorine, so they had him backwash the filter (it was greenish) and add commercial grade PhosFree
-Wednesday- vacuumed and brushed the pool, backwashed (appeared clear) and added more PhosFree
The test strips still indicate that there is no Chlorine and the pool water is still cloudy (but is a bit better than yesterday).
Is this an algae problem? A pool chemical balance problem? Is the pool water too old (we don't know when it was last drained)? Do we just need to keep shocking it?
I hope I've provided all the information needed to get help. Thank you in advance for helping because the people at Leslie's and Haywards are saying VERY different things and we are totally confused...
My husband did the following things:
-Saturday - Tested chlorine level that showed very little chlorine so he turned the SWG to super-chlorinate for 24 hours and used the Polaris pool cleaner
-Sunday - chlorine still low- put in 12 pounds of granular shock (SWG remained on); added algaeside and Leslie's Perfect Weekly; brushed the pool
-Monday - Pool sample to Leslie's (sample was in a bottle for several hours, I assume this reduces validity...)
FAC- 0 (!)
TAC- 0 (!)
pH- 7.2
TA- 160 (High? treat?)
AA- __ (? not tested?)
CYA- 40 (is this low for a SWG?)
Calcium Hardness- ___ (? not tested?)
TDS- 4700 (is this too high?)
Salt- 3300
Cop/Iron- ____
Phosphates- 200 (High)
-Monday Continued - Leslie's told him to turn up the chlorinator to 100%
-Tuesday- Sample to Leslie's (sample again was in a bottle for several hours)
FAC- 0 (!)
TAC- 0 (!)
pH- 7.2
TA- 150 (high)
AA- __ (? not tested?)
CYA- 30 (low?)
Calcium Hardness- ___ (? not tested?)
TDS- 4900 (higher?)
Salt- 3300
Cop/Iron- ____
Phosphates- 300 (higher?)
-Tuesday Continued- Leslie's questioned the SWG chlorine production, BUT my husband then talked to Hayward and went through diagnostics which indicated the cell was working properly and Hayward's said that the phosphate level (feeding the algae) was using up the chlorine, so they had him backwash the filter (it was greenish) and add commercial grade PhosFree
-Wednesday- vacuumed and brushed the pool, backwashed (appeared clear) and added more PhosFree
The test strips still indicate that there is no Chlorine and the pool water is still cloudy (but is a bit better than yesterday).
Is this an algae problem? A pool chemical balance problem? Is the pool water too old (we don't know when it was last drained)? Do we just need to keep shocking it?
I hope I've provided all the information needed to get help. Thank you in advance for helping because the people at Leslie's and Haywards are saying VERY different things and we are totally confused...