I think we’re still at the “don’t know for certain what your CYA and other water chemistry is” phase. I’ve lost track of what you’ve been told so far but it seems to me chlorine at all is the priority. With that much living and multiplying organic matter in the pool, you’ll lose a lot of chlorine so whether it's the sun or the moon or the algae, would be hard to quantify where it’s going and without dependable test results, hard to determine why or how much, etc. I guess what I’m trying to say is get chlorine in the water at whatever level the cult leaders (joke
) have recommended and don’t sweat the other stuff until your new test kit arrives. With the way that water looks, it may be hard to measure CYA accurately anyway.
Wow, when I said I'd stay out of the advice fray, I wasn't expecting
this much "fray!" Hopefully all the ruminating is helping with your general understanding, and that's good, but
@SoDel's post is the voice of reason... just wanted to say.
- Get and keep the FC up until the kit arrives to keep the pool from getting worse. It doesn't matter what's eating it. What matters is replacing it. Once you post a full suite of test results, we can fine-tune the advice. Until then, chlorine only, nothing else.
- Get the carp out of the pool. You can be doing that now, before the kit arrives, every day, many times a day. That's the part, along with the FC, that is the most important, and unfortunately, going to be the hardest. There's no short cut, it's what's costing you the clarity and the chlorine. Scoop it out. Vacuum it out. Filter it out. Whatever it takes, even if it seems you're not making any progress. Every little bit helps, and you can't clear the pool of algae while you've got that much organic matter in the water (well, you can, but there's not enough chlorine or time!). I realize you might not be able to see it, but you still gotta go after it. I would guess slow, methodical, grid-pattern-following vacuuming might be your best bet. Try to keep from stirring up the bottom, just keep going over it, very slowly, checker-board style, over and over, as much and as often as time allows. But it's not going to be minutes. It's going to be hours. Embrace it! Play some music. Listen to a pod cast. Get your zen on. Wax on, wax off, grasshopper!
