Just pulled cover off.. green swamp water

[slade8200]

Instead of bagged shock, is it better to use bleach? If so, what's the ratio, one bag of shock = 1/2 gallon of bleach?

[Watermom]

Instead of bagged shock, is it better to use bleach?

Depends on what your water testing readings are. I personally just use bleach for shocking and for daily chlorination, but if your CYA is low enough, you can shock with dichlor.

If so, what's the ratio, one bag of shock = 1/2 gallon of bleach?

Dunno. Plus, there are many types of bags of shock of various sizes.

[madwil]

1 gallon is close to 1 bag of shock...
1 gallon 6% adds 6ppm to 10k gallons
1 lb bag I think adds 7ppm- so slightly more, but not twice as much like the price!
PoolDoc note: This used to be true, 15 years ago. But unfortunately more recent 'flavors' of shock include widely varying 'blends' with varying levels of available chlorine. So, it is no longer a generally true statement -- it is true only in the specific case of unblended calcium hypochlorite shock with 68% available chlorine.

Also, most/all bag shocks add other things- either cya (stabilizer) or calcium; so they're ok on a temporary basis but over time will add up to problems

[slade8200]

I now have all the leaves and visibile dirt out of the pool. The water is now cloudy with a light green color, but I can see the bottom. My chlorine is at 4, pH is 7.4, alkalinity at 80, cyanuric acid level is pretty much non-existent. Could this be contributing to my cloudiness? What's the best way to raise it? I have one of those 2.5" chlorine tabs in the skimmer at all times, and I have been adding 3/4 gallon of bleach when my chlorine drops to 1. My DE filter is still clogging after 2 hours of running, so I guess it's picking up a lot of crap in the water still. Any help is appreciated, thank you.

[PoolDoc]

Maybe I'm missing something, but it doesn't sound like you've been using the 4 gallon doses of chlorine bleach recommended. As noted earlier, your DE filter will clog up much less once the algae is dead.

Trying to maintain just 1 ppm of chlorine is kind of 'spitting into the wind' here.

Ben

[slade8200]

The stuff in the filter is now more of a brown instead of the green it used to be. Is this dead algae or something else? I'll keep up the 4 gallon dose to keep the chlorine above 4.

[Watermom]

Probably dead algae. Don't quit the fight just yet. Keep adding the big doses of chlorine as Ben said and keep filtering. Sounds like you are making progress.