Maurie, I'm very sorry you are having such a hard time with your pool. Let me start out by saying I do NOT know for certain what is going on. I re-read through the whole thread, and still do not have a clear picture of what's been going on. I'm going to go through a series of quotes from your posts, and offer the best suggestions I can, but that's all I can do.

As I noted earlier, you've got a chemical hobo soup in there, due to all the chemicals you added at your dealer's behest. Additionally, mistakes have been made. Other things, I'm not clear about, at all.

Let me make four suggestions, however

1. Start cleaning your filter EVERY day, and operating it 24/7, with no down time at all.
2. Take pictures of your pool, of the algae seams (your quote, below) and of the dirty filter cartridges. Send them to [email protected]. I've discovered, just this season, that digital cameras do a good enough job with color for someone experienced to tell a great deal about your pool, by seeing an IN-FOCUS, color photo.
3. Keep your chlorine high; brush your pool like crazy, and make SURE your chlorine is STILL high one hour after brushing.
4. Keep your chlorine high for TWO weeks after you think all algae is gone, and make SURE it stays high, even if it rains.

Quote Originally Posted by Maurie View Post
Ph - about 7.0
TA - 310-320
TH - 210
(fill water)

Your fill water is quite hard, and guaranteed to rise in pH once you put it in your pool.

Chlorine - 5ppm
pH - 7.2
TA - 240ppm
TH - 370ppm
CYA - <30ppm
(July 1)

Presumably, your hardness has increased from either calcium or magnesium in your pool chemicals


Chlorine - over 5 ppm
pH - 7.5
TA - 240 ppm
TH - 400 ppm
CYA - 30-35 ppm
(July 5)

OK.

I added 6qt of 6% bleach and chlorine was very high - dark orange. It is now a lighter orange. I did brush once it hit the dark orange. Now our pool looks even greener.
(July 7)

Hm-mh. This is typical, when you have piles of algae on the bottom, and stir it the algae up. When you have so much algae that it immediately turns the pool green upon brushing, you need to FIRST add more chlorine, and then test chlorine in the next few hours to make SURE it stays up. Other wise, it will QUICKLY regrow and you'll lose any ground you've gained.


Chlorine - 0
Ph - about 7.0 (I think - the color was a really pale pink)
TA - 310-320
TH - 210
(July 9)

And, here, you've lost all the ground you gained. When there's that much algae, and the chlorine goes to zero, you've done a RESET to pre-treatment conditions. Basically, you're back at square one. What I do NOT understand, is where your calcium has gone. Was your filter covered with a sort of light green, but thick, paste?

Fill water started out clear. Once adding bleach it took on a yellow tint but still clear. After 15 min, it was still clear but a bit more yellow. I added the borax. After 24 hr, the water was still yellowish and clear with sediment on the bottom in the center. After 24 more hr, it was still the same. Tested with OTO and it was very splotchy orange...very strange. The next three days are up tomorrow.
(July 15 => bucket test.)

Apparently, even with the very high TA & TH, you still have metals in your fill water. That's some really difficult to work with pool water. But, you are holding chlorine at a high level (for a CYA=30), so you are probably gaining against the algae somewhat.


It has been raining ALOT in the Houston area. So much so that it's been hard to get outside and take care of the pool. It's pretty green again too. Algae again???
(July 15)

Darn. RESET, again. You almost certainly lost the ground you gained, for a second time. Once algae is as well established as it is in your pool, you cannot afford to have chlorine levels get low, even for a brief period.


I also noticed the small separation in the liner above the seams at the top have little bits of water and lots of algae sitting in the area.
(July 15)

OK, you've got algae in ALL the cracks and crannies of your pool. That's important to know.

The borax did clear up the cloudy pool bucket.
(July 17)

Huh? I don't understand this? Presumably, you added both bleach and borax to the metals test bucket with pool water. Can you explain the sequence and result here?


Chlorine -dark orange
pH - around 6.9-7.0
Hardness -none
TA - about 120
(July 18)

Well, at least you've just about gotten your TA to a reasonable level. But I don't understand how your hardness could have dropped to ZERO. Where did it go?

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I don't really know what's happening with your pool, so I'll have to make the best guess I can:

1. Past use of pool store goop has made your pool respond to treatment somewhat erratically, as new chlorine reacted with old goop.

2. Your algae was much worse that what I'd understood, and you had piles of chlorine-eating algae goop on your pool's walls and bottom.

3. A lack of clearly understanding what was needed lead to some erratic chlorination on your part. This combined with the huge reservoir of algae to 'RESET' your pool to a pre-treatment state, not once, but twice.

Further than that, I can't guess. I don't know how you got a ZERO hardness reading; I don't know what your CYA level really is.