Cloudy Water

[PoolDoc]

It's hard to tell what all might be going on, because you've done so many things. Do all these things:

1. Dose with PLAIN 6% household bleach EACH evening -- 2 gallons per dose. Do NOT use other forms of chlorine, till you have completed pH, alkalinity, hardness, and stabilizer tests.
2. Get an OTO test kit ASAP -- HTH 6-way OR a cheapie, if the 6-way is not available.
3. Get a K2006 (see link below).
4. STOP using algaecides EXCEPT polyquat
5. STOP using clarifier.
6. Report test results when available.
7. Increase evening bleach dose in 1 gallon increments until you are able to HOLD a dark yellow OTO result till the early AM.
8. BRUSH the pool completely the 2nd evening. Add at least 1 extra gallon of bleach AFTER brushing.
9. Get a small amount of DE powder. As soon as you water is clear enough to allow you to do so, add ~2 cups of DE to the skimmer, and then watch the return jet. If you see DE powder blow back into the pool, REPAIR your filter.

Remember that with algae, you are always either winning or losing . . . and if you're NOT winning you ARE losing, even if it doesn't look like it at first. Algae always either dying, or getting worse: there is no stable condition if algae is present.

Good luck!

[PoolConfusion]

It's hard to tell what all might be going on, because you've done so many things. Do all these things:

1. Dose with PLAIN 6% household bleach EACH evening -- 2 gallons per dose. Do NOT use other forms of chlorine, till you have completed pH, alkalinity, hardness, and stabilizer tests.
2. Get an OTO test kit ASAP -- HTH 6-way OR a cheapie, if the 6-way is not available.
3. Get a K2006 (see link below).
4. STOP using algaecides EXCEPT polyquat
5. STOP using clarifier.
6. Report test results when available.
7. Increase evening bleach dose in 1 gallon increments until you are able to HOLD a dark yellow OTO result till the early AM.
8. BRUSH the pool completely the 2nd evening. Add at least 1 extra gallon of bleach AFTER brushing.
9. Get a small amount of DE powder. As soon as you water is clear enough to allow you to do so, add ~2 cups of DE to the skimmer, and then watch the return jet. If you see DE powder blow back into the pool, REPAIR your filter.

Remember that with algae, you are always either winning or losing . . . and if you're NOT winning you ARE losing, even if it doesn't look like it at first. Algae always either dying, or getting worse: there is no stable condition if algae is present.

Good luck!

Thanks. Looks like I have some work to do.

[PoolDoc]

It's much harder to cleanup pools, than to maintain them. Unfortunately, pool stores have NO incentive to encourage people to do so, or teach them how. They can make more profit from one algae episode, than from a whole summer of generic chlorine.