What have I done?

[MarleneK]

Ok, this morning my PH was back down to 7.2-ish after being 7.6 last night. My chlorine is around 4 according to my two way kit. I vaccummed this morning, and back washed 3 times. I'm beginning to think I'm dealing with more than algae. I've been sitting here thinking, and if my toilet water sits for a while, I get a yellowish ring around the water line. Could I have iron in my water? Is there a way to test for it without taking it to a pool store? Remember where I am! Further more, if it is Iron, what can I do to take care of that?
Sorry to be a pain, but thanks for sticking with me!
Mar

[CarlD]

Keep it simple. If you have algae already, a chlorine level of 4 isn't going to help. That's why nothing is happening. You need to shock your pool up to 12-15ppm (since we don't know your CYA/stabilizer level) and keep it there until the water clears. You cannot let it drop, you have to test it 2 to 3 times a day, and add bleach as needed to get it up there. You may have a clear pool in 2 days, or 2 weeks, depending on how infested it is, and how diligent YOU are.

Once you have spent several days killing anything and everything with lots and lots of chlorine, you can start wondering if you have metals as well. IF you still have a problem. Since you clearly have algae, you want to kill that NOW! Solve that first.

[MarleneK]

Is there a way that I can figure out what my ppm is based on what my two way test is telling me? Like if I'm reading a 4 on my kit, what is my pppm, and what I need to add to get it up to the ppm I need?
I forgot to say that I had been using bleach to shock the pool, but yesterday when I came home from work, my husband had filled our automatic chlorinator and turned it on, so I didn't add any more bleach.

[wollypog6]

Hi Marlene, The 4 on your test kit is PPM. Match up the colours look at the corresponding number and that is your PPM. To clear up your algae your going to have to maintain a chlorine level much higher than 4PPM. Get a bottle of distilled water and make a mix of 3 parts distilled water and 1 part pool water. Fill your test kit and take a reading and multiply the results by 4, that will be your PPM. You are going to need to be in the 15-20PPM range to knock down your algae. Get your chlorine up to that level and keep it there as consistently as possible by testing frequently and adding bleach as necessary.