The green algae tint that will not go away

[CarlD]

Ok, so here are the latest measurements using the pool store computer: (my Taylor kit is still being pondered by Amazon)

FC: 3.15 (notice the drop from 16+ from the last time)
CC: 0.59
TC: 3.74
PH: 7.7
Hardness: 27 ppm
ALK: 119 ppm
CYA: 12 ppm
Copper - 0
Iron - 0.4 ppm

The guy explained that when total and free chlor are close, it leads to murky water.
They also suggested adding 65 pounds of 'Calcium Hardness Control' to bring that up.

Then, a bottle of Metal Away followed by 8 capfuls of Alum (some sort of sequestering agent) to the skimmer and let it run for 48 hours, then backwash and repeat.

Just for fun, I put in a few Ascorbic acid tabs in a calm section to observe any change to the liner - nothing.

The murk seems a bit better today, so perhaps it is just a matter of continued filtering? The liner verticals look good (blue).
Edit: adding in a bit of DE as well. Shame it only comes in 25lb boxes.

Is the Pink Stuff similar to the Alum? Between the shipping cost and delay, I'd hate to have to go that route (nobody sells it locally).

Sorry I've been away from this thread for a while. The guy in the pool store is full of it.

"The guy explained that when total and free chlor are close, it leads to murky water."
I don't have a polite word for this, it's SO wrong! The IDEAL is when TC and FC are the same. The farther apart they are, the more CC you have and the bigger the problem.

The numbers he generated from the test don't make any sense either. You cannot measure to hundreths of a PPM by any test kit I know of outside of a science lab.
ASSUMING (and it's a big assumption) that the numbers really are:
FC=3.2, CC=.6, TC=3.8, pH=7.7, T/A=120, CYA=10, Copper=0 and Iron =.4
It indicates you do NOT still have a metal problem.

Adding 65 lbs of calcium hardness control will do NOTHING but lighten your wallet. Calcium is solely to protect the plaster and mortar in hard-sided pools, nothing else.

The "pink stuff" is not alum. However, if you just dump it in, it doesn't work. Unfortunately, you need to lower your FC before the metals are dissolved and suspended safely.

IF your latest numbers are right, you're back to the basics--Shock and keep shocking, filter 24/7, brush the walls and bottom, and vacuum to waste daily. Consistency and persistence is the key. Randomly throwing in stuff won't work.

Sorry.

[Orion]

Just as a follow-up (thanks Carl!)...

I continued the shocking and constant filtration, while pouring 6 cupfuls of ALUM in the filter basket after each backwash. The Taylor kit finally arrived (having been constructed on the moon, apparently), and it showed my alk to be much too low.

I know you said no to Alum in the pool, but as the evil pool store guy explained, if you dump it in the skimmer, it forms a sticky barrier on top of the sand. I can't say for sure if it actually made a difference, but the backwash water was always a lovely brown (while water in the pool was even cleared up).
Something was doing something.

So now it is normal.

(I should add that I had an analysis done by a different store before the kit arrived. They wanted to sell me the hardness increaser and I refused, based on your advice. The kid at the register was dumbfounded, lol)