after $180 pool is still GREEN

I have an above ground 24ft round pool and this year has been horrible! Over the past 2 weeks I have dumped over $180 worth of chemicals in the pool incuding baking soda, about 30 lb of shock, clarifier, some yellow stuff, and anything else the pool place has told us....... but nothing has worked. I have also vacuumed the pool 2 times sweeping it down before vacuum and I have vacuumed on waste 2 times again sweeping it down before hand. My husband even put about 6 gallons on bleach in yesteday but still nothing! its to the point that if he wakes in the middle of the night, 2:00 - 3:00 in the morning he runs out to look and see if anything has worked. Right now my levels (just dipped a strip) are: hardness - 250, total chlorene - 1, free chlorene - 1, ph - 7.8, alkalinity - 120, and stabalizer - between 0 & 50. Can anyone help?????

Hello, and welcome to the forum!!

Sounds like you've been "pool-stored". Lots of people have the same experience you have, before finding us and taking control over their own pools. Clearing your pool shouldn't be that expensive, and not nearly as difficult as the pool place has made it out to be--although all the junk they had you dump into it isn't going to help the situation much.

First off--how deep is your pool? If it's 4 ft from bottom to waterline, I'm estimating that it holds about 13,500 gallons. Does that sound right to you? Second--how big a pump and what kind and size filter do you have? Also, are you filling it from well water or from city water?

The strips that you are using are what we call "guess strips", because they are not at all accurate OR reliable. Do yourself a favor and go to WalMart, Home Depot, Lowe's, or anywhere else that sells pool stuff and get an OTO kit--it uses red and yellow drops to measure chlorine and pH. Also, take a sample of your pool water into the pool store that sold you all that junk and ask them to test your CYA. Don't buy anything from them, though--just smile and tell them you have it at home.

We need your stabilizer (CYA) level to tell you what level to bring your chlorine up to to clear the pool, but basically you're going to need to use plain, unscented bleach to raise your chlorine to "shock" levels--that level, again, depends on your CYA. You'll need to test your chlorine 2-3 times daily and add enough chlorine to get back up to that shock level--the more times you can do this in a day, the quicker your pool will clear up. In a 13,500 gallon pool, each 1/2 gallon of 6 % beach you add will raise your chlorine by 2.2 ppm, so you can use that as a guide when making your additions. You'll need to maintain this shock level, pool pump running 24/7, watching filter pressure and cleaning filter as pressure indicates, until the pool clears. It can take a few days and a LOT of bleach, depending on how much goop the pool store talked you into buying, but I can assure you that with some patience and persistence, we can help you get it cleared up. You need to toss the strips, though, and at least get the OTO kit. In order to truly control your own pool, you'll need a good test kit, but the OTO will work for now.

If you'll post back with your pool volume and your CYA level, we can get you headed in the right direction!!

The term we use here is that you been "poolstored" -- this pattern is not uncommon, and there are folks here who spent twice what you did, before coming here.

The bad news is, it's very likely everything you've spent so far is wasted, and some of it may even make recovery harder.

The good news is, we can almost always help folks like you recover, and typically for less than they've spent getting into their current mess.

Do this:

#1 - Go buy a cheap OTO / phenol red testkit and 24 gallons of plain 6% household bleach. Walmart will often have both.
#2 - Test the pool and report the results.
#3 - Turn your timer off, and leave your pump on 24/7 till the pool is cleaned up.
#4 - Add 4 gallons of bleach THIS evening.
#5 - Test your chlorine in the AM, and if it's below dark yellow, add 2 gallons.
#6 - Continue with this routine till the algae is gone, or you change routine based on the steps below.

OK. That should keep your pool from getting worse -- it may even clean it up -- while you do the following:

#1 - Buy some pool acid and add small doses till your pH is in the 7.2 - 7.6 range.
#2 - Do NOT worry about ANY of your other 'levels', except pH & chlorine, till the pool is all cleared up.
#3 - Monitor your filter, and clean as needed. Report here if the pressure does NOT go up after a couple of days. Replace the pressure gauge if it's broken.
#4 - Take a water sample to your pool store and have them test your water and tell you what your stabilizer (CYA) level is. Once you know, tell us.
#5 - If your budget's not busted, purchase a K2006 testkit (Amazon link below) so you can tell (and can tell us) what's really in your pool water.
#6 - Also tell us EXACTLY what all you've put in, especially the exact "yellow stuff" you used. ALL of the "yellow stuff" additives have major and long lasting side effects on your pool, but there are two main types of these products, and it really matters which one you used.
#7 - Do NOT let the pool store sell you ANY other goop -- not shock, not enzymes, not clarifiers, not boosters, not optimizers, not minerals, not phosphorus products . . . and especially, not algicides.

Let us know how it goes.

If you want to understand more of the how and why, follow the links to the "Best Guess" and BBB pages on PoolSolutions.