sandpaper sides in newly opened pool

OK you experts, should have come here first but..... Now that Im broke after spending over $200.00 to get this hole in the ground open let me tell you my problem. Opened pool about 10 days ago green. One quart of algecide later and 5 gls of chlorine ( 30,000 gls 20 by 40 p00l) . Water cleared up but still cloudy and the sides of the pool and the botton simulate 80 grit sandpaper that when rubbed with a mild scotchbrite comes off. Went the route with the pool guys and the clarifier and the stabilizer to no avail. I have a cartridge filter and they're now telling me to put 2 1/2 gls of chlorine in each day for four days and it should clear up. I clean the cartridge (have 2 at $125.00 each) about every two hours because my pressure is low and so far dont believe their is much progress. As I am typing one of the pool experts showed up and dumped a to of alkaline boost in because Im reading27 instead of 80-120. I hope the cloudiness and the sandpaper issue are one in the same . He said to give it a day and if it dont clear up he'll come and spray a settling agent on it. All the other numbers are normal and calcium is on the low side. Your professional input will be more than welcomed.

Don't let the pool guy add or spray anything else at the problem.

We are going to need some current water testing results to be able to help that are taken with a drops based kit. The kit we recommend is the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C which is listed on the test kit page in my signature below. Until that time that you can order one (not available locally), see if your Walmart has an HTH 6-Way kit (not test strips) that you can buy. If not, get an OTO/Phenol Red (yellow and red drops) at the very least. Tell us what kit you get and post some numbers. If you can only find an OTO kit, let a reputable pool store test your CYA, alk and calcium hardness levels but don't let them talk you into buying a bunch of stuff.

What kind of pool is this? I assume it is inground, but is it gunite, vinyl or fiberglass. Is it filled from a municipal water supply or from a well?

Repost with requested info and someone here will try and help.

Welcome to the Pool Forum!

thanks watermom. I have a vinyl lined pool with fiberglass walls if I remember correctly. They are not charging me for this and they didnt charge me for the alkaline boost either (believe me I paid enough). Figure I have nothing to lose at this point but I will try and get a test kit. Thanks

Wow! The weather this year is bringing out all sorts of fairly rare events. It sounds like you had 'sand algae' -- under certain conditions, slime layers with algae and bacteria can deposit calcium carbonate particles that look sort of like sand particles glued to your pool. I'm gonna post these pics for the 2nd time today; usually I post them about twice in an entire season!
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-d...gae_01_HHH.jpg -- https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-d...gae_09_HHH.jpg

Rather than reposting everything, I'm going to ask you to read this post: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...2469#post92469

But, please respond here, rather than in that thread. It gets REALLY messy if we try to help two people with different pools in the same thread!

By the way, like Mom said, do NOT let them put ANYTHING else in the pool, especially anything that will increase calcium or alkalinity!!

Just checking to see how the pool is doing now?

Janet