HELP PLEASE!!! Cloudy/Mint Green Pool Water

i have a 16x48 intex above ground pool. the pool came with a filter but i purchased a new one (next size up from the one that came with pool). i left on a trip for 5 days & came back to a cloudy/mint green color pool. my hardness is 100, total chlorine 3, free chlorine 3, bromamine 6, ph 6.8, alkalinity between 40 & 120, stabilizer 50. do i need to shock the pool or get my ph level up first? ive taken my chlorine floater out & its too cloudy for me to see if it needs to be vacuumed. PLEASE HELP!!!!!

You're using guess strips, right? You need a proper drop-test kit. Our first recommendation is the Taylor K-2006/2006c.

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php/14994

Second is to go to WalMart and get the HTH 6-way Drop Test Kit, run the tests and report them.

If your pH is 6.8, then you DEFINITELY need to get it up first. Start with half a box of Borax and test pH again in a few hours.
Ignore hardness and alkalinity for now. If those numbers are even CLOSE to accurate, you have nothing worry about with them. Always ignore the Bromine reading. That's for a Bromine pool instead of a chlorine pool.

Meanwhile, if the stabilizer number is actually 50, you need to get your chlorine level up to 15 and keep it there till the algae is dead. Use only bleach at this point. One jug of Chlorox Ultra 8.25% adds about 6.5 - 7 ppm to 10,000 gallons of water. If your pool is 5000, it will double that. If your pool is 20,000, it will be half. Adjust accordingly.

Use this link to get the Taylor K2006 kit that Carl mentioned above. http://pool9.net/tk/

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i dont live near a walmart but im using the aqua chem 3-way drop test kit & aqua chem 6 way test strips. my 3 way drop test kit this morning is saying my ph is 7.2 & my chlorine is off the charts. now that my ph is where its suppose to be my chlorine is so high & my pool is still cloudy/mint green. i barely can see the bottom of the pool but what i can see it doesnt appear to have any algae spots on the bottom. the water itself appears to be clear & smells of chlorine. should i drain some of the water out? im kinda scared to do that though because once i fill it back up w/our water i will have to treat the pool water for iron & thats a pain in the butt. suggestions are greatly appreciated. thank you

We call test strips 'guess strips' for a reason. You simply cannot run a pool based on info from them. Also, an OTO kit (what your 3-way kit is) is useful but doesn't replace the need for a better kit. There are some other testing numbers that we are going to need to be able to help you very well. Are you going to be able to order a Taylor K2006 mentioned in the posts above?

Don't drain the pool. With some good testing numbers, we can help you get it cleared up. For now until we do get some better testing info from you, aim to keep your chlorine at around 15ppm. In your pool (I estimate your volume to be around 5600 gallons), each cup of generic 8.25% bleach will add about 1ppm of chlorine. Each quart will add about 3.7ppm. You can use those as a reference to help you figure out how much bleach to add each time you test to take your chlorine back up to around 15ppm. Run your pump 24/7 while you are working to clear this up and backwash any time the pressure rises 8-10psi over your clean filter pressure or if you notice the flow is greatly diminished on your return jet.

i wont be able to purchase a taylor k2006 test kit until next week. i know my chlorine is atleast 10ppm or higher. i wish i understood the chemicals & readings & what part they play in to keep my pool clear. i've had the pool for over 3 months now & only been able to swim in it one time. it took me forever to figure out it was metal from my water that was settling on the bottom of the pool & not algae. all i need to do right now is keep the chlorine up, run the filter 24/7 & keep changing out filters every 2 hrs as ive been doing & this will clear up my pool?

Keep the chlorine at shock level as consistently as you can and it will kill the algae. Then, the filters have to clear it out. Sometimes, especially on an Intex pool, that is harder than killing the algae.

It would be beneficial to you if you do a lot of reading here on the forum, especially the various stickied threads. Also, read over on our sister website www.poolsolutions.com. You will learn a lot about pool mainenance.

Order the kit as soon as you are able. Watch these testing demo videos that will help you learn to use the new kit and then post with some good numbers for us. http://pool9.net/K2006-vid/

In the meantime, this chart can help you interpret off the scale OTO testing results to help you keep your chlorine at shock level:> http://pool9.net/oto-chart/

Hope this helps! :)

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Green water can be caused by iron. Ususally it's clear green but the pool might have cloudiness from something else.