Help! Pool newbie getting ready to quit!

OK, so we bought a new house in January that happens to have a pool. "Cool," I thought. "I can have a pool!" Well it's past the middle of June in North Carolina and I still haven't been able to get in it!

The pool is above-ground (but feels like an in-ground because the deck was built around it), 15 x 30 (pool store said that means about 12,000 gallons) and uses Baquacil (I know, I might have to switch!!). It has the Baquapure system which has a 2-speed 2.5 horsepower pump, 200 pound sand filter, and a Baquapure water polisher (we want to cut this last step out by re-plumbing, but we haven't done it yet).

The old owners had taken everything apart and thrown it in the garage, so we had someone come and hook it up. He said to let the filter work and clear the water, then vacuum, then go and do the chemicals.

It never cleared up after several days, so I went and had the water tested and got the appropriate chemicals. The algacide turned the green to blue, but the water never cleared up (very cloudy, can't see the bottom), even after several days.

Last weekend, we replaced the sand - it was pretty gunky, so we figured it wasn't filtering property. That hasn't helped, either.

We went to the pool store yesterday to try and get some flocculant or something else to clear the pool up more. We told the guy that our filter thing seems to be leaking - when we have the pump on, water comes out the backwash port, very fast if the pump is on high. The guy said that there was a gasket in the multi-port valve that was blown and that's why it wasn't filtering out the small particles. They sold us this gasket that looks like a pie chart (round with several spokes). We replaced it with 100% silicone like they said and let it sit for 24 hours.

Tonight, we turned the pump back on, and water is still coming out of the backwash port! The guy said that there was another gasket (he was out of it), but he said that if the problem is water coming out of the backwash port, the pie-chart-looking gasket is the one we needed to replace.

Sorry this is long, but I am a total loss - we have spent like $200 at this point and still have no pool to swim in. Please help!!

You need to get the equipment repaired or replaced first.
Now for the bad news....One of the big downsides to biguinide (Baqua, SoftSwim, Revacil) is that sometimes a pool with this sanitizer is always cloudy. Once you get the equpment fixed convert to chlorine...you will be much happier and save a lot of money in the long run! I suspect that part of the cloudiness is dead algae in the water. If your filter is not properly working you really don't stand a chance of clearing the pool no matter what you add. Once the filter is fixed you need to give it some time to filter out the dead algae...it won't happen overnight.

When you pulled apart the valve, the pie-chart gasket should have matched EXACTLY the layout of the ports in the valve. If it didn't then only two things are possible: 1) you installed the gasket wrong.
or
2) You were sold a gasket that was wrong or damaged.

The only other cause I can imagine is a something broken in the 6-way valve.

Another problem you have is your pump is FAR too big for your filter. I have 200# sand filter and I use a 1hp 2 speed pump for a much bigger pool--nearly 20,000 gallons. I believe your 2.5hp pump is exceeding the capacity of the filter making it impossible for your filter to filter properly. Your filter may WELL be damaged by this pump. Cloudy water would be the result. Your best bet is to ONLY run the pump on low speed, never on high speed, even when backwashing, and consider down-sizing it. The savings just on electric should pay for it in a season or two.

Bacquacil: I'm know JUST enough about it to stay away from it. Converting will be a painful process requiring boo-coo gallons of bleach. It may be easier if you first do a 100% water replacement using Poconos's Plastic Sheet method (This prevents your pool from EVER being empty and ruining the liner).

Those are my suggestions.