My cloudy pool

Long story short
Just bought the house in September. My first pool. It never was crystal clear last year, so I had it closed by a local pool co. because I didn't want to mess with it until this year. This year I guess I wasn't shocking it as hard as I was supposed to (normal shock level instead of 3x the shock level). I feel like my numbers are where they should be, but I just can't shake the cloudiness. I knew I couldn't start the BBB way because my wife is sceptical of info from the internet, and I'm assuming I have a filter issue, so if I don't do what the pool store says first, she'll blame me for not listening to her, when it's probably an issue with filtering. So, we're currently shocking the pool per the pool stores instructions. 3x shock last night, 2x shock tonight, and a normal shock tomorrow night. All granular calcium hypochlorite. I got the Taylor k2006 because once it's all figured out, I'll convert to the BBB way. Here's my results as of today. I'll add the pic if I can figure that part out.
FC=12.5 (just shocked last night)
CC=0
CYA=48ish?
Alk=170
Ph=7.8
[img]https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4ldiXcHagi0YmJSTlE5ck5jQWs/edit?usp=docslist_api[\img]

It really doesn't work to try and combine pool store advice and ours. So, you kinda have to decide what you want to do. We are glad to help if that is the route you want to take but you really can't take a little of our advice and a little of their advice and make things work too well. Let us know. We'll be here to help if you decide to jump in and do BBB! :)

I just thought someone might have a little insight as to why the pool would still be cloudy when the chemistry seems good. Some people claim to keep their sand for 20 years, others say it won't last 3, 5, or 7 years. Will a broken lateral cause cloudiness or just throw sand in the bottom of the pool? I also forgot to mention my furthest skimmer is sucking in air. Will I benefit more if I close it off, so no more air gets in the lines, or will leaving it open still filter more water?

What is your calcium hardness reading?

Sand lasts indefinitely. It doesn't wear out.

I'll let someone else address your mechanical issues.

Calcium hardness was hard for me to tell being color blind, but I'm pretty sure it was around 40-50ppm. I can get a more acurate reading if needed. I heard hardness doesn't matter with a vinyl liner though. I'll put that in my Sig.

The reason I asked is because high pH + high TA + high calcium hardness can = cloudy water. (Otherwise, you are right, CH is not an issue in a vinyl pool.) Have you been using cal-hypo for awhile? Maybe run that test again and let your wife read the results of it.

Was your pool green when you opened it this spring?

See if you can find a small bag of DE. Throw a handful into the skimmer while your pump is running and watch the return jets. If you see white powder shooting back out, your filter is not working properly. If it doesn't shoot out, then the DE may actually help your filter work a little better. More about that here: http://pool9.net/de-test/

Yes, the pool was very green when I opened it. I was using the single lb. bags if shock so far. And baking soda to raise the ph. I tried a clarifier once but didn't want to keep dumping stuff in the pool. I did buy floc (again because of my wife, and the rumors she heard), but didn't throw it in because I just don't think it will help (according to this forum).

Let us know when you try the DE test. Also, post current readings again. How does the water look today? Any better?

So we triple shocked (84oz. of calhypo) Sunday night and got rain overnight, double shocked (56oz.) Monday night and got rain overnight, Tuesday morning I vacuumed and threw a single shock (28oz.) in because if the rain, and Tuesday evening my wife single shocked (28oz.) And more rain. Today (Wednesday), around 6pm, the readings were...

FC=13.5
CC=1
pH=7.6
All=150
CYA=48
Hardness was 150ish

Pool is getting clearer, but stil has debri (dead algie?) on the bottom. I'll vacuum again in the morning. It's supposed to rain again tonight. Should I keep shocking until it's clear? Or should it be clear by now? Also, when doing the calcium harness test, I can see small particles suspended in the water. They seem to turn blue when the water does. Is that normal? Or is that what's causing the cloudiness? Thanks for the replies so far.

You might want to start just using bleach instead of cal-hypo.

You do need to keep shocking until two conditions are met:
1) You can go from sundown one evening to within an hour of sunrise the next morning without losing more than 1ppm of chlorine AND
2) You have no more than 0.5CC.

Then, we usually advise keeping the chlorine high for one additional day for added insurance and then let it drift down and keep it within the proper ranges based on your CYA level. A chart that explains the connection between CYA and chlorine can be found at the following link: http://pool9.net/cl-cya/

Have you tried the DE test yet so we can verify that your filter is working properly?