Hi everyone. My pool water balance situation has improved greatly since I started BBB about 2 months ago. I took a water sample to the pool store(yeah, the one that messed me up so badly in the first place!) to cross check my numbers and the 20 year old slacker working there said I got an A+. Yea, me and yea, poolforum.com . I didn't bother to tell him it was no thanks to his advice!

My numbers are approximately:
FC 5
CC 0-0.5
pH 7.7 today and rising quickly
CH 260
TA 80-90ish
CYA 40ish
Borates 40-50 ppm
temp. is 84-86 F
sorry for ambiguous #s but I have a hard time discerning the test result at times.

Anyway, I am happy with the way things are going except for two things. One is that there is still a very scant growth of green algae just above the waterline mostly on the "shady" side of the pool. It's only in a few places, not the entire pool. Raising water level an inch, shocking and scrubbing haven't made much impact on it. I've also tried adding polyquat 60, phosfree, and have now added borates to somewhere between 40-50 ppm. The algae is still there.

The other problem is that my pH keeps going up to 8 or greater, no matter what I do. We do have hard water in this area of AZ, but I was really hoping the borates would help slow down acid demand. The way it goes right now, I would need to add acid 2-4 times per week to keep it below 8.

Any ideas on either of these topics? Sorry if I posted in the wrong section!

Tabitha