More than Algae

[funtimeken]

My dearest Watermom,

I am writing with my best wishes for a long and hardy life with lots of pool advice. The "Neon Green Monster" seems to have pulled it's tail between it's legs and vanished into the great beyond, or where-ever he goes to hide until the next round. I guess he could not take the 8 gallons of 12.5% chlorine 3 times a day since the 29th ( do not forget the 38 bottles prior to that over the prior 9 days ( yes, 110 bottles and the pool is finally clear)!!!

However, (and there is always a however) my chemical readings are a bit baffling. As I did the chlorine, I filled the small tube on the test kit as instructed, counted in the 5 drops of reagent #1, then added 5 drops of reagent #2. the water in the tube first turned a lovely shade of magenta ( that would be bright pink), then immediately went clear!!! When I added the 5 drops of reagent #3, to my surprise, the water went first to bright yellow and continued to get darker until it hit almost brown mud!!! Alrighty now, I decided to test my abilities on some other areas as well. The ph, after adding the 5 drops was a bright purple, and the CYA was somewhere in the middle between the 40 & 80 marks, I would guess around 65. Just for HA-HA's I took out a test strip. LOOK OUT!!! Total hardness (meaningless as it is because I have a vinyl liner) was around the 200-250 mark, just right. The total chlorine was baffling again. The little color pad was dark yellow on the outside and dark green (almost black) in the middle!! The free chlorine was off the chart purple (if I had to guess, around 14-16). The PH also was off the chart purple, most likely around a 9. THe alkalinity was perfect at 80, but the CYA was darker than the 300!!!

OMG - in texting language, that would be "OH MY GOD"!!! What now?? Do I lighten up on the shock now that the "Neon Green Monster" has left the house (I would presume so)? Should I also just give the pool a few days to get it's head screwed on right, let the pump run 24/7 and wait 3-4 days? Or do I run to the "Pool Guy" yelling "HELP, HELP" -----NOT!!!

Any thoughts??

Most admirably,

Funtimeken

P.S.
I hope I do not end up in the "Hall of Shame" due to this one!!!