Ok. Let me start from the beginning.
We purchased the home in Nov 2010 with a clear and what seemed to be a perfect pool. The pool was maintained by a local pool store and was in good working order. It's a 16x32 inground pool with vinyl liner. The pool has 3 jets and a maindrain but only one skimmer. I have a sand filter with two pipes coming off of it.. One for the right side of the pool with two jets and maindrain and the left side runs one jet, skimmer. We knew when we purchased the pool that the liner had just been replaced the pervious year and all the pumps/filers stuff was about 7 years old. We also knew that the pool had a natural spring under it and we would need to pump the water from under the liner every few days (therefore we purchased another pump to hook up to a plumbing line that was purposely put in by the installers that runs under the pool. We have that pump in place to ONLY pump the ground water.
Once we moved in to the home.. There was a bucket of chlorine tablets that the pool guy was adding in the skimmer bucket. We continued to keep at least one tab in the skimmer (note it's winter time at this point and the water is very cold) Well we noticed that the tablets were not dissolving and the skimmer was not sucking water in. My husband figured out that we had a clog in the pipe that ran from the skimmer to the pump. We worked and worked to get the junk out of it... we were successful!! It was a mass of acorns that the pool guy prob just sucked up with the vacuum (STUPID). Well by this time is was EARLY spring here water was still cold but we live in Georgia and have lots of trees in our yard so it constantly rains (leaves, tree blooms, pollen, more tree blooms) and the water was getting really dirty so we knew we HAD to fix the skimmer problem and have the water tested. Once the skimmer problem was fixed we were told by our local pool store that we did not have any chlorine in the water (note the tabs were not dissolving) so I knew this was going to be an issue. Well we purchased two bags of powder shock and before our eyes our pool turned green. IT WAS CRAZY!!! So I marched back up to the pool store and they tested the water again said all of our levels were good and to wait it out. We did. Let the pool run 24/7 for 5 days with a high shock level. We had so much cloudiness in our water we couldn't see the bottom of the shallow end. On day 7 the pool guy told me to use a granulated shock that you mix with water and add it to my skimmer. I also started to notice a sand like substance on the bottom of the pool.. Told him about that as well and he had me add Yellow Treat.. So at this point I had added 1/2 gallon of granuated shock and a whole bottle of yellow treat... The pool ran for another day and we didn't see any improvement and were advised to add the remaining amount of shock. Started to think something was wrong with my filter since I had all of these particles floating around... Called the pool store again and they had me add Phosfree saying that I must have Phosphates in my water... Added that... NOTHING.. Then I called them back PISSED. So they had there guy come out and he tried to add DE but the DE just shot out of my jets... So he advised us to change the sand in our fliter and if we could to floc the pool once it was complete.. We didn't buy a floc just turned the darn pool off for 3 days and let it all settle (note hubby waiting on backordered sand at pool store).. It seem to work. We vacuumed to waste and would refill and again...It seemed to get the water clear but cloudy.We then changed the sand and kept water levels good for about a month. Then it warmed up and I wasn't testing like I should have and I had a thick film of yellow pollen on the top of my pool..(note I still ran the filter 8 hours a day) I tested and my chlorine was at 0.. CRAP! Added two big bottles of bleach and BOOM.. green again. I've been shocking the heck out of it... Keeping it above 15ppm but the water is green and I have sand like stuff on the bottom. When I brush I have a brown cloud.
I kept thinking I had metals in the water because I had added the some of the spring water (STUPID) but we were new to owning it and just thought i was recycling. Once I added I could see gold flakes in the water. (note-- this was before all of my issues). But I kept having it tested and NOTHING. Then people were telling me that I must have that hard to kill mustard algae because for the brown powder the brushes up on the bottom that looks like sand. My walls do not feel slimy.
I've asked the guy who took care of the pool while it was on the market if he used that soft swim he said no... I asked him if they used a metal squest he said no. But of course he tried to sell me one... But at this point I'm scared to take any advise :-(
I have been testing morning noon and night but only my chlorine and that's what I'm out of....
I hope I'm not leaving anything out here but it's a lot to write.
Thanks for your help.
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