Another Algae Fight - Am I doing this right?

[Watermom]

Yep. Time to turn the chlorinator off! Who knows how high your CYA actually is. To clear this up, you need to shock the pool up to about 25ppm and try and hold it there. Test as many times a day as you can and each time, add enough bleach to get back to 25ppm. In a 9000 gallon pool, each quart of 6% bleach will add 1.7ppm and each gallon (4 quarts) will add about 6.7ppm. Use that as a reference to figure out how much bleach to add each time you test. What kind of kit do you have? You can force a kit go test higher than 5 with a dilution method described here: Testing Without a Good Kit (This is not super accurate and not meant to replace having a better kit, but better than nothing.)

If you don't have a good kit, you're gonna need one. With a CYA like that, you'll always have to run higher than normal chlorine levels and other kits aren't going to be able to read past 55ppm. The one we recommend is the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C (same kit, larger bottle of some reagents). If you buy it through the Amazon link in my signature, the Pool Forum makes a little money on the sale which helps us keep this form online. Only buy if the seller is Amato Industries, however. Some other sellers are substituting the K-2005 which you do NOT want. If Amato isn't listed, wait a day or two and try again. They seem to restock pretty quickly when they sell out.

Hit it hard with the bleach and sustain the high levels. Your TA is too high. Read the following two guides for more information to help you deal with that.

Lowering Alkalinity Step-by-Step

Using Muriatic Acid Safely

Run your pump 24/7 and clean your filter as necessary. (What kind of filter do you have by the way?)

One last thing. Do us a favor, please. To make it easier for us to help, if people will create a signature line with their pool specs, it keeps us from having to reread through posts to find out basic information. You can create a signature by clicking on 'settings' in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage. In your sig, please put type of pool, volume, type of filter, size of pump, whether or not you have a SWCG or any water features and the fact that you do or do not have a K-2006. Thanks!

Hope this helps. Keep us posted of the progress and let us know if you have any further questions.