Opening pool early and possible leak

[fiveUNDERfive]

Its a hard side and my husband went ahead and filled it. UGH! He was hoping it wasn't a leak (gallons of water just evaporated??). It filled quickly and seemed to hold initially so we hooked up the pump and started adding chlorine. Of course, in the interim few days, my crystal clear water has turned to green . I spent the morning upping the pH with borax and adding more bleach and trying to vacuum (can't get suction in the darn hose). GRR. Starting to hate this pool. I managed the "chemicals" quite well last year (our first time with a pool - moved in late in the summer) but hubby managed the equipment. I noticed the water level has dropped a few inches and I am not sure if it is "leaking" out the yet-as-to-be-undetermined hole, or if I just lost it all while I had it on "waste" trying to vacuum. Should I stop adding stuff and just let it leak back out so we can find/fix the hole? I hate to watch it turn green and swampy but it seems crazy to keep adding stuff if I am going to ultimately have to drain. SIGH.

[PoolDoc]

Do NOT let it turn into a swamp, no matter what your plans are. It's WAY too much work to clean a swamp!

Add 3 gallons of plain 6% household bleach, per 10,000 gallons of water. Continue with 3 gallon doses every 12 hours till the algae has changed from green to brown or cloudy blue. Do you have a testkit? If not, read the testkit page in my signature. (Strips do NOT count!!)

[fiveUNDERfive]

I have a drop kit from Walmart for now. No strips. Chlorine is way above what my kit can test. Looks like I overshot on the borax too tho not sure how. It was barely registering this am before adding borax (barely red tint) and now it looks close to 8!? I tried to order the Taylor kit last yr but kept getting an email that it was back ordered and finally went with this cheaper ($29?) alternative from Wally. Is there Anything midrange price wise I could find locally? I'm torn about spending too much money if we are going to have to replace the liner. We are currently in need of about $30k to fix our septic and I have a feeling hubby would rather scrap the pool than pay $$ to fix it (much to the dismay of our 6kids and moi)

The "algae" isnt green like u would think of algae. ITs more like a fine brown film on the bottom that stirred uP when I tried to vacuum. I already added two gals of 6% bleach this am bc I put two trichlor pucks in last night. Tho they are leftover from previous owner so prolly 2-3 yrs old? I also added about 1/2 lb of borax first thing this am.

[PoolDoc]

We are currently in need of about $30k to fix our septic

I saw that, and thought, "Where in the world is she, that a septic tank install costs $30K -- California? New York?". So, I went and looked up your IP address. Yep. New York. Sorry about that.

For a vinyl AG pool, with no obvious calcium problem, the HTH 6-way is fine.

Brown powder sounds like dead algae.

[fiveUNDERfive]

What's the best way then to determine chlorine when it's above 5? The water is looking more cloudy but I'm hoping that's bc I stirred up the dust. Hoping to vacuum when hubby gets home. Shall I keep adding bleach? Until the water is clear again? I'm going to need CYA too at some point but I think I need to clear out the brown stuff first, right?

[PoolDoc]

Do the HTH 6-way tests, and report them. If the OTO (chlorine) color is darker or different than the kit, say what color it is.

[Watermom]

You can also do a dilution to make your kit read higher than 5. It isn't super accurate but better than nothing. It is also not meant as a permanent way to test high chlorine levels. But, it may help you out for now.

Testing Without a Good Kit