My water is a mess, I don't know where to start

[mel.hoffman]

As I have been reading different thread trying to figure out what is going on I was beginning to think that it was the CYA as well. The guys are the pool store said that we were in a chlorine lock and needed to shock the pool with Free and Clear, which we did. I now think that was a mistake

1. I don't know the gallons/dimensions of our pool, once I get the little tikes down for nap I can go out and measure, but I thought I could try and get the other information for you first.

2. I am testing with a kit from Leslies, it says that is is manufactured by Taylor Technologies for Leslie's. It tests Free and total chlorine, pH, Acid Demand, and Total Alkalinity. It uses the bottled reagents.

3. The pool looks very cloudy and sometimes has weird white bubbles on the top when I open the cover, they seem to dissipate as I leave the cover open. It doesn't smell like anything that I noticed.

4. I guess my test kit doesn't test for CYA or Calcium? But I do have those crappy strips that do, CYA tested lower than the 30-50 range on the strip and the Calcium tested around 100.

Thank you for your help!

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I guess I should add that when they told us that we were in chlorine lock (I know from reading on here, you guys say that is wrong and there is no such thing) my FC was testing at 0 and TC was testing over 5. So adding the shock did help my chlorine, but everything else is super low.

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Okay Ben, I got most of the other information requested. I updated my signature with our specifics, I retested when I went out and got all the same readings as this morning, except my TA was about 270 ppm. I got really close to the water and tried to detect any smell and there was none. When I took the automatic cover off the white foamy bubbles were there, but went away as I kept the cover open. Pool is still a bluish, green color and cloudy. I can see to the bottom at the shallow end (3.5) feet, but not much beyond that. Thank you for all your help!