New Pool

[BigDave]

You must have a reliable way to test your water (not strips). If a wall mart in your area has the HTH 6-way kit, buy one. (Check availability) If not, pick up a cheap OTO / Phenol Red test kit.

Order a Taylor K-2006 (no substitutes) - you can find it throgh the links in this forum's moderators sigs.

With no stabilizer, your shock level is 10ppm FC according to Ben's Best Guess Chart.
You'll need a gallon of 6% household bleach to get to 10ppm but it won't stay long. I'd start with a gallon and a half but no more.

Test and add chlorine as often as you can (but at least twice a day) to keep your FC at or above 10. The OTO test won't directly read 10, dark yellow (darker than the comparator's top) is close enough. If you get to orange on the OTO without stabilizer, you've gone too far - stop adding bleach until it comes back to yellow.

Stay on top of this, when fighting algae, if you you're not winning, it is.

Run the filter 24/7 and clean it as necessary. You can shut off the SWCG for now, we'll deal with that after the pool's cleaned up.

You'll need 2-2.5 lbs granular stabilizer. Put it in an old stocking and hang it in the pool in front of the return to the pool. Squeeze it every couple days to help it dissolve. If you get the k-2006 or the HTH 6-way, don't try to test for CYA for a week, this stuff disolves very slowly.

Get back to us with your test results and what you've done.

[Watermom]

Is your pool green and cloudy or green and clear?

[White Gold]

The water is green and clear. I put a gallon of bleach in last night and now the algae is dead and laying on the bottom or at least that's what I think has happened. Gonna get some more bleach and some stabilizer. Thanks.

[BigDave]

Do you have metals in your fill water? Since it's city water, you should be able to get a report.
The reason I ask is green and clear could be metals not algae. Probably the reason for Watermom's question.
Dead algae is usually cloudy white/blue.
Do you have a way to vacuum out the stuff from the bottom?

[White Gold]

I'll check the metals. We had a test of our water a couple months ago. Yes I do have a vacuum.

[White Gold]

Pools all clear. Finally got numbers right except ph. Waiting on better test kit to get better reading. Thanks for all the help. This board makes it lots easier for me since I'm about 80 miles from a pool store.

[BigDave]

I love good news! Thanks for sharing. What is your pH?