Chlorine is staying in the pool. Water is muddy

[olover49]

I have a 12,000 pool and I recently came accross an issue where my pool water is Blue and muddy
I had algae and cleaned it using algaecide..I then gave it a day and tested the water again
The water is light blue and muddy
I used a test strip and saw my PH levels and Alkalicity levels normal, but my chlorine level is very low
I put in two cartridges of chlorine(pucks)
I gave it 2 days to run at about 6 hours each day
The water is still blue and muddy and chlorine levels are still very low

I went to the store with a water sample and they said I had 200m phosphates and that was the problem. They said that my stabilizer and algae were normal
They gave me a phosphate remover to use and I just put that in.....Could it be phosphates that are killing the chlorine?

[Watermom]

We really can't help much without a current set of water testing results taken with a drops-based kit --- no 'guess strips.' If you would, please fill out the following chart with the requested info as this makes it much easier for us to help you.Then, somebody here can take a look and offer some advice.

Pool Chart Entry Form
Pool Chart Results

Welcome to the Pool Forum.

[PoolDoc]

Phosphates don't 'kill chlorine', so no, that's not the problem. I'm guessing they told you 200 ppb phosphates, since 200 ppm would be extraordinarily high. 200 ppb is very, very low -- so they sold you something, just because they could. By the way, phosphate removers cloud up your pool rather badly.

Cleaning up algae uses HUGE amounts of chlorine, however. Most likely that's the problem. However without pool info (CHART!) and testing info, that's as far as we can go. Test strips (aka 'guess-strips') are very easy . . . and very inaccurate. But they're easy, so they are popular. And, of course, pool stores gain no benefit whatsoever from accurate testing -- if everyone had a good test kit, their chemical sales would drop enormously.

[PoolDoc]

moved your thread, so if you tried to post and couldn't, you should be able to do so now. Sorry!

Ben