Cloudy Water

[Watermom]

If your Walmart does not have the HTH 6-Way kit (not test strips though), at least pick up a cheap OTO/Phenol Red kit (yellow and red drops) to use while you wait on the good Taylor K-2006 kit to arrive.

[PoolDoc]

Using the soda ash is likely causing the problem; stop it. Use borax instead (20 Mule Team borax from the detergent section)

+ We routinely recommend the use of 20 Mule Team borax INSTEAD of soda ash, for several reasons. It's cheaper than pH plus (soda ash labeled for pools) but more importantly, it does not raise your alkalinity much, and does not combine with calcium to cloud your pool. The way to add is it is to pour it into your skimmer SLOWLY, while the pump is running. (How slowly? Slowly enough that it doesn't make a big pile in the bottom.)

Borax also can help control algae, but you have to add a LOT. It ends up costing around $50 per 10,000 gallons of pool water, for borax and muriatic acid, if you buy your borax at Walmart and your muriatic acid at Lowes. Soda ash is now frequently available at Walmart in the detergent section, at prices MUCH cheaper than the pool prices for the same chemical. If you ALSO need to raise your alkalinity, you can buy that instead. But if your alkalintiy is high enough, and you only need to raise your pH, it's better to use borax:

20 Mule Team Borax @ Walmart
Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda @ Walmart
Muriatic acid @ Lowes (do not get the 'safer' muriatic acid; do read the "Using Muriatic Acid" sticky)