Cloudy water with pale green hue

[NorthEast]

Hi, everyone. New to the forum, so I apologize for any amateur questions.

I opened our AG 18 round, 52 inch deep pool last month. I've been shocking, trying to keep ph levels up and maintaining chlorine, but to no avail. I can see the bottom, but not completely. The water is a light, pale green hue. I have been placing 3 3inch trichlor tabs in the float and running the filter for hours. I've back-washed the cartridge until it runs clear, vacuumed to waste, and still nothing. Had the same issue last year. I tried Pool Trol Liquid Floc Rite. It dropped everything to the bottom. Attempted to vacuum and to waste and it all stirred up again. I didn't use it this year.

Levels as of this morning are as follows:
FC 2ppm
TA 100ppm
PH 7.2
Total Hardness 200ppm

My neighbor's tree hangs over half the pool, so I'm dealing with leaves and runoff daily. The temps have been high 90s for weeks here in NY. Heading to the store for a drop kit until I get the Taylor kit. Any suggestions? Does straight household bleach work? I won't add anything more until I hear back. I have filled out the form, if that helps. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Watermom]

Hi and welcome to the Pool Forum!

I'm going to start with your last question first. Yes, plain unscented household bleach does work. It's all I ever use in my pool and there are many more members who do the same. See if your Walmart has the HTH 6-Way drops kit as that one will test your CYA for you. That is one of the numbers we will need to be able to give you good advice. If they don't have that kit, for now just get an OTO/Phenol Red kit (yellow and red drops). Go ahead and order the Taylor K-2006 so you'll get it soon.

Have you been using cal-hypo? Wondering why your calcium hardness reading is 200ppm. (Its not a problem at that level though.)

While you are at Walmart, get several jugs of bleach (generic is fine) and a couple of boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle). Post your numbers when you get them and somebody here can help you go from there.

[PoolDoc]

[PoolDoc]

Chlorine level is probably good -- it's in the 15 - 30 ppm range.

+ Lower your pH level to around 7.4. (Muriatic acid page linked in my signature!)

+ Get a good test kit! In particular, we need to know your stabilizer level.

+ Here are links to the kits we recommend:

HTH 6-Way Test Kit @ Walmart
Taylor K2006A (3/4 oz bottles) @ Amazon
Taylor K2006C (2 oz bottles) @ Amazon

+ Send a picture of your POOL. Sometimes the color tells us what the problem is.

[NorthEast]

Thanks for posting the pic, PoolDoc. All the bleach is working. I've been adding 2 gallons of generic 6% bleach in the morning and again once the sun goes down...so 4 a day. Three days and the improvement is remarkable. Water is clear, but not 100% yet. I backwash the filter twice a day and it's gone from completely green to almost nothing there. My issue now is getting the dead algae off the bottom. I vacuum, but it's stubborn. I've tried with the automatic (lil shark) and manual vac, but it's not working. Any suggestions? I'm going to continue with the bleach, scrubbing and backwashng.