Blue Cloudy Water

[justmypool]

Hello and thank you for this great resource! I've used the advice found here for several years but may need some first hand advice.

I have a 30' 54" A.G. pool with a 1-1/2 hp pump cartridge filter. I only run the pump on low speed. 24 hours per day. I didn't cover my pool last year, was tired of fighting the cover in my area which is constantly windy. Also I was late opening my pool. It was real green with lots of algae. Here we go... I have added 4-bottles of the generic Wal-Mart 8.25% bleach every night for the last week. I would clean my filter cartridge and brush up the bottom. Because of work I could only do this at night. (I always add the bleach after the sun sets). So this weekend I tested the water and found I held chlorine thru the night and when I brushed-up, things remain somewhat the same, meaning not turning back to green as it did during the week. Earlier in the week the water would turn green after brushing. I think I'm on the right track and may be dealing with dead algae. I have the 6-way hth kit. So far I have only tested chlorine 5-10 in morning down to .5-1 during the day, PH 7.2 I added PH Plus, PH was at 6.8 and CYA - 0.

I added 1-cup of DE thru my skimmer and checked the return to see no signs of it getting past my filter cartridge. Also my cartridge would load up every day and return water would decrease considerably in a 24 hour period. I'm hoping this is a good sign my filter is intact. Visible it looks good but is about 4-5 years old.

Should I work on getting my CYA up or just stay the course with maintaining the chlorine level, brushing etc .

Thanks in advance!!