Beautiful Blue but cloudy

[Fiveattripp]

In Ground Vinyl, 23,000 gallon, Pentair Whisperflo pumb, Triton II sand filter.

I am having a difficult time this year with water I have been reading some of the threads about cloudy water and alkalinity. I do not have a good test kit, of which I am going to get. I took a sample to the pool store last week..Thursday. The results were Saturation Index. -0.6, Tot. Chlorine 2.8, Free Chlorin 0.5, PH 7.3, Total Alkalinity 115, Adj. Total Alk 73, Total Hardness 158.
They had me add 23# of Soda....wondering if I added too much. I poured in what I thought would be little less than half of the 50# bag. 4.25# of Lo n slo for ph adjustment and 3 Bags of Burnout 35. Water was some cloudy after that. On Saturday I added 32 oz. of Algae treatment because I have been fighting dark blotches on the floor that just poof away when you brush them...wasn't sure if it is fine dirt or black algae. That really made the water blue, but still cloudy. I can see the bottom, but not clear like it should be. I read the thread about turning the jets up to bring the alkalinity down... I have done that and the water is really moving. The Alkalinity is high according to the test strip...I know... I will get a good test kit tomorrow. You really can't tell with the test strips...the colors don't match. Will having the jets pointed up and the water moving bring the Alkalinity down? If so...how long will it take? Still trying to figure out what the dark is in the seams and dip areas of the floor. I brush it up and it comes back...fight that battle another time.

[Watermom]

You've been around the forum long enough to know that pool stores are going to have you throw in everything but the kitchen sink, most of which won't do much but put money in their cash register!

You need a Taylor K2006 or 2006C (better buy) but you won't be able to buy it locally. Get it through this link:> http://pool9.net/tk/

In the meantime, go to Walmart and see if they have the HTH 6-Way drops-based kit (no test strips!) and get that. If they don't, get an OTO/Phenol Red kit (yellow and red drops) instead. Use it to test and then post your numbers. Also while you are at WallyWorld, get several jugs of their generic 8.25% bleach and a couple of boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle) and a jug of distilled water.

Post your own numbers. (We don't trust pool store testing in most cases.) Don't add any more pool store stuff. It is most likely only making things worse.