A picture is worth a thousand words . . .

[haze_1956]

I dunno Haze. I'm ready to cover it back up and forget it's out there!.

But it's only June with a lot of hot weather ahead.

In August you will look at your crystal clear pool and think, "I made that happen" Then dive in for a nice refreshing swim.

And won't that be SWEET !!

.

[Rangeball]

Several years ago, I had a sand filter and relied on bad pool store info.

I had a point where my pool looked like your last pic. I was told to vacuum, so I did. All the algae straight into the filter. I fought a similar battle that you are going through with only input from the pool store who sold me droves of stuff on their recommendation. Their final solution was that my sand must have gone bad.

When I went to replace the sand, the top several inches were pure dark green. Looked like spinach. There was so much algae, I could never get ahead of it. It would never backwash out.

I replaced the sand, fired back up and things finally straightened out. In retrospect, if I had vacuumed to waste when I had all the visible algae, I probably could've avoided a lot of headache and wasted money.

Morale of the story to me was if I see algae, I get it out of the pool, not into the filter.

[Pamsel]

Haze, I'll try to keep that image in mind!

Thank you Rangeball - I've done a lot of vacuuming to waste, also. I've vacuumed both ways.

I appreciate your input.

[smallpooldad]

Two thoughts.

Could it be that the type of sand is not correct for pool filters, that is why the pressure readings are so odd? The other thoughts on the filter are also strong possibilities, such as too much algae, broken laterals, etc.

Would it not be easier to just drain the pool and start from scratch?

I drained our pool when we had a metal problem as it is nearly impossible to get rid of the metals through backwashing. This ended up being the least expensive solution.

[ChuckD]

Two thoughts.

Could it be that the type of sand is not correct for pool filters, that is why the pressure readings are so odd? The other thoughts on the filter are also strong possibilities, such as too much algae, broken laterals, etc.

Would it not be easier to just drain the pool and start from scratch?

I say stay with it! Our whole city's rooting for you Pam! It was on the news last night!
OK, not really but I'm with staying with it. What you're learning now would not happen if you just dumped it and refilled. You'll keep this experience in your head and in the not so distant future it'll be there for you, instead of having to extract it from this forum.

My US$0.02: Fix the filter. There's definitiely something wrong, but mine's a DE so I have no specifiic advice. Just fix that first.

Then, forget the Clorine until you are positive what your pH and Alk. numbers are. As has been said, high Cl will distort pH. Forget it. Let it go. Fix your pH/Alk.

Then shockshockshock (and CYA too).

C.

[Pamsel]

Well, I wanted to let you all know that I have attained success in my fight against my green pool! I actually am going to post the pictures as a mustard algae thread so that others fighting this can find it easily and maybe be helped.

Thank you all for your help.

[mbar]

Hip, Hip, Hooray!!!

[Pamsel]

Marie!

I do have some staining that I might go to work on soon. Right now, I just want to enjoy the pool. May ask you for some advice about removing the stains later.

[mbar]

Just enjoy - you can always get rid of the stain later - it isn't hard, but it will mess with your chem levels again. I am soooo happy for you.

[Pamsel]

I have posted pictures in the thread "My mustard algae battle and victory" of the green pool and the steps to the now sparkling clear pool.