I posted a week ago, it still does not appear on the forum & I am still in newbie status. (But I filled in my address, filled out the pool info form, asked a question about my pool...) I have to assume the moderators actually have a life & are not sitting by their computers just waiting to admit new members. But I can't see my old post, so I have to start a new thread.

We were fighting a green pool when I started reading this forum a week ago. I ordered the Taylor kit, and in the meantime used the only test for CYA that I could find in my local pool store - a test strip. Estimating CYA at 100, I decided to aim for chlorine levels of 25ppm. I think I added 20 gallons of bleach and chlorine in the first two days, but then the levels seemed to stabilize somewhat. (Plus, the weather got colder & cloudier.) I was using a yellow drop kit (I think you guys call it an OTO test?) for testing chlorine levels, and I was having to dilute by 5 -10 times, so I can't say with any accuracy how much it dropped overnight, but my Taylor kit arrived yesterday, and I did my first testing with it this morning.

Summary of past week: Pool turned blue almost immediately, but very cloudy. By about the 3rd day, the chlorine levels seemed to be fairly stable. Pool still blue, and getting slightly more clear every day. I can now make out the objects in the spa (including the filter cover which dropped to the bottom when I was trying to rinse it), and I can see the edges of the steps very clearly, but I can't see the water-suckers (yeah, I don't know what they are called) at the bottom of the deep end. But it seems like it is really taking a long time to get rid of the cloudiness. Or maybe this is normal & I am just impatient. In any event, I thought I would post in case there is anything else I should be doing.

FC 30
CC 1
pH 7.0 or less
TA 110
CH 540 (CH is the right abbreviation for Calcium Hardness, right?)
CYA 100

My interpretation of the results: I think the CYA and CH are high but nothing to panic over. TA good. FC a little higher than what I was aiming for, but now I will be able to monitor better. CC might be inaccurate, as I didn't exactly bring the FC to clear-clear before doing the CC test. It was more of a pink-clear. Hey, don't make fun! It was my first test run. In any event, not too worried about a 1.

The pH was a surprise. I have been testing that with my other kit with the 50% dilution recommended when there are high chlorine levels, and I was getting a 7.6 up through last night. So today I added the Borax I already had in the house, which was about 3½ pounds. Based on some other threads, I reckon I may need to add about 12 more pounds.

If anyone has any specific recommendations for me, I'd love to hear them.

Not sure if any of my pool info will pop up in my siggie, so I will put some here: 25,000 gallons in-ground pool. cartridge filter. spa with spillway. solar thermal and gas heating.