Ok, littleHeidi . . . I'll try to help . . .
Let's see, we do need to know your test results, pH and especially your cya levels, so we know how much chlorine would be considered shocking to the water. As a general rule, you can raise the chlorine level to about 10-12 ppm and hold it there for a few days until the algae goes away, but if your cya is at 120 ppm, or something higher, 12 ppm of chlorine wouldn't reach your breakpoint . . . so, test that water, and then start from there. If your cya levels are normal, in the 30-50 ppm range then the 12 ppm of chlorine would work just fine for you. pH also affects the effectiveness of the chlorine too, so you want to get that under control first . . . testing will ultimately save you allot of guesswork and time spent out of the water. Post some tests, and people will respond, sort of like the "build it and they will come" thing . . .
Need to know:
pH, Total Alk, Calcium(not as important w/ vinyl, Free Chlorine, Total Chlorine, CYA)
Oh and grab a copy of the bleach calculator if you don't have it already, it's a handy little computer program that will tell you how much bleach you need to add to raise your chlorine levels a certain amount. It also works for the other chemicals too!!! Here's the link provided by forum member mwsmith2:
http://www.hal-pc.org/~mwsmith2/BleachCalc262.exe
Hope that helps a little at least,
-SJ
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