I have built an in ground pool in south Texas (did as much of the construction work as possible and contracted out shooting the gunite and plaster). The pool has a Gunite shell, conventional plaster, 20,000 gals, sand filter and single stage 1.5 hp Hayward pump. Had a plaster contractor install the plaster yesterday (5/17/16). All went well, and plaster came out great. I am following a startup procedure for an in ground pool based on internet research. Was all ready to go with my Taylor K-2006 test kit. After the plaster contractor finished installing the plaster, they began filling the pool about 1 pm yesterday. Right before bedtime, I was about 50% filled and all looked great. Now the bad news. Last night at about 3 am, a massive thunderstorm hit and which dumped 3 inches of rain on the pool. This rain caused a flood of red clay behind a retaining wall along one side of the pool to flood into the pool. This morning when I had a chance to survey the damage, where the water come into the pool has stained the plaster brown and the water now look a horrible shade of green/red/brown color. I spent the entire day trying to clean up the mess. Initial water analysis this morning (Lesilie pools) was FC=0 ppm, PH=7.8 , calcium hardness = 250 ppm, CYA=0, TA=190 ppm, TDS 200 ppm, Phosphates 200 ppb . Even though the pool looks terrible, I figured that the plaster was still curing so I needed to go ahead start with the muriatic acid which is did (3.5 gals) spread out all day. Based on a recommendation from Leslie pools, I added a flocculating agent to try and get some the crap that came into the pool to coalesce and settle. I have been vacuuming the pool all day and backwashing the sand filter when the pressure gets high. At the end of the day the water is getting a clearer but you can not see more than 2-3 feet into the water.

I plan to do a water analysis tomorrow morning and determine what incremental chemical to add and keep up the brushing and vacuuming.

Attempts to clean stain with bleach and CLR have not worked.

Does anyone have any suggestion for cleaning up this water? Are there any aggressive ways to remove this red clay stain on plaster? From what I read, you normally don't shock the pool during the first 48 hours but with this flood with organic matter I am sure, does it make sense to break this rule and shock the pool? If so how aggressive? Is there anything else that would help recover?

Cliff