How can I tell if I have algae?

[RaceAngel88]

I'm not sure what finally worked, but after about 12 days of working on this, I now have crystal clear water! I vacuumed and scrubbed the pool walls with a brush daily. I broke down and bought an Aquabot robot vacuum to help me out. I added a very small amount of DE through the skimmer, and started using skimmer "socks." I've had the chlorine above 30 ppm for 4 or 5 days now, and I've been testing and adding bleach as needed 3 times a day. CYA is still at 120. I don't think I'm getting an accurate reading on the chlorine level at night because I've been adding more bleach in the evening, and then re-testing the chlorine level at dark, and I feel like the bleach isn't evenly mixed up into the water enough by that point. The pump just isn't big enough to really get things stirred up good within a couple of hours. Therefore, my chlorine level probably isn't accurate at night. Sometimes it seems pretty high, and then it has dropped considerably by morning, even though I don't think algae is the cause. I'm going to go back to testing the water twice a day (morning and at dark) and only add bleach in the morning so it has time to mix up before it's tested again that night. Then I'll see if the chlorine level holds for the overnight test. I'd like to let the chlorine level drop down to normal range by this weekend.

[swimdaddy]

Glad to hear you pool is looking better. Keep it up! Your pump is probably fine, its the filter that is too small, but anything is manageable.