We bought a house in April with an inground pool- 18X36 oval, vinyl liner. The pool had not been covered or maintained, and was
DISGUSTING
- really a pond. We had literally hundreds of frogs and thousands of tadpoles, a few dozen turtles, and at least two snakes living in it.

We were advised not to drain, although in retrospect, that would have been easier. We swept and netted, and set up an additional filter with a submerged pump and an older sand filter, used algaecide, and spent a small fortune shocking. The pool store guy said this would eventually work, we just needed to keep at it.

We have killed off or relocated all of the critters, except for an occasional suicidal frog in the skimmer. The water is now greenish blue, and very cloudy. You can see maybe two inches deep. We have made no progress in two weeks.

Then I found you guys. Turns out, the pool store guy wasn't advising us to use nearly enough shock. I tested for chlorine yesterday, and got 0. I made a midnight trip to Wal-Mart last night, and added three gallons of bleach. Tested again this morning- 0. Added three more gallons of bleach, and headed to town for a test kit that tests more than just chlorine.

The best I could do was a strip kit- I obviously need to order one- but here is what we have:

TH- around 100
TC- 1
FC- between .5 and 1
pH- between 6.2 and 6.8
TA- about 40
CYA- Midway between low and 30

I apologize for the suckiness of the test- I bought the kit at Leslie's, was going to ask the clerk about a better one, but he asked me to describe the problem and proceeded to inform me that it was likely that my pool was infested with a "super chlorine eating bacteria" which would require massive amounts of special shock solution administered at precisely timed intervals.

I left with the strip kit, headed to BigLots for two cases of bleach, and came home and added four more gallons. I purchased baking soda and borax. I obviously need to do something about the pH and Alk, but wonder if I shouldn't get the chlorine in the right range first. Any suggestions would be deeply appreciated.