Need help with pool...was green now light blue

[swiftb73]

We have had our pool cover off since early June. However, our pool pump was gone and needed to be replaced. It was old. After weeks of trying to get a contractor out to replace the pump, we finally had it replaced and then the pump kept tripping our circuit breaker. We finally got that resolved and now we are left with a green, swampy pool. I have been diligent in getting it cleared up. Shocking it like crazy, vacuuming, and backwashing. It's clearing up, but I'd like some advice from the experts here. I had the water tested at our local pool store. We have a vinyl lined, inground pool. It's about 25,000 gallons. We have a Hayward Proflex EC-65 DE filter connected to a 1 1/2 Horsepowered Hayward super pump. A chlorine feeder is also connected. The pool store gave us the following results:
Total Alkalinity >100
PH>7.2
Cyanuric Acid>0
Total Hardness>300
Total Chlorine>1
Free Chlorine>1

We were told that the water seemed to be in good condition, but that we needed about 4lbs of Cyanuric Acid to stabilize the chlorine. I bought some of that but wanted to do research on it and whether it was safe to add to the skimmer. Our pool water is still cloudy. It started off green, but now it is a light blue and we can faintly see the bottom of the shallow end. There is some dirt on the bottom that we are working on vacuuming out as well. Any additional help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated?Thanks!

[JohnT]

You are on the right track when the pool turns cloudy blue. You may be better off putting the CYA in an old sock in the skimmer basket so you can backwash without losing it. It dissolves s-l-o-w-l-y. Better keep your chlorine a little higher because with 0 CYA the sun will eat it immediately.

[CarlD]

No offense, but your pool store gave you worthless numbers. I have no idea what they mean.
"Total Alkalinity >100" --is this below 200? It needs to be.
PH>7.2 -- is this below 7.8?
Cyanuric Acid>0 --is this 10, 30, 60, 100? each of these values has VERY different implications.
Total Hardness>300 -- is it less than 400? Less than 500? (the limit)
Total Chlorine>1 is it higher? Is it the same as Free chlorine?, etc.
Free Chlorine>1

Now let me assume that it should be this:

Total Alkalinity =100
PH=7.2
Cyanuric Acid=0
Total Hardness=300
Total Chlorine=1
Free Chlorine=1

TA is fine, pH is at the low end of good, but above the min of 6.9
CYA = 0--you should aim for 30-50ppm
TH is fine. Vinyl you can go from 0 to 500
TC, FC=1 with cloudy water? I'd shock it up to 10 to 15ppm and keep it there and see if the water clears, and if it drops rapidly, especially at night. In the daytime, with no CYA, it can be consumed in 15 minutes by UV rays.

Keep filtering 24/7 and backwash whenever the pressure rises. If it doesn't clear, on to plan B.

[cygnusecks]

Surely swift meant "=" when (s)he said ">".

swift, you should say "=" if that's what you meant. ">" means "greater than". If the pool store really did mean "greater than", then they are worthless measurements.

[swiftb73]

I'm sorry..I didn't think about the fact that I used the > symbol. I was using it as a pointer. Thanks for your help!!

[lmnharris]

I'm right here with you swift. Exact same situation from the broken pump to the light blue water. Crazy huh? I've only been recirculating till tonight. Filtering now. I'm stickin with this thread, hopefully we can both see the bottom of our pools buy the weekend sometime.

[lmnharris]

Can you see your drain yet? I've put in 32 gal. of chlorine since fri. This morning I can finally see my drain and the CL is holding at 20 ppm. Finally! On the down side my new pump sprang a leak at the housing gasket. So I'm off to throw some money at my pool store this morning. I would think hayward would replace it for free, but I can't have my pump down at this stage. Good luck