I have a 17,200 gal AG pool and am soooooo confused about balancing my water. My water will not clear up. My last bout began a week ago when I had a beautiful algae bloom!!! Opague green water is not very inviting!! Went to the pool store. Did what they told me to do with the exception of the algaecide......their steps included adding 7 lbs of shock, flocculant-let sit overnight, vacuum to waste and another 3 bags of shock. Did this Saturday evening/Sunday. Water changed to cloudy but transparent with a tinge of green. Took another water sample to same pool store was told to add another 7 bags of shock/algaecide and 3 bags of shock. Purchased 12 bags of their shock this time (BioGuard Burn Out 35=29% lithium hypochlorite) and a bottle of algaecide (copper stuff?) for $115, freaked out...came home and found this site and read until 12:30AM!!!! Wobbled a bit, chose to try the BBB method. Poured 6 bottles of GV Walmart plain bleach in my pool Tuesday night.....test strip showed no TC the next morning. Went ahead and used the BurnOut35 (10 lbs) Wednesday evening. Purchase a 4-way test kit yesterday. Tested last night and this morning. My reading this morning was
PH 7.6;CL 3.0 (maybe higher-test only reads this high and water is very yellow!) Alk is 180. While figuring how much muriatic acid I'd need to use to bring down the Alk I went ahead and used an AquaChem dipstick just to see what it would say and it says PH 8.4; TC 3; FC 0-1; CYA 100. On the 4 way/2-way test kits when you test for chlorine is it TC/CC or FC? I thought it was available cholorine which would translate to FC. Why would the drop test (OTO is brand new) show high chlorine and the dip test show no FC?
Every time I think I'm making headway I get confused again and I DON'T want to go back to the pool store!!!!!! My pool is still pretty cloudy although not green. Any advice would be welcome at this point!!!! Thanks!