As long as your pool is green and cloudy, I believe that you definitely have algae problems...the only other reason I can think of for water to be green would be metals, but then you wouldn't have started with blue water. Also, the white stringy stuff sounds like water mold. I don't have any experience at all with mold, so I'll have to do a bit of research, but as far as the green and cloudy goes, I would maintain the shock level until it clears, and keep the filter running until all the dead algae/mold is removed from the pool. I suspect that the red, itchy skin came from chloramines that are being formed as your chlorine kills the stuff in the water--I would stay out of it until it clears. The elevated chlorine level also could be drying your skin out--a level of 6-10 in a non-stabilized pool is pretty high.


As far as the rust from the screws...if that's your only source of metal in the water, then I wouldn't worry too much about it. I have about 3 screws in my ladder that are rusting a bit, but other than being ugly in appearance, they're not causing me any problems...at least not yet.

Janet