I have been using Ben's bleach method for the past 4 years following an incredibly expensive Baquacil summer ...it has been a huge time and money saver for us. Since I started, i have had very few problems and a bleach shock always cleared them up. This spring I opened our pool and the water was clear but ph was low (<6.8) - so I added Mule Team ...about 1 lb at a time. Now I've got about 1.5 boxes (6 lbs) in and ph is still <6.8 ...but the water has a "bitter" taste and I think I've over done it.

Have a 12,800 gallon fiberglass pool - I tested the water and got the following

FC = 5.5
CC = 0.5
ph <6.8
Cal 0
CYA 110 (I'm paying for my laziness last summer using pucks!)

My ph has always been very stable at about 7.2 and I've tried mule team as well as aerating (cascade waterfall running 24/7) but it isn't budging (unless my chemical is bad?) Seeing a couple of hazy "clouds" and had to clean off our cartridge filter - could I be starting to get an algae bloom because I let my CYA get too high for the lower chlorine levels to be effective?

Thanks for all the help - this forum has been very helpful and I'm glad to see it is still around.