Another update!

Woke up this am to a clear pool! No exaggeration! It's clear!!! The quilt batting was FILTHY from running about 12 hrs. We have sediment on the bottom of the pool - some of the loose poly fil we started with in the homemade filter, a few rocks and brown sediment, which must be iron.

Took a water sample to the pool store:

CL/FC - 5
TA - 140
pH - 7.8
CYA - 0
CA - 70
and... drum roll please...
Iron - 0

We still have the homemade filter in the pool and there is still some staining on the batting - so we're going to run it all day again.

I think I am going to stick to a statement I made yesterday that the green/turquoise color some of us metal-heads are seeing when things start to clear is low-level iron. Because I have no green today and my CL level wasn't at shock level to kill any potential algae (does that make sense to the experts?).

Oh pool store said to try 4 more lbs of cya - because the 3 I added last Thu still aren't showing up (made sense to me - and I don't think I've seen a natural alternative (please advise if there is) - I also bought calcium (well, Balance) because of the same reason and mine is low (?) Again, please advise. And I'll add Muratic Acid for the pH and baking soda for the TA.

This is so crazy, guys - I can't believe it worked!!!