Hey, I'm back!
My pool hasn't beat me yet. Hurricane Alex almost did! We had constant rain in Katy... 26 miles west of Houston ... for two days. Needless to say, lilly-livered coward that I am, I did not venture into the pool for any length of time. I took advantage of breaks in the rain to vacuum when I could and every time I vacuumed I backwashed to waste (Alex was doing just great in replacing the water!) and I dumped a gallon of bleach morning and night.

Every time I looked at the pool after dumping the bleach, I had a visible layer of algae... but it decreased with each application. Yesterday evening I vacuumed just before sunset, poured another gallon of bleach and lo and behold, this morning I had negligible algae!!! I vacummed, dumped another gallon of bleach and raced to WalMart to get some distilled water. I did the 3-1 (OTO) ratio for the Chlorine: FC/15; TC/15; I did the regular DPD test for the rest: AK/140; pH/8.2; CYA/55.

The water is beautifully clear.

Did I do good?