Please Help!

[readytoblowupthepool]

We opened our pool on Memorial Day, or at least started the process. I was forced to drop the winter cover back in December because the walls were starting to buckle. This of course led to leaves, dirt and algea. We pumped out all but about 2 feet of water, removed the leaves and refilled. I have spent almost $500 on chemicals, everything from Chlorine, Shock, Algecide, Clarifier, Flock, Clear Shock, Muratic Acid, Stabilizer and a few that I probably forgot about. I think it has been every shade of green, brown and blue known to man. In this time the water has never been clear. I have taken the Chlorine to a level 10 and held it there for as long as 4 days with no real improvement. A week ago I started putting in Clear Shock (Posassium Monopersulfate) this initially looked like it was going to work. But, it didn't completely clear up the pool. I have put a total of 4.4 lbs of this in now. The last application 1/3 of the bottle was yesterday afternoon and the pool looks no better. It is now a light blue color and if you look hard enough you can see to the bottom of the pool. I am hesitant to add more clarifier becuase the water has an almost slippery feel to it as it is. I am confident that I have killed off all the algea but, is there a way to make sure? Besides that I have never seen blue algea. Initially I couldn't get any kind of chlorine reading, I have put in 6 bottles of granules, 10 gallons of bleach, about 14 lbs of chlorine based shock and this is in addition to running the chlorinator on 10 24hours a day and keeping a puck in the skimmer basket. This probably makes no sense so to recap: Round 24 ft, 52 in wall, hayward cartridge filter, every chlorine source known to man (I am now only using bleach)

Where do I find "Pool School" I keep seeing it mentioned but, can't find it anywhere

How do I determine if I have algae?

What could be eating my chlorine and where is it going?

Why is my pool blue (light cloudy shade of blue) that barely allows you to see bottom?

What else can I add?

FC 3

TC 3

ALK 80

PH 7.6

CYA 40

[chem geek]

Click on the following link (notice the words "Pool School" are underlined -- that's a link): Pool School and read the article their on Defeating Algae. If for some reason the link does not work, copy and paste the following into your web browser window:

http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/

[mdmddouglas]

We had almost the same situation with our water. I can tell you DO NOT drain the pool. My neighbor says they drain their pool every year because they don't want to spend so much money on chemicals to clear the pool. In hindsight, the chemicals would have been cheaper that the new liner we had to buy.

[readytoblowupthepool]

My pool is clear

The last two nights I have used the clear shock and brought the chlorine up to shock level. Yesterday morning there was clearly improvement and today, it is beautiful!!! It's time to start organizing a pool party!

[chem geek]

CONGRATULATIONS! By "clear shock", do you mean using chlorinating liquid or bleach to bring up the Free Chlorine (FC) level to shock level (about and FC that is 40% of the Cyanuric Acid level)?

[readytoblowupthepool]

Clear shock is Potassium Monosulphate, I did this in addition to a chlorine shock at the same time. The clear shock is suppose to destroy organic material. The best part is we had rain yesterday and I just knew even though all my levels are and I have algecide in the pool it would be green today, but it's not.

[chem geek]

Chlorine alone will also clear organics. If you don't believe it, look at this post that shows heavy algae upon spring opening being cleared by chlorine alone. The MPS didn't hurt (except your pocketbook), but wasn't necessary. Also, the MPS will falsely measure as Combined Chlorine (CC) so this can get confusing, but this will only last for a relatively short time (days at the most).