talkyfawn

Richard is 100% correct. I just had what sounds like the same problem. At his suggestion I got the ammonia test strips and it tested 6ppm. What drove me crazy for two weeks and lots of $$ at the pool store was solved! I bought 5 gal drums of 12.5% liquid chlorine and added five gals at a time then checked after 1/2 hour and added more. The ammonia level kept dropping, added more. Finally after 27 gals of liquid shock I had a FC level 3ppm after having none for so long. Do yourself a favor and check on this!! Everything is good now. PH is a little low but I'm working on that now. by the way for comparison, I too have an 18' x 36' inground.

OK, so I added 5 gal of 12.5% Liquid Clorine. How long should I wait to test the ammonia again. An Hour? Overnight? Should I let the filter run all night? Thanks for your Help!! Also can I add the CYA now or should I wait until the ammonia is gone?

Thanks I will get some chlorine tomorrow. I had no problems last year when we opened the pool. I guess I didn't add enough shock and algaecide when we closed. I'll definitely pay more attention to that when we close it this year!

Thank you, I bought the ammonia test strips and I am getting a color that looks a little lighter than the 6 ppm. So I would say 5ppm. The next lighter is 3 and it is darker than that. I have a 28,000 gal inground. I did the bucket test as described and did not get a fc reading until I added 4 tsp of bleach to the two gallons of pool water. What should I do to get rid of this ammonia. I have never heard of this?? Thanks for the help.

I seem to be having the same problem. Slight yellow green tint to otherwise clear water. PH and Ak are fine, added some stabilizer and have a low reading of 20. No free chlorine, 3.0 reading from OTO test after lbs and lbs of shock over the last two weeks. Pool Co. two different ones say water is fine, "add three bags of shock". Did it over and over. No free chlorine. Added more algaecide, let it run, added three lbs of shock, let it run and shut it off over night to try to kill and drag to the bottom the dead algae. Next day a little better, still has a tint. No free chlorine. I have not had the water tested for ammonia as I just ran across that on this site. I was approaching a high cyanuric reading last summer, near 120 I think. There was none when we opened. Out of curiosity I did your bucket test. It took four tsp of bleach to show up any free chlorine. Advice Please???