Use chlorine free shock whilst adding chlorine to the pool?

[TurtleTom100]

First off hi and thanks for reading I am not sure if this is the right area but it seemed the most "generic" I had a 8ft above ground pool last year and it become apparent It wasnt big enough so this year I have purchased a 12ft steel framed above pool all has being "OK" for the past month or so but after a few days of stormy weather everything went real bad.

I have being checking levels every other day, adding 30ml algaecide once a week and chlorine tablets when they have dissolved (other than when we had the stormy few days) and the chlorine levels had over the last couple weeks diminished yet I had being using 3 tablets in a dispensar which was left in pool whenever it wasnt in use. On top of this the PH and Alkalinity levels shot up. Reading online it appeared the only way to get the PH down was to sort the alkalinity and the inly way to lower the alkalinity was to empty half the pool then refil with clean water so I went ahead and done this about 10 days ago, added the chlorine and things seemed to be going ok until we got the stormy weather last Fri - Monday/Tues this week just gone.

Children went to go in the pool thursday and it become apparent when the cover come off that it looked cloudy and more importantly had lil red worms (since found out they are called blood worms and are actually a fly larvae) and spring looking worms in which I am still none the wiser too, this annoyed me so I have spent friday evening and all day today emptying the pool, using a sponge and some disinfectant going around the base, seams/joins as there was patches with algae and refilling it.

I have added 4 chlorine tablets in the dispensar and also 50ml algaecide aswell as leaving the filter/pump running so we will see what the levels are doing tommorow but now on to me questions.


1 - I haven't shocked any of the pools I have owned amd upon having a look online this may have nipped my problem in the bud with the high ph and alkalinity before it got to the cloudy/algae stage so I was doing a bit of research and have seen theres either chlorine or chlorine free. Chlorine free is the recomeneded one I believe as it dont interfere with the levels and where it doesnt have chlorine it can help stop scale (which I haven't experienced yet personally but this is a concern as I live in a hard water area anyway) so what would be advised and would I still add chlorine tablets in a dispensar when pool not in use?

2 - what are the spring looking worm things I saw in the water?

3 - is there a better was to test otjer than strips which seem to give different readings quite often

4 - any other tips would be welcomed aswell

Thankyou for reading

[Teapot]

It's bed time here so I will answer tomorrow. Stop using algaecide! Get the chlorine up but also the CYA stabiliser otherwise you won't keep chlorine in the pool
More later

[Teapot]

TurtleTom,
What are your water test results, from those we can offer advice. You need to get CYA stabiliser into the pool to prevent the loss of your chlorine to sunlight. Algaecide won't do much if anything, chlorine is much more effective and the chlorine will be trying to oxidise the algaecide out of the pool so lowering your chlorine level even more. Some places sell liquid CYA stabiliser so you can get the level up quicker.

[TurtleTom100]

Thankyou for replying Teapot.

Well that may explain why already not even 24 hours after re-filling the pool it appears the chlorine is low even though I've added 4 tablets, ill stop using algaecide now.

I havent got any CYA Stabiliser but do have amazon prime so will get some ordered for delivery tommorow

As of now the pool readings are something like this:

Chlorine: between 1ppm and 3ppm. (2 different branded test strips showing different figures)

PH: 6.8ppm

Alkalinity: 80ppm - 180ppm (again thankyou test strips)

CYA - 0ppm only one of the strips show this reading though.

This is half my problem I believe using strips to test but am unsure what to go for other than strips. I have attached a photo of both strips which were dipped at the same time and keft for 15 seconds.

http://i63.tinypic.com/2d8f7us.jpg

[Teapot]

Dip strips are hopeless. maybe a LaMotte colorQ pro or a Taylor K-2006 test kit?