Colored water/Chemical Balancing

[SMJARAM]

I am having a hard time balancing my water. I added new water a few days ago. It has been covered with the filter running the whole time. I added the metal remover they had at Walmart becuase I do have well water. I have added the muratic acid a few times because the Alkalinity wouldn't go down. I put in shock and a floating chlorine puck. Everything seemed okay. I read on line that I shoud put stabilizer/conditioner in a sock in the skimmer and I did. The next day, the pool was dark green. I put in some linear algaecide, which I hear isn't that good, and then the water turned dark brown. I added more shock and acid last night. I'm having a hard time understanding the test kit I bought. I used to use the test strips but heard that they weren't very accurate. I bought a dropper kit and I do know that the chlorine levels are high and the Ph is low. The directions for the alkalinity seem confusing. I don't know what it means, but I put 14 drops of the alk tester before the water changed color. The CY directions said to mix the tester with water and pour it into a beaker until the dot at the bottom dissapears. It is a small beaker and I filled it to the top and was still able to see the dot. I think I need more metal remover, but hear that I have to wait until the chlorine level drops. The water has not been exposed to any swimmers or debris so I know it is a chemical issue. I sand filter is pumping well. I put new silica sand when I was changing the water and put a little aluminum phosphate in it. What should I do next???

[chem geek]

14 drops in the Total Alkalinity (TA) test means the TA is 140 ppm. In the CYA test, if you mixed the pool water sample with the CYA reagent (melamine) 50/50 and then mixed back and forth in the bottle for 30 seconds, then pouring into the tube where the black dot didn't disappear even pouring to the top means the CYA level is below 30 ppm (or possibly 20 ppm depending on the test kit; most likely it's below 30 ppm).

With a low CYA level, your chlorine is probably breaking down from the UV rays in sunlight and getting near zero and then algae grows faster than chlorine can kill it. You need to shock the pool with chlorine and since you CYA is low you could use some Dichlor shock for that, but not too much -- perhaps 30 ppm FC cumulative. After that, switch to chlorinating liquid or 6% unscented bleach. Shocking requires maintaining a high FC level and I'm not sure how you will measure that with your test kit. If your chlorine test is a DPD test where you compare the intensity of pink/red against a standard that reads up to 5 ppm, then get yourself the FAS-DPD chlorine test kit from tftestkits.net.

Read Defeating Algae.

[SMJARAM]

Thanks for help on reading the test, but what will fix the thick brown water?

[chem geek]

If it's algae, then the Defeating Algae that I linked to tells you how to clear your pool using (lots of) chlorine. Brush your pool, backwash your sand filter if the pressure is up, and use lots of chlorine. This link shows a pool getting cleared of algae using chlorine alone.