High PH , low Alkaline & a green pool. So confused !

[Angeljaye]

We have moved into a rental property with an inground concrete pool and are complete novices at this pool maintenance malarky and it's now showing. We've had a gestimate from the pool guy who opened it that it holds 60k litres but I'm not so sure. It's an oval wiggly pool, measures approx 10m by 5m at widest wiggle and is 12ft deep. Can this be right? Anyway..... After early wasted summer use because of various problems and leaks we've now happily used and maintained the pool for nearly a month without problems. Last week a new sand pump and filter was fitted, (usual pool maintenance by us) 2 days later I noticed the water looked a little cloudy, 4 days later it was green and I can't get rid of it. I've brushed, vac'd, shocked & added algicide but no change & the kids are now also driving me nuts not being able to use it. Although the water on top appears clear it all seems to be settled on the bottom, I brush & it just moves it around. I assumed if it is algae it must be dead but I sweep the steps clear & within a couple of hours I have green/brown spots appearing again.

Granted we've only been using the basic test strips but I cannot get my head around what's going on.... The PH is bright pink on the strip, probably off the scale but the Alkalinity reads at 40. Bromine also reads high? I've used PH down but nothing seems to change. If a high PH means it's Alkaline how can the Alkaline read low ... & yet a low PH would give you algae growth..but mines high????

We added another shock dose last night, the pool stinks ... All I did was dream about swimming pools only to wake, run to the window like a child and just want to cry as low & behold nothings changed.
Can anyone please explain what's going on and what I can do to get back my sparkly clean water & have happy kids again (before I become an alcoholic) any advice would be appreciated, thanks