Cloudy Water! Need Advice!

[Mollie]

OK, I don't really know where to start, but here it goes. I have an above ground pool, vinyl liner. Holds 30,000 gallons of water. I have a Hayward sand filter, and have used a Hercules Power Ionizer going on eight years this year. I haven't had a problem ever until this year. My winter cover blew off my pool about two months before time to open the pool. By the time I found someone to help me get the cover back on, the water had turned a light green. I decided to wait to deal with it when I open the pool back up.

Well to get on with the story, my family has yet to swim in it this year. I had to order a new replacement chamber for my Ionizer, and I replaced the sand right away. I was at a loss as what to do, so I called the pool place, that sold me the pool along with the ionizer. Which by the way the pool place has relocated in a different town since I bought the pool. The lady told me that the Ionizer should clear the water, that all I need to do was add shock wait a day, and add bleach. That is all I have ever needed in my pool believe it or not, but this year it was not working. I did these steps repeated with no signs of a blue pool.

So finally I decided to visit a local pool store with a water sample. The guy in the store looked at my bottle of water and said do you have a green pool?, and I said yes. He said we won't need to test your water today. He gave me a sheet listing step by step instructions. Scrub pool bottom & sides back wash, add 7 pounds chlorine shock it, then add a bottle of concentrate algaecide. Let filter run over night then on day two scrub bottom and sides of pool and back wash, then add 7 more pounds of shock it. I did all this, the result was a slightly lighter green. I called the pool guy back, and he told me to keep scrubbing the pool and wait. After four days, and still very green pool water, I decided to take another pool sample to the pool store. He said that there wasn't any use in testing the water, until about a week after using the algaecide. I told him the water was still green. He suggested I get another bottle of algaecide, and double up on the shock it this time. So I repeated the process again, doubling up on the shock it.

The next day I woke up to a Blue pool with Milky water. I called the pool store back today, the guy told me that I had dead algae in the water, and now I needed to flock the water. My problem is that I am low on money now after buying all the algaecide and shock it, and I won't be able to buy any flock until Friday. My question is, will filtering alone clean the water, or will I in fact have to flock? Is there any other way??? Any advise would be greatly apreciated! The pool guy also wants me to replace my sand again.

I tested my water with my Power Ionizer test kit, and some test strips I bought at walmart. My Ionizer test kit says that my PH is 7.4, My Alk is in the normal range, and my Copper is at its normal level 0.3. For the past seven years these three things were the only thing I had to test my water for.
The walmart test strips said that my total chlorine was in the normal range, and my Free chlorine was High, High. PH and Alk was fine on the test strips as well. My pool has been a milky blue going on three days now.

I also have another question. After I get my pool back to its normal prestine clear blue state can I go back to careing for my pool the way I have for the past seven years? The Ionizer has always worked for my pool as far as keeping it crystal clear & clean. This was my first time having algae problems. The smell of Chlorine gives me really bad headaches. I really don't want to turn my pool in to a chlorine pool.

I am so sorry for being long winded, but I wanted to give as much information as I could. I will apreciate any advice!!!!