White foam/toilet paper with green/brown algae on top.

[cwolshon5952]

OK- Here goes my first post. I am having quite a bit of problems after vacationing for 6 days. I did not have anyone to look after the pool while I was gone and now am paying the consequences. When we got home, the water was green and cloudy. There was no chlorine at all and the stabalizer and pH were really non existent. We shocked the pool and this weird substance formed on top of the pool. It was really thick at first and we skimmed it off the top as best we could. After a few hours, we checked the chlorine and there was none. After reading a few posts, I switched to liquid chlorine. About 10 gallons and 3 days later, the water was clear.... that is until I ran the vacuum. After backwashing, I started the vacuum and a giant white cloud burst out of the filter and back into the pool. I wanted to cry. About 3 gallons of chlorine and 1 day later, we decided to drain out enough water and change the sand in the filter. We did that (the filter sand was nasty) and ran the filter overnight. It seemed that our problem was cleared. Then I bought a test kit and realized that the TA of the pool was at 220. I have been working all day to bring it down. I am still getting all of that white foam every time I add chlorine and the filter is on. When the water is still, it is fine. My chlorine is at shock level, my pH is low, but because I'm lowering the TA, I know it is going to drop. My TA is now at 160, but that is still way too high. Can the masters of pool chemistry or anyone else please help me. I am at my wit's end. Thank you.

[Backglass]

Do you know what your CYA level is now? You will need to get your pool to shock level and keep it there for at least 24 hours to clean out whatever is eating your chlorine. If you don't have a decent CYA (stabilizer) level of 30-40ppm however, this will be difficult.

[Guest]

I added an entire cannister of CYA to the pool 2 days ago and now it is is registering as very low. My chemical kit doesn't have a CYA test, so this is off of a strip.

[Backglass]

You set you bought a test kit...please post a new, full set of numbers.

How big was the "cannister" of CYA?

What is the size, type & volume of your pool?