My 2 year battle with my pool,,,, fed up!

[o0zappy0o]

We have a 21 foot, above-ground pool.
We have well water.
Our filter is a Jaccuzzi 920 (sand filter that we have put tiny rocks in instead of the sand not long ago because we were fed up with the sand filter, they don't sell sand to put in them anymore anyhow, read more on this below lol)
We installed this pool about 4 years ago.
We never had troubles with the water or the pool at all up till last year.
The only thing that would happen was that if I put to much chlorine in it, it would turn green but that was it.
Now, last year, our troubles started when our neighbours left a huge sand pile lying around in their yard nearly all summer long, the wind (we do have alot of wind here) pushed the sand in our pool so I was stuck vaccuming the pool over and over again for hours on end, I mean I was in that pool vaccuming every freagin' day.
Then I noticed that the sand started to come back in the pool when I was vaccuming. I continued like this till the end of summer.
But after a while my pool turned green, and would turn brown when I would put chlorine in it.
We left it like it was because I was way to discuraged about it, and closed it up that way.
In the spring we did not open the filter to check it out and reopened the pool, still crappy sand in it, and all that, still green water.
So about a month ago,
I read on a message board that with these symptoms I might have copper in my water so I added a whole bottle of stabilizer like they said in the post.
We also opened the filter, to notice the laterals were broken as well so we changed them and added the new type of tiny black and greay stoned filter sand they now sell to replace sand we usually put in sand filters.
The water was clear after 48 hours and I could see the crap on the bottom, (sand, and brown dust) So I started to vaccum, and thought my troubles were over. I quickly noticed the damn brown crap was coming back into the pool. And when I was vaccuming the crap would move and blur up my pool once again.
My pool has not been clear since, even after closing the filter off to let it settle, the cloud of dust still stays.
I just don't know what to do anymore.
My chlorine now stays in the pool I can smell it, so the stabilizer is doing it's job.
But I can't get rid of the crap.
Oh yeah, I have read people say to "vaccum to waste" but on my filter there is no "waste" it just has "filter", "backwash", "drain", "rinse", "Winterise" I dont' see "waste" anywhere on my filter head.
Where would I have to put it to "vaccum to waste"?
I also noticed that we have alot of rain lately, could there be so much pollution in the rain water that it would do this to my pool? No that is stupid, the neighbours pools would be like mine if that were true, ugh.
I even had dark thoughts of thinking that my neighbours on each side of me are sabbotaging my pool, this is how crazy I am right now about all this.

I would like it if someone could help me out pls
thanks

[muss08]

First and foremost do you have a test kit? If not you need to get a good liquid test kit. I recommend the Taylor K 2006. It is very accurate and reliable. If you are using strips get a liquid test kit. Next post your numbers- FC,TC or CC, pH, TA, CH, and CYA. Next, go to your pool store or buy a copper and an iron test kit and test for copper and iron. Green water that has no algae is copper. Brown water is usually iron. Since you are using a well there is a good chance that both are in the water. While you are there get a bottle of a metal sequestering agent. Make sure it takes care of both iron and copper. Stabalizer (CYA) is not going to help with metals in the pool. Stabalizer only allows chlorine to last longer in the presence of direct sunlight.
To vacuuming- set your filter to "drain." This is basically the same thing as "waste" as it allows water to be discharged from the pool without going through the filter. This is how you can get the sand out while vacuuming.
You really shouldnt be able to smell your chlorine unless you are shocking your pool. This smell is usually associated with Combined Chlorine which is a chlorine byproduct and is not good. Shocking the pool will get rid of combined chlorine. But first get the water tested for metals first. Metals that are not usually noticable in the water will become noticeable when the pH gets high (7.8 or higher) and the chlorine level is high. The metal sequestering agent will help with this.

[Guest]

Thanks