Updated - I have whitewater mold.....

[JT]

I paid someone to close my pool last year, and of course they have gone out of business so I have no recourse. We took the cover off last weekend and it is a total mess. We only owned it for half the summer last summer, and I kept it maintained pretty easily.

Here is my issue:
1. The pool is cloudy and blue (not green). I've spent the past week killing and skimming out a lot of whitish yellow algae and I think it is about under control.
2. I can't get chlorine to "stick" in the pool. I've shocked every day for the past week and it is just barely reading around 1.0 (I had no reading before this.)
3. The alkalinity is very high (220), but my pH is low (below 6.8, but I can't tell how low with my test). How is that possible? I thought my definition, the pH would raise with alkalinity.

I've taken water samples in to a local shop, and they just keep selling me stuff that doesn't seem to make a bit of difference in the water. They have not said anything about TDS - could this be my problem? How would I check it? We live in a very small town, and there aren't many pool vendors to pick from.

Thanks for anything you can suggest!
Julie

[Guest]

Have you used a superclorinator or a shock? I would probably use a superchlorinator like Leslies Power powder Plus or something with a high percentage of chlorine in it, you also, if you have a floater, put some tabs in and float it, run your pump 24/7. Get some alkalinity minus to bring it down and that might raise your Ph, I really don't know for sure...

[JT]

I've used shock multiple times (and lots of it, not just a few bags). It just seems to disappear the minute it hits the water. Isn't muriatic acid used to bring that alkalinity down? Won't that just make my pH even lower?

[JT]

Just an update for anyone else who might have this problem. It has been a huge pain.

We had to shock a bunch (26 lbs at once for an 18x36 pool) to get a chlorine reading. We also had to use a lot of alkalinity increaser (over 30 lbs). I was getting a false high alkalinity reading due to all of the combined chlorine in the pool, and it was actually low instead of high.

Now I'm vacuuming and skimming 4-5x per day, plus emptying my strainer almost every hour b/c there is so much garbage coming up.

Last night we used Spot Kill, shut down the pump, and let it sit all night. Tonight it is up and running again, and we've put in Pool First Aid. We're hoping within a day or two to have clearer water. It looks a lot better now than it did before, and is slowly, barely, starting to clear up.

If anyone has any other suggestions on how to deal with this, I'd love to hear them!

Julie