My pool is a green cloudy color and no mater what I use it doesnt stop? I have a low PH and a high alkalinty!?

My email is robandliz1992@yahoo.com. Please drop me a line with your entire water chemistry read out (total and free chlorine) along with gallon size of the pool, what material the pool is constructed from, and what your filtration system is. With this information I can tailor you a maintenance schedule as well as help you with the algae problem.

Your alkalinity is fine. Baking soda will barely bring up the pH but will increase the alkalinity so there’s no need to use it right now. Alkalinity between 100-160ppm is desirable so I’m not sure who told you the alkalinity was high. Don’t add any more muriatic acid at this time.

Your pH does need to come up considerably though, but you don’t need to do this until you get rid of the algae with bleach since chlorine works best at a lower pH level. Depending on the gallon size of your pool you will need to add 1-1.5 cups of 20 Mule Team Borax to 10,000 gallons of water. You can get this in your grocery store laundry detergent isle in a green box. This will boost your pH up and help buffer it, not to mention that borax is the leading ingredient in most commercial algaecides.

2 gallons of liquid household bleach (non scented) will raise the chlorine level in 10,000 gallons of pool water to 20ppm. This should be more than sufficient to kill off any algae and still give residual chlorine. Household bleach is sodium hypochlorite and this is the same chemical used in some of the shocks out there. The other shocks use calcium hypochlorite and if you have a vinyl pool you don’t want to add calcium to the water (will explain this in an email if you contact me this way).

With more information I can help you further.

How to increase pool pH by SwimSafeSolutions.com