Pool Dramas

Last summer (or possibly the end of the summer before) I was getting frustrated with the chlorine we had taking forever to dissolve, so I thought I'd pay a bit more for a different variety (which did seem to dissolve a bit better).  Last summer I had issues with algae, but I attributed this to me being a slacker.  Towards the end of the season I think we added too much chlorine at one point, and the pool got very acidic.  It was so bad that the test kits didn't work at all - all the colours were comletely wrong - off the scale!  So at the beginning of summer I added some pH up and things returned mostly to normal, although I did notice the buffer was a bit high.  I wasn't sure why that was, as I hadn't added any buffer this summer.  But given that the pH changed the colour of everything I wasn't sure what to believe.  Anyway, at Christmas the pool had gotten a bit green, but again I attributed that to being a slacker and letting the chlorine get a bit too low for a couple of days.  So treated with flocculent and vaccuumed to waste and it cleared up.  From Christmas on I've been super diligent with the chlorine, and kept it within range the whole time.

But the pool just got greener and greener :(:(

So this morning we took a sample in to get tested.  Turns out the buffer is actually *super* high and even though the test strips say there's chlorine, there was actually very little.  Hence greenery.  Turns out the chlorine we bought has buffer built into it, and so it's been building up higher and higher.  Fricken great.  Pay more for something that actually makes the whole situation worse :(:(

So basically we have to vacuum to waste all over again to try and get the buffer levels down.  

*sigh*