Have you cleaned or backwashed the filter? Are you vacuuming to waste?

yes, we have done that. he has flushed out the waste water while cleaning and also just let the filter run. backwashed, cleaned constantly...the whole bit. we have done everything we can think of/

When you say "high Chlorine" how how? You need to be at 12+ of cholorine. You should be using liquid shock(12%) which will work its way through the algae faster. Are you running the filter 24/7? Don't put in any clarifier... I would scan through poolforum.com for "green water" and you should see alot of information there.

Good luck!

filter is running 24/7 and we have a sand filter. filter pressue is maintained at 12 to 15. chlorine is off the scale right now, over the 12 in the test kit and has been like that for several days. we are not using the clarifier now, that was in the beginning. and yes, we are running at least 12 on the chlorine

Just went though this with a friend. Did same things you are doing and his cleared in 3 days. Do you know your CYA level? If it is 100+ you will need a chlorine level more like 20+. You will need a better test kit than what you have.

Neil is right...knowing your CYA level is critical to knowing how high your chlorine will have to go to get your pool cleared.

In addition to poolforum.com, you can register and post your questions over on troublefreepool.com. Before doing that, however, get a full set of readings from your pool: pH, free chlorine, combined chloramines, total alkalinity, CYA, and calcium hardness. You can't get the pool to where you want it to be if you don't know where it is right now, chemistry-wise.

If you have to get the readings from a pool store this one time, so be it, but resolve to get yourself a good drops-based kit (as Neil also suggested), as you'll be testing quite a bit to get the pool cleared as efficiently as possible. My own kit was the best money I ever spent on a pool "accessory."

It would also help to know exactly what the pool store had you dump into the pool.

I wouldnt rely on the "home" test kit for accuracy, bring your water to a pool store and have it tested.

we started with the testing at the store. they are the ones that started us on the clarifiers and stabilizers etc etc....we did everything they have told us to do. we still have very green water and the chlorine is very high. we are hearing it could take a couple weeks to clear up by running high chlorine. guess we will see - we may not be swimming this long but you can rest assured, my husband learned a valuable lesson about waiting to long to open the pool.

I wouldn't rely on the "pool store" people for accuracy.

"I wouldnt rely on the "home" test kit for accuracy, bring your water to a pool store and have it tested."

Sorry gk5040, but I couldn't disagree more. Pool store tests are notoriously unreliable. Look who's doing the testing at many of these places; a 17 year old flunky who got about a half hour's worth of training. Yes there are pool stores that do a good job, but it's very difficult for a typical pool owner to figure out which ones know what they're doing. I know my testing procedures are right,I know my reagents current, and I therefore know my test results are good. I've taken parts of the same water sample to 3 different stores and gotten three wildly different results all of which differed significantly from my test results. All three stores also gave me bad recommendations for adding lots of things I didn't need based on those inaccurate tests. I and most other people who take care of their own testing and chemical additions don't get algae and don't have cloudy water or other problems.

dcrowex, You're getting good advice from neilaz and sandradee. The only thing I would add is that you need a test kit with an FAS-DPD chlorine test. Those will test up to at least 50 ppm free chlorine. You can get a Taylor K-2006 or the test kit sold through the troublefreepool site that sandradee referred you to. The trouble free test kit is based on the Taylor K-2006 but is a better value because the reagents are right-sized.