Here in OK, we just had two new 1.0 hp pump motors (hot tub jet and hot tub circulation motors) put in last Saturday at around $600/$650 each, installed. I don't know exactly because it was covered by our home warranty. Thank goodness once the new pump was installed, we could test the heater and sand filter for the hot tub and found that shockingly, they both worked fine. We had no measurable amount of CYA in our pool, so we were able to de-swampify with large amounts of chlorine bleach from the grocery store and brushing and vacuuming. My friend joked that the Walmart cashiers probably think I'm cleaning up a crime scene every time I roll up with a cart full of bleach. For our 35K gallon pool, it takes about 4 of the 182oz jugs of generic unscented clorox ($2.95 each jug) to bring to shock level. To de-swampify, it took us about 12 or 16 jugs total, added in the right increments at the right time (started just at dusk the first night with 5 jugs, then hit it with two more about 10 am, then a few more a few hours later, and keep going like that so my chlorine levels stayed high for at least 36 hours. that is not exactly the textbook way to do it, but I didn't have the drop chlorine test that measures really high levels of chlorine, mine just goes to 5, and when it dropped below 5, I added another jug. in 24 hours you can see blue but cloudy water. continuing to vacuum all the leaves from the bottom is crucial, because the leaves will just raise your chlorine demand and it's a vicious cycle. as we started to be able to see the bottom of the pool, it was a lot easier to see where the leaves were to get them out. brushing stirs up the cloud and makes it so you can't see again, but must be done to break the algae's grip on the pool surfaces.) Also, rather than spending $1K on water for your pool, I would budget that for an automatic cleaner of some variety if you don't have one already. We are shopping around for one now, and cannot wait to have it! Since we are out of swamp mode (although we had a revisit to swamp when we had a huge storm with giant hail that knocked tons of leaves in the pool. it's taken us 9 days to get it back to clean, so we need to work on how diligent we are to bring it up again) we are tired of scooping leaves all the time and want a cleaner to help us!

We are having a pool party on Saturday and you've gotten some good advice. One other thing I'd recommend is putting on the invitation that a parent is required to stay at the party with their child. Meaning no drop-offs as you see happen so much at kids' parties nowdays. My son too almost drowned at a pool party when he jumped in and just seemingly forgot to swim and had to be pulled out (he was about 5, at a neighbor's pool). Thank God that I had stayed (most parents didn't) AND that I was paying attention. Otherwise we would have probably lost him. We have a neighbor kid that comes over to swim all the time without the parents (he's 5) and can't swim even though his mom and dad either don't care about this or aren't aware, so we make him wear a life vest. I'd also recommend having those out, in boy/girl styles and a couple different sizes, for parents who come unprepared to use on their kids. We have a big laundry basket we put out full of them at pool parties and surprisingly, they get used. You could even go so far as to forbid water wings. On last year's party invitation we put "no drop-offs! Thank you - safety first" on them and this year we put "please bring sunscreen, towel, and a parent." If a parent is offended, it's probably not someone you want swimming at your house anyway. Also provide plenty of chairs poolside so parents have someplace to sit while watching their kids.

Yay for you! That's what's known as keeping at shock level - shocking is not just dumping chlorine in the pool and walking away. You have to keep at it until the chlorine overtakes the organics and the chlorine can get ahead and maintain. (hence, doing it every hour). We will be bringing our pool back from green after a horrific hail storm/wind storm on Tuesday. Stocked up with 11 1.5 gallon bottles of bleach to work on that this weekend. Sun and organics eat chlorine. So best to add just after sundown (like you did before bed), it will work more effectively (last longer and work longer before it will degrade due to sunligh), and clean organics (leaves, etc) out of the pool so chlorine isn't working on them and can sanitize the water. We scooped bags and bags of leaves out of the pool yesterday and today. No use pouring six bottles of chlorine in if there is that many leaves, IMHO.

Well you got the 1st lesson of pool ownership. 1) Becareful of the "pool store" and what they say. They don't always know what they are talking about. Buy a test kit, learn how your pool is suppose to work. Do your own testing. Post your pool chemical test results here and we can tell you what to buy. Also, if I were you, I would attack one problem at a time. One change can effect other factors without ever having to add the second chemical. And, don't worry, you have NOT ruined your pool. When you mix the chemicals together, it "can" basically make them "ineffective" at doing anything so when you end up adding what you have mixed up, the chemicals do nothing or less than what you bought them for in the first place if they react with themselves. So what you did was waste time and money and probably changed your pool chemistry less or not at all compared to if you had added them to the pool separately. The pool chemical company can sell you a bunch of chemicals to attack meaningless problems and many times they set themselves up for you creating additional problems so you can come back and buy more chemicals. You need to know whats going on and go to the store with one chemical and process in mind to buy and ignore the temptation to ask them anything. ;)