Two inches of scum? That is nasty. I would have given up and dumped the whole thing out, so hearing it went clear in one summer is kind of wild to me. Forty bucks seems too cheap for a fix like that, but a screen and some shade makes sense when you think about it. My barrel goes green every single August no matter what I do, so I might try the board trick first and see if that alone helps.

Really, so a recruiter lied straight to your face for 5 months?

...so they made you jump through hoops for three weeks over a typo that a ten minute phone call could fix? Sounds about right. Nothing brings a payroll company to life faster than the words "state labor board" in an email. Funny how the fix mysteriously takes 10 minutes once that card gets played. Pretty sure half these companies bank on you giving up before they have to do any actual work.