No Clue What To Do - no chlorine reading

[calamtykel]

I've spent hundreds in chlorine just so far this year and I'm at my wit's end. My pool looks beautiful - it's clear straight to the bottom (30K gallon inground vinyl liner). But I cannot get a chlorine reading. The pool store doesn't seem to be steering me right. Usually I don't even need them - I adjust everything myself and it goes fine. I just dumped about 8 pounds of dichlor into it and I'm still getting NOTHING on my reading!
My results from the pool store this morning were .5 available chlorine, 3.8 total chlorine 156 alk (high) 7.5 Ph (okay) 62 cyanuric acid (high).

All else okay.
No clue what to do. I can't even get it to a 1 for chlorine let alone shock level of 10!

What am I doing wrong? I've been doing this for 10 years - I can't afford to buy any more shock. They gave me Yellow X this last time to try to boost the chlorine but it was 20 bucks flushed because it's done nothing.
Why does my pool look great but no amount of shock will give me even a small reading? I even dunked my test strip into some chlorine in a bucket to be sure the "purple" was working............................?

[waterbear]

Post a full set of test results and not from strips. If possible also test the pool for ammonia. There is a huge chlorine demand as evedenced by the high CC and very low FC.

Dichlor is NOT what you should be shocking with because for every 10 ppm FC you add with dichlor you also add 9 ppm CYA!

[calamtykel]

I'm not sure what they use to test, but it's called Pinpoint and it's done with droppers (not test strips I don't think...)
FAC - .5 (lo)
Total chlor 3.8
combined chlor 3.3 (high)
Total Alk Input 177
Total Alk Adjusted 156
ph 7.5
calcium 174 (vinyl liner anyhow)
cy acid 62
copper and iron - 0
total dissolved solids 0
saturation index .11

I've tried the hypocal, but it's affecting my liner, even dissolved. I hit it with 7 bags of super sock it the other day to no avail.

the pool store suggested that I add a lot of PH lower to get the alk down, however, I have a big problem with Low ph in my pool and finally just got it within acceptable range! I am hestitant to add ph lower as i know shock needs a relatively high ph to work effectively.

[calamtykel]

OH - I should say compared to last night, it looks much clearer and "bluer". It looked clean to me last night but today I can really see the difference - clear as glass all the way down and I can see the "blueness" in it. Last night it had an all over yellowish/greenish tinge on the sides last night.
So while the chlorine today must have helped, I still am not getting a reading. I was in it for the first time today and noticed that all the sides, all the way around are SUPER bumpy - they feel like sand paper! I was surprised that this "grit" rubs off - it's very rough, like sand. Brushing doesn't take it off, but I grabbed a work glove I had on the deck and used that . It's all below the water line and on the sides and not bottom.

I'm about to hit the grocery store and buy a pile of regular bleach since my stab. is high. Is that an idea? 10 years and never had this trouble.....ugh!

[aylad]

In your situation, a "pile of regular bleach" is exactly what you need to be shocking with--I bet if you have your ammonia tested, you'll find that it's high, which makes for a huge chlorine demand, as Watermom said. Unfortunately, the only way to overcome that is to keep adding chlorine (read: bleach) until you overcome the ammonia. The chlorine you're putting into the pool is getting used up quickly by "stuff" in your pool, as evidenced by the high CC reading--you have to get it to shock level (and maintain that level until the CC reading goes to 0) in order to get the pool clean.

Janet

[waterbear]

the pool store suggested that I add a lot of PH lower to get the alk down, however, I have a big problem with Low ph in my pool and finally just got it within acceptable range! I am hestitant to add ph lower as i know shock needs a relatively high ph to work effectively.
First of all, where did you ever get the mistaken idea that shock needs a high pH to work effectively?
Second, I am going to make a guess that you normally chlorinate with trichlor tabs and shock with dichlor. Both of these will cause both the pH and TA to fall.
The only other thing that can cause a low pH problem is keeping the pool covered all the time. This could also lead to persistent CC!
Let us know which of these scenarios applies to you and we can take it from there.