up and running- now what?

have been following this site for over a year now and trying to follow your wisdom. 30 ft round AG with new sand filter and 1hp super pump. winter cover came off middle of COLD december thanks to a neighbors dog, but thats another story. So I have my taylor K2006 test kit (purchased thru your link) and these are my first readings. FC.5 CC1.5 PH 8.0 + took 10 drops of R005 to get to 7.2 TA 120 CYA less than 30 what I have done is added 26 gallons of 12% pool store shock (on sale 9.99 case) and added two boxes of borax. filter is and has been running non-stop past 24 hours.Really thought clorine would be higher since you can smell it around the pool. maybe I messed up the test it did take me 8 dips of 0870 powder to turn sample pink. what now??

adding 12 gallons BLEACH and no more borax unless told otherwise. sand filter PSI holding steady at 8. pool looks 1000x better than last week

ok not really 12 gallons (3 qt jugs) so 9 gallons also have not added DE to filter since I thought I would be backwashing every day but thats not happening. So glad to open pool already wife just turned FURNACE back on. Gotta LOVE this OHIO weather

The chlorine smell is probably coming from the high CC reading. Continue to keep it at shock level until the CC level drops to 0.5 or below. Did you run the pH test before or after you added a large dose of bleach? If it was done after, it is most likely inaccurate. If it was before, then it is too high and you'll need to lower it some with muriatic acid. Start with a cup or so added slowly in front of a return jet being careful not to spill or splash it and staying upwind of the fumes. Also a good idea to wear protective glasses. It is nasty stuff. Wait several hours, retest and redose until you get the pH somewhere between 7.2-7.8.

Glad to have you here on the forum and thanks a lot for becoming a subscriber! Hope this helps.

(BTW -- if you think of something you need to add or a typo that you need to correct soon after you make a post, you can edit it by clicking the edit button below the post.)

thanks for that tip now FC 18 CC 1.2 all readings were done after my adds I need to check in the a.m. and compare FC correct? keep adding bleach until no more than 1ppm drop off from night/a.m.? At what point will the PH be accurate? thank you for assisting

so this mornings check FC 15.5 CC 3 did not test for anything else or should I ALWAYS test for everything? why did CC double? is that normal?

Test your pH every day before adding a high dose of bleach. Try and sustain the high cl reading without letting it yo-yo up and down. What is your cl reading in the evening before you add more? Sometimes upon opening, some pools have a high chlorine demand and it takes awhile and lot of bleach to clear the CC and have the cl reading hold. It gets frustrating and you think it will never be fixed, but then finally it does. Hang in there!