Getting started with BBB pool care

I am new to pool care <6 months and currently have the pool in pretty good shape. (Clear water and no uncomfortable smells, etc. while in the water) Started reading about BBB last night and registered today so I can keep learning more. Test strips are all in good range, and I do plan to order the Taylor test kit soon to get more specific readings, but the prior homeowner left the strips and I figured that would help me get started anyway. How much Bleach do I use to shock the pool? The only item I read about that so far was adding some bleach every few days. My pool is 24' round AG, about 16,000 gallons.

What is your wall height of your pool? I think 16K gallons is a little high for a 24ft AG pool. Verify your wall height and then we can help you figure out doses of bleach to add.

Do order the good Taylor kit but in the meantime, can you go to Walmart and see if they have a 6-way drops-based kit? If not, get a cheap OTO/Phenol Red kit (red and yellow drops). That can help you get started a lot better than test strips. We don't call them 'guess strips' for nothing! :p

My pool is 3' deep around the sides- out about 2-3 feet then goes down to about 6' in the middle - I think i used one of those online volume calculators to guess about 16k gallons back in November. I looked online and my local Walmart doesnt have the kit listed in the posts that have the Taylor kits listed. I will be out of town Wed-Fri so this weekend I plan to really read through as much as I can and do some 'real tests'

There should be someplace locally that sells an OTO/Phenol Red kit. K-Mart, Lowe's, etc. Even a pool store ----- but don't let them talk you into buying anything else while you are there!

In regards to dosing: In a 16K gallon pool, each quart of 8.25% bleach will add about 1.3ppm of chlorine. Each of the 121 oz jugs will add just about 5ppm. Use those values as references to help you figure out doses. Your shock level and needed maintenance chlorine levels are based on your CYA reading. Take a look at the Best Guess Chlorine Chart for more about the connection between the two. http://pool9.net/cl-cya/

Once you get some good numbers, someone here can help you determine what you need to do next.

Hope this helps. :)

. . . membership updated.

OK, I did some test with drops and got readings of:
Total Chlorine - 4
pH - 7.4
Alk - 50

So I'm needing to add baking soda - how much would you recommend for a 15-16k gallon pool?

Nah. AG pool with liner? Don't worry too much about either TA or calcium unless they are TOO high. Or, if your pH is wandering around raising the TA will help with that.

Your 3 key valves: chlorine, pH and CYA (Stabilizer). If you don't know your stabilizer level, you can't know what your chlorine level should be! Read this page for explanations: http://pool9.net/cl-cya/