The ascorbic acid and polyquat both eat chlorine, which is why you're having a tough time keeping a chlorine residual. When you asked about putting bleach into the pool to bump up chlorine, you can certainly do so, if you're trying to chlorinate the pool. However, one of the things Ben is trying to accomplish by having you put the trichlor puck into the skimmer is to create a high dose of chlorine that the water has to pass through on its way to the filter, which causes the metals to fall out and be trapped on the filter. Bleach won't work for this purpose, because the dose goes straight through the filter and back out to the pool.

Janet