Quote Originally Posted by sabres07 View Post
Any idea how much bleach to use to super chlorinate?? From my understanding, if you don't use enough the first time you are just wasting your money. Is that correct?
It's never exactly true. It is true with algae, that if you aren't getting ahead, you are getting behind. But, with white cloudy water, algae is not your immediate problem. (Sweep the pool to make sure you don't have algae piles on the bottom!)

You need to add pool info to your signature: type, dimensions, gallons as you've been told (usually inflated), pump/filter make/model, etc. There's a link in my signature block. I just put what I could find, there.

BUT . . . if you have ZERO CYA, a high chlorine demand, and had a signficant CYA level last fall, there's a fair chance you have ammonia in the pool.

In your case, with 18K gallons, a gallon of PLAIN 6% household bleach should add about 3 ppm of chlorine to your pool. You don't want to go TOO high, all at once and fade your liner. (It may happen anyhow: liner color stability is unpredictable). So add 4 - 5 gallons of bleach each evening. Test in the AM with an OTO (yellow drops) kit. If the chlorine is gone, add 2 gallons.

Repeat this dose until you hold a high chlorine level overnight.