total chlorine vs free chlorine

[chem geek]

I don't think that will help and it will be a lot more expensive than chlorinating liquid or bleach. You need to shock your pool with chlorine and keep adding it until you start registering an FC level. You may have a lot of ammonia in your pool, though normally that comes from a breakdown of CYA by bacteria. Did you just open your pool and find this problem? If so, then that may be what happened, though all the CYA didn't get converted since you still measure some.

[PoolDoc]

=> The chlorine demand bucket test doesn't take a couple of days. A matter of hours should be enough. It *will* require a K2006 or equiv for meaningful results.

=> If you raise the pH above 7.6, and continue to maintain high levels of CC, the CC will gradually take the form of monochloramine, which is a very effective algicide. But, you don't want to swim in 7.5 ppm of monochloramine -- it will severely irritate your eyes, and possibly, your skin.