Newbie here, First Post

[PoolDoc]

1. Do not worry about breakpoint or CC; worry about chlorinating consistently.

2. Do not trust pool store (test strip) results; get a K2006 and find out what is REALLY in your pool. (Amazon link in my signature.)

3. All chlorine compounds -- including bleach -- add something else. Bleach adds more salt, which is fairly innocuous, making it the best choice when you really don't know what's in your pool. Dichlor may be the best choice, for a while, if your CYA is gone. Get a K2006 so we can all find out!

4. Double dose with bleach one evening, and then turn your pump off for 24 hours. (No swimming, either.) See if the stuff will settle. If it will vacuum to waste.

5. If it will NOT settle, install a valve on the line between the pump and the filter, and throttle the flow back. Sand filters will filter finer particles, at slower flow rates.

[awfletch]

Ok since i am only a few days into the forum I havent had a chance to get a taylor test kit but I just now picked up results from a pool store which uses Taylor WiseLab.
FC .2
CC 0
pH 7.5
TA 120
Cya 50

Only thing wrong is that I have had cloudy water and couldnt clear it, so i backwashed out a bunch of water and added more to get some levels down before today. Then lost my chlorine and when i shocked it, it had CC. so i took away all chlorine and let the sun have at it for a day. CC is gone and now i need to start chlorinating. Since my water had been cloudy and my calcium had been climbing till the water dumb i want to switch from cal-hypo to bleach. I would like to know how to convert how much I need to use.

[Watermom]

If you use 6% bleach, each quart will add 1ppm of chlorine. If you use 8.25%, each quart will add 1.5ppm of chlorine. Since you water is cloudy and since you let it drop to zero, you will need to shock your pool. With a CYA of 50, your shock level is 15ppm so add enough bleach to take your chlorine that high. After you shock the pool, let the pump run for a few hours and then turn it off per Ben's instructions above.

[awfletch]

I actually put in 6 gallons which should have raised my FC to 24. I waited an hour and a half to test for chlorine. I now have a chlorine reading of 1 and I am showing traces of CC. I don't know how that is possible in such a short period of time. Should I add another 6 gallons

[Watermom]

What kind of test kit did you use to test the chlorine after you added the 6 gallons of bleach?

[awfletch]

I actually tested it two ways. Since I am new to this forum I don't yet have a Taylor Test Kit but will be ordering one on Friday. With that being said, The chlorine test after shocking with aquachem 6 way test strips showed FC at 1 and CC at 2. I then tested with a Test Kit that I got when the pool was installed July 2010. It is a JED Pool Tools Model 480 2way test kit that uses orthotolidine to test chlorine and phenol red to test ph. this kit only goes up to 4 on chlorine but it showed every bit of 4. So I researched the shelf life of orthotolidine and it says the shelf life is 3 years. So this test is possibly correct. Should I just trust that adding 6 Gallons brought my FC to 24PPM using the best guess chart and my current CYA level? I am ordering a better test kit Friday. I have 6 more gallons of chlorine waiting to go in as needed.

[Watermom]

Try this:

Testing Without a Good Kit

[awfletch]

Using this 2way drop kit. Its supposed to take 4 drops of orthotolidine to register a color match at normal chlorine levels, so I got the smart Idea to only add one drop since my FC technically should be over 16 and only one drop color matched a 4. Does this mean that my FC is really reading well above 16? Or am I doing things with that test kit that it isn't designed to do?