Chlorine while waiting for CYA level to come up

[vitaminddd]

We are the very happy owners of a new 18x4 intex ultra frame pool that has been thoroughly enjoyed every day of the 5 it has been filled. Best idea ever!

We had the pool filled via pool water company truck (6k gallons, the other 423 from our garden hose).

We are using the HTH 6-way dropper test kit primarily, but also the test strips solely to monitor the presence of absence of free chlorine (my understanding is the dropper test measures for total chlorine?).

Our chlorine levels vary wildly because we have 0 CYA (or assuming very close to 0, there was no discernible difference in the appearance of the black dot at 30, and that's as low as the test measures.

So we have about 1.5lbs of HTH stabilizer in a sock next to the intake. We have a trichlor tab in a floater doohickey.

So, while we wait for our CYA to dissolve, what is the best way to keep the chlorine in check?

What we have been doing is dumping a pile of bleach or cal-hypo "shock" in the pool at night. This brings the chlorine level way up (beyond what we can measure), and it stays that way overnight (which I think is a good thing?). By noon/2PM, the chlorine is down to 1-2ppm, and by sundown, it's 0, at which point we repeat the process.

My understanding is that once the CYA level comes up, that will help keep the chlorine from disappearing during the day.

So my question is, is there a better way to handle the chlorine until the CYA comes up? We have been going "overboard" on the chlorine at night because the level does drop to 0 and since we don't lose chlorine at night, we figure it's doing the best possible job to kill off whatever started growing while the chlorine was 0. But should we be doing less at night, and adding a bunch in the AM?

We use the pool mostly in the late afternoon/early evening (which happens to be when the chlorine drops down to 0-2ppm).

Our water is crystal clear, and nothing slippery is on the pool surface. I'd like to keep it that way.

Test results:

Chlorine-all over the place
Ph: 7.5-7.8 (readings from the noon/2pm test when Chlorine is at a normal level)
TA: 40
Hardness: 80
CYA: 0 - not testing again until the sock is dissolved

I just don't want to wreck the pool or have it turn green.

[vitaminddd]

Not sure if this is a follow up or a new question? I've had my sock of CYA dissolving for 2 days. It looks largely non-dissolved at this point (which seems OK since it's supposed to take a long time to dissolve). Since yesterday evening, chlorine has been hanging around 5. So now my concern is that I'm going to end up with way too much CYA? I was not expecting the chlorine levels to stabilize until all the CYA was dissolved and maybe not even then (only put enough to bring it up to 20ppm, and the 2 trichlor tabs should bring it up another 10ish once they are done dissolving).

Should I be concerned about getting too much CYA? Or should I just get myself a nice healthy dose of patience and see how that works?

[PoolDoc]

+ It's OK to add chlorine at PM daily -- so long as you are only swimming with family. When you start swimming with non-family, you want to be sure that there's enough chlorine to prevent them from sharing something with you, other than friendship.

+ Hang the CYA sock in front of the pool return, where water re-enters the pool, for faster dissolving.

+ Read the Best Guess page (link in my signature) to understand appropriate chlorine levels.

+ Read the Super Simple recipe page, for another approach to Intex pool care, and for some additional info.