We have a 30,000 gallon in ground pool and are having a lot of trouble. This is our first year opening the pool as we just bought the home last year after it was closed. Seems like no matter what we do we can't get the free chlorine to register at a normal level nor keep the total chlorine up. We have added so so so much shock to it and still nothing!! We do have a solar cover on the pool covering it all except the stairs. Below are test results... Now I do have to say that when adding shock it has not all been the same brand/chemical make up. We have used the pool stuff, the Menards stuff and the liquid stuff. We do have a auto chlorinater that we have with the large chlorine tablets.

Test 1 May 24th:
Free Chlorine: .18 (added 8lbs ultra shock)
Total Chlorine: 2.44
Comb. Chlorine: 2.26
pH: 7.5
Harness: 156 (added 16lbs to increase)
Alkalinity: 111
Cyanuric Acid: 9
Copper: .1
Iron: .2
Borate: 9
Stabalizer: low (pool store said don't worry about this)

Test 2 June 2nd:
Free Chlorine: .31 (added 7lbs ultra shock)
Total Chlorine: 2.36
Comb. Chlorine: 2.05
pH: 6.9
Harness: 190
Alkalinity: 86 (added 17 lbs to adjust)
Cyanuric Acid: 26
Copper: .1
Iron: .2
Borate: 11
Stabalizer: low

Test 3 June 7th:
Free Chlorine: .4 (added 10 lbs of shock)
Total Chlorine: 3.18
Comb. Chlorine: 2.78
pH: 6.6 (added 2 lbs pH increase)
Harness: 166 (added 12 lbs to increase)
Alkalinity: 99 (added 11 lbs to increase)
Cyanuric Acid: 63
Copper: .2
Iron: .2
Borate: 20

So last night we added all of the above with the findings of the third test result. We also added 48 oz stabalizer and the iron out mineral stuff because of the iron on the bottom (we have well water). So this morning I used the normal test strips to check the levels and both the free and total chlorine are not registering!! Not sure what to do!! Do we just keep adding and adding water! We have a sand filter and it seems to be working normally sitting at 20 psi, my husband backwashed before adding chemicals last night. UGH, just tired of spending LOTS and LOTS of money on chemicals when nothing seems to be working!!
Stabalizer: low (pool store said don't worry about this)