Okay...here I am about a week into my pool's voracious chlorine appetite problem. The last 2 nights, the water lost 2 ppm overnight. However, between 4:30 am and noon today, the cl dropped by 6 ppm and the pool is just now getting into full sun. A 10 or 12 ppm drop during the day hasn't been uncommon. I'll bet this thing has gobbled up 40 jugs of bleach since last week.

It's hard to tell if I'm making progress. The water is crystal clear and the ph has been stable since this weekend. I've been diligent about vacuuming, testing and adding bleach to keep the cl at 20 ppm. I've got a nylon in the skimmer, so I've only backwashed once. (Or, should I be doing it daily?)

I bet other people who've had this problem can relate to the feeling of "I MUST be doing something wrong." You start questioning everything--maybe I got a bad batch of bleach, maybe my reagents are bad, maybe my neighbors ARE right and I DON'T know what I'm doing, maybe the people in charge of the forum have stock in Chlorox... (by the way, the bleach is fresh and the reagents are all new!)

Here are my latest numbers
FC 20
CC 0
ph 7.5
cya 60
alk 160
cal 220

So this is the part where I throw my sob story and my boo-boo face onto you guys (and gals). I'm hoping that there isn't a serious problem. I'll be waiting for a sympathetic shoulder and a hankie to dry my crocodile tears. In the meantime, I'm off to WalMart. They're having a sale on liquid patience. Wha'd ya think...4 maybe 5 gallons?

Thanks,
Bill