Oh, lastly, there is a good amount of dirt (just plane backyard dirt) that I'm slowyly vacuming out. While the pool is not green, and water is pretty clear, the walls were a little "slimy"...so I' ve been brushing them.

If your walls are a little "slimy", then you've already got an algae bloom starting, which is probably why you can't hold a chlorine residual. If that is indeed the case, then you need to keep adding the bleach until you get to 12-15 ppm Cl, and keep it there..........and don't wait until you have a CYA reading! The CYA can be added at the same time but since it takes several days to dissolve you're going to have to test your water and add enough bleach to bring the Cl back up to 12-15 daily until you can hold a residual.

Janet