Losing 3 ppm of chlorine a day

[paigemetoo]

I also ran the filter with some DE. Should I continue?

[Themadczar]

Bacteria may have eaten your cya from last year causing ammonia in the water. That doesn't change what you need to do. Shock as I mentioned before. If you can't test for FC and cc right now, get a cheap oto test kit and keep it off the chart dark yellow.

[paigemetoo]

I can test for FC. I just got all new regents and got/ordered R-0002 instead of R-0003 (oops) so that's all I'm waiting on. It's a shame I can't buy it at a pool store. I'm at 3 and just added 6 gallons and I will test again in a couple hours to make sure I'm above 20 before I go to bed.

Thx!

[swimdaddy]

I too have had a cloudy or green pool and a CC reading of 0. Not sure how good the CC test is in the Taylor kits, but I still test. However, if your pool LOOKS like it has a problem, it has a problem, despite no or low CC reading.

[paigemetoo]

That's the thing Swimdaddy, my pool looks beautiful! Just eating chlorine. 20 last night, 17 this morning. Added a gallon. 2 hrs later 16. Added 2 gallons. 2 hrs later 16...uggggg!

[Anonymous [GDPR] European in the UK]

I would say the chlorine loss could well be down to the polyquats you added which is really junk anyway. Polyquats wont clear an algae attack and increases the work load on the chlorine burning out the polyquats as Ben would have told you, sounds like you are a little to pool store, return to light! ;-)
If you have your free chlorine reagents now and are waiting for the CC reagent then as said previously get an OTO test kit as that only really measures total chlorine anyway.

Oh and your TA isn't too low either for a vinyl liner pool, so long as your pH doesn't climb the TA is fine.

[paigemetoo]

Teapot I'm confused by your post. Polyquat is the only algicide this site recommends and is why I used it. I have been doing this method since 2011 and I'm not "pool store" at all. I read many threads on here that recommended the use of it for the problem I was experiencing -cloudy but blue, which it did clear up. I am also aware that it increases chlorine demand for a little while. In the past, it has only needed it for about 2 days and I added it a week ago.
As for the oto test, maybe I don't understand or am missing something. What would be the point to using it? How does it tell me what my CC is? It will turn bright yellow and tell me I have at least 5 ppm when I already know exactly what it is from the FC test I have been using.