Ok so a 24hr chlorine test my results were:

6/7/12 7pm
FC - 21.5
CC 1.5
pH - 7.2

brushed the pool because the pink algae was returning (see below)

6/8/12 7am
FC 21.5
CC - 1

6/8/12 7pm
FC 8
CC 2

So my chlorine loss (use) was 12 ppm in 12hrs! But its a complicated story. I was attempting to do this 24hr test several days ago and had gotten as far as checking 7pm and 7am (FC was around 20 unchanged overnight), but I then had a family emergency and had to go out of town and did not touch the pool for 36hrs. 36hrs later when I did check it the FC was 14! So it had only dropped 6ppm over the course of 2 sunny (these were all sunny days) days! BUT the pink algae had returned and so spent 2 hours scrubbing the pool (again) and got it up to 21.5ppm for my 7pm check. Today the FC is much lower, the pink algae maybe looks somewhat better after scrubbing and the bottom of the pool is cloudy. Most of the time the water is clear, smells chlorinated but not too powerful.

Its obvious that the pink algae is not inhibited by anything less than 20ppm.

The weight of the bromine tablets were 5lbs (total over a course of 2 weeks).

I feel like my pool has the plague!