I found the forums yesterday after the umpteenth trip to the store this year to fight a pool that will not clear. I've been balancing and testing my water successfully for the past 3 years with the occasional expertise of the pool lady who has always treated me - and my pool - fairly. I do use 3" tabs in an inline feeder, as well as a low dose copper "pill" once each season to avoid algaecide. (right after we built, before i found her, we had pink slime and I never want to go through that again!)

This year we had an unseasonably warm winter combined with a hot early spring, then unusually cool late spring. Opened late and was greeted with milky water. Didn't clear even though I took the unusual step of using clarifier. We changed our filter sand and have continued with shocking/ clarifying. I've alternated between Potassium shock and dichlor after the initial 8 gal 12%. I've been running trichlor far heavier than i ever have...wide open and have been through 6 tabs since Saturday morning. Was retrying to raise CYA, as reading at open was 0. Cant maintain FC residual. Yup... You guessed it... Ammonia! We just tested it for the first time yesterday and were at 1.0.

Found you all, hoping you can help!
Shocked w/4 bags potassium Sunday evening.
Yesterday's readings:
FC:1.0
CC: 5.0
Ph: 7.3
Alk: 80
Cya:30
Ammonia: 1.0

Turned off feeder, left pool open 24 hrs.
Today's readings:
FC: .4
CC: 4.0
Ph: 7.1
Alk: 75
Cya: 30
Ammonia:0.75

I brought home 150 in potassium shock yesterday but couldn't bring myself to add it once I found your forum. Hoping you can give me some guidance on how much bleach I'll need to add and for how long (how do you plug the 10x ammonia into the calculator??)
Or- should I go with the non- chlorine ( I think I know the answer to that!) Or should I go with her second suggestion and do a partial drain / fill (1foot) and start over? She did not advocate the liquid shock b/c of ph issues.

Thanks in advance for your advice, and for the wealth of info you have elsewhere!

Welcome

First, I ask you not to think and just order one of the recommended test kits (see my signature for a link)
Second, I recommend you read Pool School (button at upper right) while waiting for said test kit.

You CYA is good now for the shocking process ... STOP adding dichlor and trichlor.

Also save yourself some money and just go buy a LOT of liquid chlorine or bleach (BTW, it will not affect pH, you are on the low end now which is good to start shocking. If the FC < 10, you can check the pH and make sure it does not rise too much in a few days).

Using the CYA/FC chart in Pool School, @ CYA 30ppm, you need to "try" to maintain your FC at 12ppm. That means using poolcalculator to determine how much bleach to add, add it, wait 1 hour, test FC and add more bleach ... repeat until you pass the 3 tests in the Shocking Your Pool article in Pool School.

Have, did, and did . Just need to buy the bleach... And have no idea how much to even guess to buy...Not sure if I'm missing where to add the known ammonia issue into the calculator. I've been known to look right at things and miss them, though!

Lots of great advice on the forums I've read as well, but most seemed a lot father gone than mine and I'd like to avoid over treating if possible.

Thanks!

No need to put the ammonia into the calculator ... you will know it is gone when the CC are gone.

Just put your current test results on the left and put your target FC on the right ... add that much bleach. Test FC again in 30-60 min. Put that result on the left and add the amount of bleach recommended ... repeat. The more you can do this, the faster the CC will be gone.

Buy ... a LOT.

According to the calculator, for a 36k pool, to raise FC from 0 to 12 will require 7 gallons of 6% bleach (5 182 oz bottles). You will probably have to do this several times before the FC starts to hold.

As a rough estimate you need about nine times as much chlorine as you have ammonia. However, you also lose chlorine to sunlight and algae and so on, so the actual quantity required is usually noticeably higher. Also, it is important to not add it all at once. You should follow the usual shock process. Shocking is an ongoing process that involves raising the FC level to shock level, waiting an hour, and repeating until you pass the overnight FC loss test, CC is 0.5 or lower, and the water is clear. For complete details see the article on how to shock your pool in Pool School. Except use the mustard algae shock level instead of the regular shock level.

Fantastic! Mustard level...will calculate out the 9x as a guide to have on hand and will follow standard liquid shocking protocol w/ frequent retesting. I appreciate having your collective wisdom!