well, maybe not diamonds, but the pool has that sparkle and shimmer that i haven't seen in quite a while since the baq to chlorine conversion. BUT, it's becoming a pain having to add a gal of bleach morning and nite to keep the chlorine levels at 4-5 ppm. alternatives??? tri chlor and watch the CYA levels?? cal hypo ?? the tri-chlor pucks seem the easiest but after what i've read here about CYA levels climbing, i'm kinda unsure what to do if i need to leave the pool unattended for a week. weather has been very hot and sunny here in NE, so i'm thinking this surely has to be partly responsible for the low FC levels. the numbers before the nightly dose:
FC...1
CC...0
CYA..50
TA...130
PH...7.2

That sounds like rather extreme consumption to me. If you're losing FC overnight, something's using it up because you can rule out UV light. I'd start with the overnight loss test. You might need to shock, but I'm sure you know how to do that by now...

And you don't want to use trichlor all the time. CYA will get astronomical, and should you get an algae bloom with CYA, say, 120, the amount of bleach you used to convert from baquacil will seem like nothing.

Like Richard said, make sure that you aren't losing FC to organics in the pool water.

Now, if everything checks out and you are still wishing to get away from the jugs of bleach, you can always go get you a SWCG.

Or The Liquidator or a peristaltic pump.

It's very important that you never allow the chlorine to fall below 7.5 % of the cyanuric acid level. For 50 ppm cyanuric acid, that means 3.75 ppm FC is your absolute minimum. I usually target double the minimum (15 % of the cyanuric acid level) to allow for some loss before I next test and add more liquid chlorine. If you expect more loss than that before your next test, you can go higher on the FC. I typically try to keep the FC to less than 20 % of the cyanuric acid level for normal routine chlorination.

Did you open up the filter and clean the grids once the conversion was completed?

Your topic caught my eye. Diamonds.

We add solar salt to our bleach pool to enhance the water feel. If you want to see diamonds glittering in the sun, that's the way to get the 'look'

Swcg, liquidator, injection pump. They all are easier than a jug a day.

ok, i now know i need to keep my FC at 10/15% of CYA level. thanx a ton for that easy formula.
can you advise me on the operation, efficiency, cost comparisons, etc. between SWG, liquidator, and injection systems. can't seem to get a lot of objective info for these systems.

Over the life or the systems they all work out to about the same cost. The LQ will be a little cheaper because it cost less for the initial install but in my observations it evens out due to the excursions you see from time to time with it using more bleach than you need. The swcg is the higest initial cost because the initial install of equipment is a large expense but not having to buy and add bleach evens that out over time.

Two gallons a day sounds like WAY too much for your pool, must have some organics eating it up. I'd think you would need about 1/2 gallon per day in maintenance mode.

A peristaltic pump (Stenner or equivalent) and suitable tank (15 gallon plastic carboy type) will cost approx. $300. You can load it up and set it so you don't have to check it for a couple weeks. In your case of a smallish pool, you might even be able to go a month on 15 gallons of bleach. My pool currently consumes approx. 1 gallon per day (still getting the pump set just right and we don't have much sun yet) with my CYA at 40 so I try to keep FC between 5 and 6.

thanx for the info,guys. looks like i'm going back to basics here and starting with o/nite FC loss test. once i get things stable, i'll be back to pick your brains. gotta be something in there eating all this chlorine. filter was dumped, cleaned, and soaked in bleach solution, as was all the ladders and toys. back to square one???