OK - thought I would come back and update the thread just for completeness...
I left my pH alone and the SWG cell unplugged until the chlorine came back down to 5ppm. This happened just today so took a good few days but in fairness, they were cloudy days. When I tested my chlorine this morning it was reading 5ppm so I put plugged my SWG cell in again and set my machine on 70%.
I took another reading just after lunch and the chlorine level had gone up to 6ppm so I reduced my machine to 60% - I'll do another test shortly. Needless to say I'm 100% confident my machine is working perfectly.
pH is on the money, sat currently at 7.5 - I'll do a full workup of tests this week.
For anyone new reading this thread, here is my (non-expert) advice:
1. Get one of the test kits recommended in pool school. I was skeptical about this advice but went ahead and got it and it was invaluable. You cannot shock properly without one and your problem will take longer to go away if it goes away at all.
2. Shocking (properly) takes longer than you think (than newbies think anyway) but just as your about to question whether you're doing it right, poof, your problem is resolved. Patience is key here, its going to take a few days but after your problem will be resolved...
3. If you didn't act on step one, **really** get yourself one of the recommended test kits...
4. Don't try to do too much at once. You'll be tempted to test and fix everything with your new found kit and skills, don't, again, patience here, sort your problem out first, let whatever you did to fix your problem become normal again and then move on to your next challenge.
5. If you didn't act on step one, **really really** get yourself one of the recommended test kits...
6. Last, don't second guess the people here even if their advice REALLY contradicts the pool shop, trust me they know more about pools than the 21 year old that was just hired last week at the pool shop...
Hope my thread helps someone else...
Cheers,
Jon
