Chlorine is driving me CrAzY! Help!!!!!!

[Keltex23]

Help!!!!!
I can not get my pool to stay chlorinated for the life of me!!! The pool store people are usually helpful but in this case, I think they are telling me wrong!
I went in the other day and this was the reading:

FAC- 0
Total- 0
Calcium hardness- 230
CYA- 60
TA- 60
Ph- 7.3
TDS- 900
Phosphates- 500

He had me buy a bucket of alkalinity increaser powder, and instructed me to add it all, which I did. He then said to shock the heck out of it the next morning, which I did with powdered shock. A few hours later my test strips were showing nice & solid dark purple (Chlorine). Then about 5 hours after that, I tested again and it's saying there is zero chlorine!!! How is this possible and what on earth am I doing wrong?!?!
(PS I live in TX where is daily temp is 90+, so that's obviously a factor).

Thanks in advance!

[andysousa]

I had a similar issue... you are shocking it enough. I would also stay away from the powder stuff as that is bad for your CYA numbers. Check out this link http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html, that will tell you how much liquid chlorine to add.

I have a 20k pool and my CYA is around 80. I ultimately put 10 gallons of liquid chlorine in, problem never came back. Pool has been stable all season. This was after pool stores sending me on a wild goose chase with all sorts of chemicals. Now I just treat the pool once a week with some liquid chlorine and the numbers are spot on.

Good luck

[andysousa]

also, here is how to determine your "shock" level
http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/ ... slam-shock