chlorine

[coop]

reguardless how much chlorine shock we put in our pool we can't get a free chlorine reading, even though total chlorine does read between 3 and 7.

[Pool Helper]

If the total chlorine is that high then either your test kit is giving a false reading because the level is too high and the color is being bleached out, or you have not reached the chlorine breakpoint level.

Get some test strips as they show free chlorine up tp 10ppm and make sure there really isn't any free chlorine.

If you are sure that the free chlorine level is low then shock and shock again until you destroy the combined chlorine. You could try using a non-chlorine shock. This is better for the environment and means that you can swim sooner once the combined chlorine has been completely broken down.