Still NO chlorine :-(

[TabSinger2]

In the past 7 days, I have added 6 gallons of liquid bleach and 10lbs of BurnOut Extreme to our 15' round-above ground pool. I have no FC, no Cya, no Ph and the hardness and alkalinity are great. The water looks good, when I backwash the water runs clear. There's no sign of algae or any other obvious issues.
I am about out of money and patience How much more can I add? This is crazy!!

[chem geek]

If there is truly zero CYA, then any chlorine you add will get broken down by sunlight. If you add the chlorine at night and it registers on the tests, then the problem is no CYA in the water so just add some CYA. If you don't get chlorine readings even adding the chlorine at night, then you probably had bacteria convert CYA into ammonia when the chlorine level went to zero (perhaps over the winter) and that can take a LOT of chlorine to get rid of. You can do a bucket test where 1/4 teaspoon of 6% bleach is 10 ppm FC in 2 gallons of pool water to see the chlorine demand. You may want to do a partial drain/refill rather than use lots of chlorine or other oxidizer.

[TabSinger2]

Well, if there's nothing else I've learned from reading your replies to oodles of questions, it's that a good test kit needs to be used. So, I grabbed a $40 kit from the local pool store. My chlorine level is now perfect and those stupid strips are still reading 0, zip, nada!!
Unfortunately, the kit doesn't test for CYA, and I don't trust the reading from the strips. I'll run some water to the store and have them check it for me. Assuming there is no other way to check for it?
I REALLY appreciate your help, and all the work you do regarding this forum. Your knowledge is a blessing.

[lbridges]

My local pool chain (Pinch a Penney) sells the chemicals to test CYA for $3.95 (8 oz bottle) and the test tube (has a mixer with the needed black dot at the bottom) for something less than $10 (I forget).

To test you put in X amount of water, then Y amount of the test reagent, mix and lower the measuring rod mixer until the dot disappears due to turbidity - read the number on the side of the tube. Simple test but some people report it tricky since they're not sure when the dot disappears (easiest solution is to have multiple people do the rod lowering thing and report the number they find after everybody does the test).