I have a brand new salt system (converted this May). I have gotten much of the chemistry on target, but the free chlorine levels are near the lowest they can be on the test strip, while the total chlorine levels are where they should be (they were originally sky high, but now have leveled off). They have been like this since we opened on May 20 - free chlorine has not shown up at all on the strip, and the total chlorine went from very high to now normal.

The pool company who opened for us said that the presence of phosphates is preventing an accurate reading of the chlorine, except that in a dye test, it registered 1ppm, which still feels quite low to me. So they haven't really addressed this satisfactorily. 

So my question is, some people have suggested I just shock the pool as I used to to kind of kick start it with free chlorine, and then once the levels are where they need to be, maintain them with the salt system settings throughout the rest of the Summer. Any thoughts as to this strategy? Thanks.