We just remodeled our pool-Startup questions...???

[human]

I'm a brand new pool owner, and we just finished having our pool (circa 1967)replastered with a Gemstone pebble finish. It looks beautiful and my kids can't wait to hop in.
It was finished on Wednesday and the pool was filled completely on Thursday evening. The start up guy came out yesterday and mixed in a few chemicals and left me with a gallon bottle of Armorcoat, and he told my wife to add 6 ounces a week for the life of the pool, for reducing calcium buildup in SWG pools (The label says in contains Phosphoric acid). He recommended that I add chlorine and CYA today (Saturday), which I will. Our pool is 25,000 gallons and I installed the Aquarite SGA, which I will be activating in 2 or 3 weeks, from what I have read?? We also added solar panels up on our roof and eliminated the heater, which I am hoping will eventually pay off.

I have some leftover chlorine pucks from the previous owner. Will those be ok to use until we get the SWG up and running in 2 or 3 weeks, or would it be better to use a liquid form of chlorine?? Also, I've read quite a bit about the usage of bleach on this forum. Would I be bettter off using bleach for the first two or three weeks and just donate the chlorine pucks to my neighbor??

I've brushed my pool 3 times yesterday and one time this morning. The pool pump and polaris sweep pump have been up and running since yesterday morning.

We are headed out for the day and I am hoping to come back this afternoon to some info from this forum that will steer me in the right direction to get this pool up and running the right way. Right now, I plan on adding (this afternoon) an unknown amount of chlorine and CYA. I purchased 3 gallons of CYA yesterday at Leslies. With a 25,000 gallon pool, can anyone give me an idea as to HOW MUCH I should add to the pool this afternoon and also, if I should be adding anything besides chlorine and CYA???

I've been researching this website for the last week or so and I definitely plan on tackling this pool maintenance job myself because I like to take pride in a job well done and it seems like everyone here feels the same way.
Right now, I have the Leslies Deluxe Poolcare DPD Test kit, which was left behind by the previous owner. Is this kit acceptable or should I upgrade??

My readings this morning are::

Chlorine 0
Alakalinity 30PPM
PH 8.2

Now, for the most imortant question of all....Once I've put all the chemicals I need in the pool this afternoon, when can my kids jump in and enjoy the water....???

Thanks in advance for any advice that will help me on my way...

[waste]

Human, welcome to the forum and conrats on the pool and for comming here so you can properly care for it.
As you have no cl and your pH is high, feel free to use the pucks you have (they will add some cya and help lower the pH). Take the fact that they will add cya into account when adding the liquid cya, whenever adding stabilizer shoot for a lower # than you actually want (I recommend ~30 ppm, but others here say more [40 - 60]) you can always add more if you aren't keeping the chlorine residual you want but you can only lower it by partially draining the pool - or letting the pool become a swamp :( . I've never used the liquid form so can't tell you how much to add - the bottle should have dosing instructions on it ie,' add 1 qt per 5000 gal to raise the cya 20ppm' doing the algebra to treat your 25000 gal shouldn't be overtaxing. If you haven't already seen it, take a look at Ben's best guess chart for cya vs. cl levels - it's stickied at the top of the 'using chlorine' section.
As you have 0 cl, I'd add 1.5 gal 6% unscented bleach to the pool and let it circulate for an hour, then add the pucks and let the kids go swimming :) As I don't know the dissolution rate for the liquid cya, I'd hold off on adding it until people were out of the pool.
You also need to raise that alk with baking soda. Also you need to test your calcium level, which brings me to your kit. The kit is ok if the reagents aren't too old or haven't been abused, however you don't know how old they are and how they've been treated (bad test chems = bad results = incorrect dosing = potential problems), if you can afford it Ben's kit is the prefered one here and, since so many poeple here use it, advice and help on using it or interpreting the results are just a couple clicks away (I'm ordering one as soon as I get back from transfering some $ to the credit card). You can get a lot of help by looking up any post by MWSMITH2 and downloading the bleach calculator he so generously made available to the forum users (it'll let you know how much of which chems to add to your pool).
I've gone on too long already so I'll end this post. If you have any ?s, feel free to ask, I or one of the other great folks here will be more than willing to help :D