Switching from Ionization need Help

Hi, I've only been doing the pool thing for 1.5 yrs and my experiment with a copper ionization system hasn't ended very well, so I'm switching to Chlorine. One problem has been dark grey stains mostly on the bottom of the pool that I'm pretty sure are somehow related to the Copper system. I've spent hours reading posts on this site (and others) so I have an idea of what to do but I have some questions.

I have a 38x18, about 25-30K gallons, IG pool with a vinyl liner and as a side note, I have a leak somewhere (about 1 inch per day) which makes it hard to keep the water balanced because I have to refill the pool every 3-4 days.

I get straight Chlorine (12.5 %) from my pool store at a good price so I use that instead of bleach. I've had Trichlor tabs in the pool for the past 3 days because I haven't added CYA yet or bought the good test kit.

Questions:
About how much CYA will I need to add?
Why do other sites recommend a lower PH level (compared to the BBB) like 7.2-7.6 vs 7.8-8.0?
My PH likes to drift higher, what is the ideal PH for a pool like mine?
Any other tips to make my transition successful?

Thanks for the help.

We typically recommend a CYA level of 40-50 for most pools. You can use the trichlor tabs for awhile as they will add CYA, but in the meantime until you get the CYA level up, you may find that you need to test and add bleach a couple of times per day. Another alternative is to just buy some CYA and add it separately. It will get the CYA in there faster for you. Your choice on that.

As far as pH levels, most people consider 7.4-7.6 ideal although anywhere between 7.2-7.8 is ok. Some pools have a particular pH that they like to be at. As long as it is somewhere within that range, don't fight it and just let it be. What pH reading do you typically get when you test?

Other tips to be successful? The best tip I can give you is to get a good testkit. The one we recommend is the Taylor K-2006 which you can get from the testkit page in my signature below.

Hope this helps and welcome to the Pool Forum! Come back if you have further questions we can help you with!

Thanks for the info Watermom. I added about 7# of CYA and ordered the Test kit from the pool forum link. I've also had 3 Trichlor tabs in the floater. My PH was 7.2 today and the TC ended about 2ppm. The water is crystal clear right now, but we're going away for 5 days and people will be using the pool while we're gone, so I added 3 more Trichlor tabs (first 3 were almost dissolved) and I hope that keeps things good till I get back and use the test kit.

I'm sure I'll have a few more questions later, but hopefully that does it for now.

You might want to raise your pH a little bit, to make sure the trichlor doesn't drive it down too far. We recommend Borax for that. I would raise it to around 7.6-7.8, just to make sure....

Janet