What do I do first??

I need some advice. We've had a pool guy who we trust helping us get our pool water clean. He's just been helping on the weekends. We didn't open our pool last summer because we had a baby and didn't have time for the pool. Anyway, it's clean and now I'm trying to get the water balanced. Since we didn't have it open last year, I'm a little rusty as to what to do.

I tested today and the chlorine is almost non existent in spite of having a few chlorine tabs in the skimmers. I've used the BBB method in the past, but will throw the tabs in occasionally (keeping my eye on CYA).

TA is 30
ph is 6.8

I ran out of CYA tester and am ordering more.

What number should I work to adjust first? And then where do I go after that?

TIA!

pH at 6.8 worries me! Most pool pH tests have 6.8 or 7 as the minimum reading, that probably really means somewhere between 4 and 6.8. Get your pH up to something higher than the lowest reading your kit will measure. Greater than 7 and less than 8 is the initial target.

What is your chlorine level? If you don't want a green pool (and who does), free chlorine levels must be maintained as a ratio of CYA. 3ppm with zero CYA is a good target. 10ppm with no CYA will likely damage high and low end swimwear, mid - level swimwear seems to fare somewhat better.

Adding baking soda will raising ph and TA, correct?

That is correct, but it's a vinyl pool, so TA is not a concern unless pH varies greatly.

Baking soda raises TA; Borax raise pH.

Thank you! I'll start with bleach and borax then! It's slowly coming back to me. ;)

OK, I added 3 lbs. of shock (I checked CYA with a test strip and it was 20ish), left and went to walmart. When I came back and hour and a half later, it turned a clear green in the deep end???

I thought you were going to use bleach. (?) What kind of shock did you add? Please list its ingredients. In fact, please list everything you have used in the pool so far meaning ingredients.

Do you fill from a well?