Virgin pool opener w/ K-2005C test kit & n00b questions

By the way, Amato usually restocks pretty fast when they sell out of the kits. I typically click on the Amazon link every day to see if it is available since I am constantly referring people there. There have only been 3 or 4 times so far this season where Amato did not show up as the seller, presumably out of stock. But, every time so far, they have restocked quickly and within a day or so, they are again listed as the seller.

How great is it that anything bought from Amazon (as long as you go through the test kit link) will get some $$$$$ sent to the forum. That is great! I hope people will remember that when they are ordering other things from Amazon besides test kits!

Drama here:
I do purchases @ Amazon a few times a year, so that's good to know. Hopefully I can divert some of my sales to you guys :) I didn't receive a phone call yesterday, so I called this morning. They don't carry the 2006C, so they're sending me a call tag (to pick up this kit) and will give a refund at a future date after this kit is returned. This rep was probably even more snooty than the last one. Maybe it's a West Chicago thing? So ... Looks like I'm re-ordering through Amato ... hopefully.

Between yesterday & last night, I dumped in 3 bottles of 1.4gal bottles in the skimmer, have cleaned the filter every day, and re-ran tests this morning:
TC & FC are off-the-chart
PH: looks like 8, but I'm guessing this could be off-the-chart as well?
TA: 175
CYA: ~70 (about the same as yesterday)

The water doesn't seem any clearer or swimmer friendly. The more bleach I dump in, the more foam I get. I suspect the water filtration system is sucking in air somewhere, as I can see little explosions of bubbles popping a couple feet away from all return lines. Perhaps the chlorine is raising the surface tension of the water, and that's creating foam?

I can dump more bleach in during the day and see what happens, but the wife is now pushing to "Quit dumping money in the pool; just drain the [explative deleted] thing, and start over.". Given it looks like it may be next week before I have the correct test kit, and chemical gremlins seem to be living in my pool, that solution is looking rather attractive. I know you mentioned I could float the pool out of the ground, but if I fill as I drain (or maybe drain 1/4 - 1/8th, fill, repeat), wouldn't that keep my little swamp in the ground?

FYI: Just before giving up and draining the pool, the wife used the Lslie's Ultra Bright Clarifier. It's been working GREAT. Every few hours we need to pull the filter, clean (the filter is feels 2x as heavy when full, it's really picking up a lot of stuff!!!) add more clarifier / repeat. Gone through a whole bottle now, and the pool's turned blue overnight. Just using the last of the bottle now, and I think it'll be perfectly clear after this application. If not, we're going to grab some more, and I'm confident we'll be swimming this afternoon :)

Please, PLEASE do not use more than the label recommends.

I don't know specifically what is is THAT brand of clarifier but the primary chemical in many of them can work in REVERSE if you overdose. So do NOT exceed the label maximum dose.

That's why we don't usually recommend using such products. They *can* help sometimes. But far too often, pool owners operate on the "if a little is good, more is better" theory. And when they do -- with that product and the metal control agents (especially, HEDP) -- you'll think you've died and gone to h. . . . , well, not heaven.