Hi there...long post, but somewhat introducing and making sure I'm on the right path....

We just bought a house in July with an awesome in ground pool - we weren't looking for a pool but when we found this house it was an added plus as we both love the water. It's 20x40 with roman ends and is probably around 40,000 gallons - vinyl liner with 2 skimmers, drain in the deep end... I had tested with strips that the last owner left as well as a chlorine/ph test and everything seemed pretty good - but it was very difficult to match the colors in the tests. Went to the pool store once and they tested and tried to sell me lots and lots of stuff but I just bought some shock and some tablets for the chlorinater as I wanted to make sure it was sanitized at the very least...and the guy just seemed to be 'selling' me on chemicals.

Had one sign of algae - some green on the light housing and ladder - bought some algaecide from the pool store (didn't know what I was doing and based on what I'm reading here...who knows if that or the shocking did it)... all-in-all since July we've had a beautifully clear pool with no irritation to swimmers eyes/nose...

I thankfully found this site and got to Walmart and got a 6-way test kit as here in the Chicago area we're about done for the year and wanted to make sure I was set. Funny side note.... at my local Walmart they had cholorx bleach in the pool isle. (I fully intend on getting a Taylor kit in the spring)

So tonight I tested and here are the results. As far as I can tell things seem ok - chlorine is a bit low for the CYA based on the CYA chart....Oh, and some seemed to be between colors....

PH between 7.5 and 7.8
Chlorine - between 3 and 5
hardness - 550 (does a number this high still not matter for vinyl?)
Alk -120-130
CYA - 90

Water temp is around 78 with the heater - oh and we're on a well here so any adding that doesn't come from the sky comes from the well....

I've been using the trichlor tabs in the chlorinater and I thought I read somewhere they're the culprit for a rising/high CYA level - is this true? I couldn't find where I read it even when searching....

I fully intend on BBB'n my pool to close it and maintain it next year and I think I'm going to have the pool store close/winterize so I don't mess it up and with our 2 month old and work schedule I'd rather just have it done this year.

Any thoughts, questions or suggestions for my water?