Thank you carl, I am going to print out your reply to show to my husband and get busy.. I only have clorox bleach here at the house so i will put some of that in it and tonight head to walmart to look for the CYA, and try to find the "stocking" you are talking about in a older post, and buy a kit until I can order one of Bens and I will be reading as much as I can this weekend when the kids allow it.

Let me make sure I understand this correctly, once I figure out how much CYA to add I need to leave the pump running non stop for a week if i put it in the skimmer? Do I have to add it to the skimmer?

Thanks so much for replying to my post with your great advice!!! Also I apologize for not posting my pool size.. its a 24' round above ground with 13000 gallons of water.