Thank Goodness! I couldn't find my thread until just now! I'm so happy! Doing a happy dance!

Thank you thank you thank you for your responses and help.

Okay, by great coincidence - on Sunday evening we put in 10 1-gallon containers of 6% Clorox (unscented). (DH says the generic at the store didn't say what %, so he bought the unscented Clorox. I told him he did good. ;o) and 1/2 cup of already dissolved (in tap water) Borax. I use Borax in everything here (clothes washing, dish washing, toilets, etc.) as the water is so hard (San Antonio, TX - and - we are in severe drought.) Then, Monday night we put in 11 @ 1.42-gallons of Clorox and, another 1/2 cup of Borax. (I was scared of putting in too much - and something here on the forum said to increase it gradually...) The water has improved by at least 30%. We can actually barely make out the outlines of the vacuum head when vacuuming!

Today, my DH finally located a Taylor kit. I cannot find the kit number on it anywhere. It says on the front "Complete Poolcare DPD Test Kit -- Free & Total Chlorine or Bromine, pH, Acid & Base Demand, Total Alkalinity, Calcium Hardness, Cyanuric Acid. But, the little plastic tester thingy shows the chlorine only up to 5. But, then again, Dr. Bartel, my bio-chem prof for my non-science major requirement class, said that while I have a great mind, it really isn't structured for the sciences. So, I can't figure out how to get a reading of 30. Taylor is already closed until tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, the scary white noise in my head is deafening.

(btw, I said cart filter - it has pleated paper like material, so I assume it is a cart filter.) My DH brought home a big bag of the powder to put on the filter, but I was afraid it would make it too stiff or hard to get out this super fine stuff. Our pressure is 28#

DH is off to the store to get another 10 gallons of Clorox and 2 boxes of Borax and we'll put that in. He is trying to make it to the pool store for the DE powder too. Then, hopefully, I will learn how to read the test results.