Ran to Home Depot and got a better test kit. Cya on June 3 was - 100. After adding borax this morning to raise PH...as of 3:15 this afternoon the ph is staying at 7.2. Alk test is 170. When you say to raise to 20 and 1 quart of bleach will 1.ppm???? Sorry, all this is very elementary to me. So do I need to lower it by adding shock (bleach) and then wait 30 minutes and work on the ALKto lower to 120. Do have muratic acid. Do I lower it with it? If so how much? In the past week......when we first uncovered the pool we had to add almost 3 gallons of muractic acid (7 cups perday for 5 days)( per chem read out) Dumped $250 in one week then was told to draint he pool.....then I found your help. Is it safe to get in the pool. since i will not have chol tabs in the filter basket, do I just add beach ever so often. How do I maintain if out of town fora few days? Please excuse my ignorance. Hopefully all of this will click and it will get easier....Thank you for yor time. bjoy1956