Madcrammer, the high TA issue must be a Minnesota thing. I live in Lake Park, MN and am opening my pool for the first time in several years. It sounds like mine was as bad if not worse than yours. I ended up draining the whole thing, scooping out all the leaves and muck, and am now refilling. I tested my fill water which is from my well and the TA is 370 and my calcium is 400. I have an odd inground pool construction of hard fiberglass panels for the 3' side walls and then floor and entire deep end are concrete. I'm not sure if I should even attempt the TA fight.