(BTW, I just subscribed to this forum thanks to your helpfulness).

I've found that whenever the pH goes to 7.2, it rises to 7.4 within the same day. So, although the pH probably was 7.2 after I added acid, it'll be 7.4 by the time I get home tonight. But I'm getting your point that shades of adjustment are better than leaps in pH adjustment; I'll re-calcualte going forward on what it takes to bring the pH down from 7.8 to 7.4, rather than 7.2.

I added the baking soda because my "optimal" range (noted by Jandy, above) is 80 - 120 PPM for TA, and since I was on the lower end of optimum, I opted to optimze my TA by bumping it an optimal middle of 100 PPM. ;-)

FC was admittedly low @ 1.5 PPM. Over the last few days of last week, I was just watching to see how my FC would fall when I ran the SWCG @ 50% for 8 hours a day. That seemed to cause it to have a net loss of about 1 PPM per day (it was 3.5 on Friday morning, 2.5 on Saturday morning, 1.5 on Sunday morning), so I know now that I'll need to bump up the salt production higher than 50%. Also, I wanted to see what my OTO kit would read, knowing it's not as accurate as the K-2006. The OTO kit is reasonably accurate (OTO showed 1.0 when my K-2006 showed 1.5; OTO showed 2.0 when my K-2006 showed 2.5; OTO showed 2.0 when my K-2006 showed 3.5). The OTO kit, however, doesn't do a good job at all at reading high levels of chlorine. As I mentioned, the K-2006 showed 12.5 FC this morning, but my OTO's yellow color this morning matched the 3.0 -- it didn't even have a bright orange color that would match the 5.0 color scale). So, it seems the OTO is good for letting me know that I have chlorine in the pool, but not so good at letting me know the upper ranges of how much chlorine. (Note: I have my elementary-aged kids do the OTO test daily).

So, in sum, it seems good to target a higher FC reading of not less than 3 PPM. Since Jandy recommends against > 4.0 PPM, while other sources say an upper range of 4 PPM is within the ideal range, I'll shoot for FC of 3 to 4 PPM. I could boost my CYA up to 80 and if I kept the FC at 4 PPM, I'd still be within the 5% of CYA.

As for shocking, I'll have to mull over that a bit to figure out what I'm willing to do. I guess weekly shocking isn't as important to do if the CC doesn't warrant it. If I just use a bleach shock maybe once a month during these warm months, maybe that's a better way to go. And I suppose I could always still hit the Boost button if I wanted, if I noticed anything less than the sparkle that I have always had in the pool so far. BTW, in a 16,000 gallon pool, how much bleach would I need? I just Googled and found a calculator that says that if my pool is 3 PPM and I want to raise it to 20 PPM, I'd need 4.5 gallons of bleach! Does that sound right? How long would we have to wait before re-entering the pool following such a shock?

One last question. I get that pool store chlorine is the same as grocery store bleach, just in a stronger concentration. Is the choice of which to use simply a financial one -- which is less costly, given how much of each liquid I'd have to add to the pool? It seems like the risk of a leaking liquid chlorine jug is greater since they're re-used over and over, and the higher concentration is more toxic, whereas the grocery store bleach is brought home, used once, then pitched into the recycle bin. It's easier for me to go to the grocery store, too, as they open early and stay open late, 7 days a week.

Thanks for your guidance, Waterbear. You've earned the site's $14 subscription fee. :-)