Ph and alkalinity low, should I wait to adjust

[Watermom]

Follow Ben's advice from above and get an OTO kit. (And, then, do yourself a favor and order the Taylor K-2006 kit from the test kit link in my signature. It will make things so much easier for you!)

[PoolDoc]

Just to reiterate what Watermom said -- you are giving us widely varying test results from a variety of unreliable test methods. 'Guess-strips' aren't always wrong, but they are always unreliable. Cheap OTO chlorine test are very reliable, but not very accurate. Phenol red drop tests may or may not be reliable, depending on the chlorine reading.

Without reliable test results, we can't help you, because we can't come test your pool for you. And, unfortunately pool store test results ARE NOT reliable. (A very few pool store -- maybe 2 - 3% -- are reliable, but the only way to determine that is by comparing your ACCURATE results with theirs.)

[Cincin5000]

Thanks for trying. I decided to trust the test results from the Taylor k-1004, aqua chem prof, test strips, and pool store since all 4 were the same(and i couldnt wait for a test kit to be shipped, but I do agree that the test kit you recommend is much easier to use and when I have it, I will test more often throughout the summer than I do now once everything is balanced) and did research from there. In case anyone was watching this thread or will read it, here is what is suspected to have happened...my cya level was converted to ammonia as I had high levels and my cya was basically gone in a very short amount of time(I could not find any other reason online why my cya levels basically disappeared). Yes, it felt as though I was converting the pool from baquacil to chlorine again, but that night, I added liquid chlorine waited 15 min and added again until I had a reading and then added the calculated amount to raise it to 10(I miscalculated and it was a 12, but...2 days later, my pool is sparkling and everything is balanced. Yay. Thanks for your replies, I appreciate it.

[PoolDoc]

Glad it worked out for you!