Hi Jerry Ray,
Welcome to the forum!! If you haven't opened any of the "Crystal Care kit", don't yet...you would do better to go to WalMart while the pump is filling and get several gallons of bleach and either the hth 6-way drop-based test kit, if they have it, or if they don't, at least get an OTO drop kit (uses red and yellow drops for pH and chlorine). If they don't have either of the kits, then take a sample of your fill water to a local pool store that uses drops, not strips, and get your water tested. Do NOT buy any of the stuff they're going to try to sell you--especially not calcium increaser or phosphate remover--no matter how insistent they are!
Also, where is your water source--is it city water, or from a well?
The reason I mention waiting on opening the kit is that 1)the test strips are not reliable for testing water, 2)the alkalinity booster is just baking soda, and 3) the pH increaser is just Borax. The baking soda and Borax can be purchased at the grocery store much cheaper...and you won't even know yet if you need it until you get a set of tests run on your fill water.
The first thing you need to do once the pool is filled is to get some chlorine in it, so it won't go green on you. If you'll post the volume of your pool, we can tell you how much to start with initially. If you would rather use bleach, fine. If you want to use the chlorine granules in the kit you bought, you can do that too. If you'll post the volume of your pool we can help you get started with amounts.
You do need to have the pump running when you add chemicals. If you use bleach, it's helpful to pour it into the return stream so it will disperse without pockets of bleach sitting next to your liner. If you decide to use the granules, I would pre-dissolve them in water and then pour into return stream so that you don't have granules sitting on the pool floor.
Once you get chlorine in the pool, and your pH in the right range, then your family can go ahead and get in the pool, provided the water is clear. You're going to have to add chlorine more than once per day until you get some stabilizer in the water, because without stabilizer you'll lose a lot of your chlorine to the sun, but if you add in the evening, in the morning, and maybe once during the afternoon you'll be okay until then.
Enjoy your pool!
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