slimy, gelatinous strings of goo ruin a good dip.........

[waterbear]

I have NEVER in all the 12 years I have had this pool put in anything but chlorine and, until last summer, had no problems.
By chlorine I will assume you mean trichlor tabs, which are extremely acidic. If what you say is true you were not putting in any baking soda to raise the TA nor anything to ever bring up the pH nor were you testing the water. Is that correct?

I now have a light brown stain all over the liner. I am doing what you have told me to do. I will continue.
We will deal with them once the water is balanced and you have a full set of good test results.

i'll try the borax test waterbear. I can't understand why the water has tested 6.8 all through the 12 boxes of borax.....???
Because your actual pH was way below 6.8 so it will register as 6.8 on the test because the test cannot register any lower. Once the actual pH rose above 6.8 did your test register the change in pH.

the TA was red because I put in 10# of chlorine to shock it before I found your website...
NO, the TA was red because the pH was extremely low, under 4.0 most likely and when that occurs TA will test at 0 ppm because all the bicarbonate in the water (which is what TA really is) has converted into carbonic acid due to the low pH.

(Edit by Watermom: 3 posts in the queue were combined into this one.)

Once you get the new kit post a full set of results.