Thanks, everyone. I've taken a few deep breaths and calmed down. Fortunately, the list of things I've put in the pool is pretty short:
--AquaChem Shock Plus (58.2% dichlor and 41.8% "other ingredients")
--hth pH Down (a couple of small doses--3/4 cup each time)
--1 inch chlorine tabs in the floater (99% Trichloro-s-triazinetrione and 1% other ingredients)

That's it. Nothing else has gone into the water. As discussed earlier, I did overdose (by a factor of 3) on the shock when opening the pool. In light of the short list of ingredients, is it still worth it to do the bathtub test? Not trying to argue with those who know better; just trying to understand.

While I've had my pH down to 7.5, I never got it down to 7.2 as advised in a previous post. I also have not done much on reducing the alkalinity as advised above.

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Need to add one thing to my list of chemicals added to the pool, which I forgot in my previous post:

3/4 cup of hth Algecide, added when I opened the pool about 3 weeks ago. That is really it.

Thanks for bearing with me.

Donovan

EDIT by Watermom: 2 posts in the queue were merged together