When you say 6 dilutions, do you mean 6 parts of distilled water to 1 part of pool water? If so, then that means your chlorine is approximately 28ppm since you would multiply your result of 4 by 7.) (Ex. 1 part pool water, 1 part distilled, multiply result by 2 so if you get 5 on the scale then it would be about 10ppm. If you do 1 part pool water to 2 parts distilled, you multiply by 3. So, 5 X 3 = 15, etc.)

Until you get the CYA reagent, just try and keep the chlorine in the 25ppm range as best you can. (It may be that your CYA is higher than 100 but no way to know that at this time.)

A pH reading will not be accurate at high chlorine levels. If your chlorine drops to 5 or lower, then retest pH. Otherwise, don't bother as you won't get a result you can trust.

Run your pump 24/7 and clean the filter as needed. Is your filter pressure rising?

And, yes ....... patience is necessary. Have your husband come and do some reading here on the forum and also over at our sister website www.poolsolutions. If you hold the course, your pool will clear up. If you start adding other things, it is probably going to complicate things and take longer.