New pool owner

[Watermom]

Since 5ppm is the limitation of the chlorine tester in your kit, your chlorine could be 5 or higher. Use a dilution method to get a better reading. Testing Without a Good Kit

Repost after you do this.

[Gomez5693]

The last paragraph of the link talks about Phenol Red, which in my test kit is for pH?
Anyway, with the OTO yellow I ended up getting a reading of 3 at a 3:1 dilution; or 12ppm if I'm doing this right.
Note that the pool water just barely has a chlorine smell, if that is any indication at all.

[PoolDoc]

May not need muriatic.

Continued use of dichlor should drop the pH. Also, if you have algae, use double doses of dichlor till you do NOT have algae.

Ben