All of the local stores were out of Borax, so we had to get pH Up from Walmart. I also got the HTH 6 Way Drop kit. The results were very confusing. The free Chlorine that was reading at 0/0 but slowly creeping up to 1/1 seemed to be reading high with the HTH drop kit. The pH and Chlorine/Bromine tester showed the pH low, lighter than the lowest color. The Chlorine/Bromine, though, looked like the brightest yellow? That was pre- pH Up. Also, the CYA on the test strips was showing 0, the CYA with the drop kit seemed to read between 90 - 100 ppm. I did it twice. I do understand the test strips aren't accurate, though.

Added the pH Up about an hour and a half ago and just retested:
Cl/Br: 5/10
pH: 7.2 (just slighty lighter if at all)
TA: 120
TH: 220
CYA: Didn't retest

The values seem to have really changed. I didn't add anything else except the pH Up. I did add the entire 5 lb. container and didn't think it would be enough according to the directions on the back. I'm confused about the Chlorine/Bromine. I'm not sure how the chlorine increased so much. We did put a few chlorine tablets in the skimmer basket last night, but I took them out this morning when I realized the water needed corrected. I'm going to see if my husband can find some Borax tonight and add more to get the pH up.

-Heather

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Ah, turns out the chlorinator that is attached has been running and opened up full throttle all day. My husband did that this morning to because of the lack of chlorine. So the mystery of the increasing chlorine is solved. LOL. None of my posts are showing up, but hopefully they will start popping up in the morning. Still can't find a place with borax and the numbers don't seem high enough yet for the pH. But I'll test again in the morning with the new drop test kit.