"Normal" is not an important characteristic of pool water: "clear", "sanitary", "safe", "comfortable" are. The pool chemical industry sells lots and lots of chemicals to people who are trying to get their water to meet some rather artificial standard of "normal", based on some pretty random and flaky test methods ('guess-strips').

What you have realize is that pool stores make 3 - 10x as much off pools with water problems, as they do from pools that are operating smoothly. Most pool stores would go broke, if most pool owners learned how to fix what they needed to . . . and how to leave all the rest alone.

If you'll complete the Pool Chart:
Pool Chart Entry Form
and post some test results, we can tell you more. But often, hard water is no problem at all for pools.