Ben, Thanks for the advice. I will definitely get the test kit. The pool is a white plaster over gunnite. The pool company hired a local store to come out and do the initial chemical testing/opening (yes I know that means I paid for it). I am a Costco member, I'll check to see what they have there - I have a couple of weeks worth of BioGuard supplies (Silk sticks - trichlor, Maintain ph +/-, Burnout shock, and inhibit algaecide). The will also come out to close the pool in a about a month or six weeks. I will need to purchase some additional chemicals before then and I'm pretty sure the store will be a lot more expensive than Costco. But, I'm also not sure what the difference between trichlor and dichlor is in terms of which is more desirable for use in the pool.