New Owner - Need Help-- Please

[CarlD]

I took the water to get tested and here is what I got:

Sat Index 0.26
Total Dissolved Solids 0
Free Chlorine 2.4
Total Chlorine 2.5
Combined Chlorine 0.1
pH 7.9
CYA 53
Copper 0
Iron 0
Total Alk 100
Adjusted total Alk 81
Calcium Hardness 10 (they said it was 0 but put 10 in for the computer)
Temp 75

They wanted me to raise the Alk w/ 4 lbs of Alk increaser and add 25 lbs of Calcium to the pool

Now one place told me (where I bought the pool that I do not need Calcium for an above ground pool) and this place (reccomended by MANY, MANY people said I do need some calcium) WHICH IS CORRECT?????????? I thought my Alk was fine at 100????

No! NO! NO! NO! NO!!!!!

That advice is completely and totally wrong, it will not help your problems, it will only cause more! They are just trying to sell you expensive chemicals....
"Total Alkalinity Raiser" 4 lbs--$10. Ingredient: Sodium Bicarbonate 100%

Arm&Hammer Baking Soda, 1 lb $.89 Ingredient: Sodium Bicarbonate 100%

Same stuff. But your Total Alk is 100ppm WHICH IS PERFECT!!!!!

Sure, they want to sell you calcium--it's expensive and it gives them lots of profit. It does NOTHING for a vinyl pool. I don't care if the pool store clerk says he swears on his saintly mother's head you need it. If he says if you don't need it, he'll commit Hari-Kari, then hand him a short samurai sword and tell him to go ahead. YOU DON'T NEED IT!!!!!

Calcium is SOLELY to prevent concrete and plaster pools from leeching calcium out of the walls, weakening them, into the water. By saturating the water sufficiently with calcium you prevent this. But Vinyl doesn't contain calcium and it doesn't leech it into the water, so you DON'T need calcium. I find, when I know EXACTLY what a chemical does, NOBODY can talk me into putting it in if I don't have the problem it addresses. So now you know why vinyl doesn't require calcium levels and even if a million people recommend this store, they are still WRONG.

Your pH is a bit high, but you don't need much acid to lower it--and you can leave it if you want and it will be OK.

I'd raise chlorine levels, but you can use bleach for that. If you pool is clear, you are probably OK. But if it's green, you need to go into algae-fighting mode, and there are thousands of posts on that.

Boy! I really HATE these pool store folks who mislead decent people with this garbage!