I'm a first time pool owner. Not too long ago, I went out to home depot and bought a vacuum, brush, chlorine tablets and test kit - all before finding this forum. Honestly, I didn't use any of the stuff beside regular chlorine tablets until just recently, when I noticed some yellow algae on the walls of the pool.

Long story short, I got my chlorine levels up by adding bleach to about 2.0, and have a ph reading that's well below the chart, not even 6.8 and Alkalinity at 30ppm.

I added baking soda (2lbs) and Borax 20oz according to http://www.poolcalculator.com/ because I could not find how much to add...so far testing has not changed (maybe PH still too low?. I'm using the 5-way test kit I got at Home Depot because it brand new.

Do I need to buy a new test kit right away? Will this one work to get the ph up?

How much Baking Soda and Borax should I be adding? And how long to I wait with pump running to test again? 15,000 gal pool.

Aloha