New pool owner, trying to get my chemicals balanced

[PoolDoc]

The Taylor K1000 is available from Amazon: http://pool9.net/tk/

You can see the extended OTO range here: http://pool9.net/oto/

I wonder if that's coming from the filter?

Unless you live in a coastal area, or have a sand box for your kids / grand-kids -- it's probably coming from your filter. Vacuum it up, and see if it keeps entering the pool. If it does, you'll have to dig into your filter. But if it's not bad, I'd wait till fall.
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[mitchryan912]

Just thought I'd post a follow up with my testing results. I feel pretty confident in how my testing is going and how much of [insert chemical here] effects various water levels. The only thing I'm not sure of is how much (if any) baking soda should I be adding, or is it something that you get right once and it's then mostly OK? Here's a little spreadsheet I've been using to track how things are going, along with some notes about weather conditions. We didn't use the pool much last week due to the "polar vortex" that dropped our nighttime lows down in the 40's.

Screen Shot 2014-07-19 at 10.10.14 PM.png

While I'm posting this, I thought I'd ask about how much effect temperature has on the chemicals and levels in a pool? From what (I think) I remember about college chemistry, higher temperatures tend to make reactions happen faster, but I'm not sure if +/- 5 degrees is enough to drastically change anything?

[PoolDoc]

Your TA is not an issue with a vinyl pool. The only reason to add more -- in your case -- is if you find the pH becoming unstable and fluctuating quite a bit.

[Watermom]

+/- 5 degrees isn't really gonna matter as far as your pool goes.

[mitchryan912]

So I'm pretty much OK, especially considering the water looks fantastic?

[Watermom]

Your chlorine has dipped a little low a few times. Keep it within the minimum/maximum range based on your CYA and you'll be fine. Otherwise, everything looks fine.

http://pool9.net/cl-cya/

[mitchryan912]

Your chlorine has dipped a little low a few times. Keep it within the minimum/maximum range based on your CYA and you'll be fine. Otherwise, everything looks fine.

Yes, I've been trying to do that, but suddenly the ability to retain a good level of chlorine stopped, and chlorine has been disappearing a lot faster than before. I added a bit of info from before the 8th of July, when I got my K-2006 kit:

Screen Shot 2014-07-20 at 1.01.57 PM.png

We had a good bit of daily rain from the 9th to the 15th, and somewhere in there I had a filter valve leak where I slowly lost about 1000 gallons. Diluting the pool with fresh water probably had something to do with the change in stability, but I'm not sure what else could have caused it, other than not putting as much chlorine in daily or every other day in that rainy period?

I was using an OTO kit between July 2nd and 8th, and it was VERY dark yellowish every day in that time frame, so the chlorine was holding up well, though I admittedly don't have an very good idea of exactly how much chlorine there was.