Have no idea what I am doing and completely overwhelmed....sorry this is long.

[BigDave]

You don't sound completely overwhelmed to me. What I read is that you're starting to put together the knowledge you need to take care of your pool. You've come to the right place.

It sounds like your pool is not now in crisis. Let's keep it clean until you can get good readings of the pool water chemistry. Get a few jugs of 8.25% bleach - if you get 'em from wall mart look for the hth 6-way drops kit as well. If you can't get the hth 6-way drops then buy a red / yellow (phenol red / OTO) drops kit anywhere you can. Also pick up a couple boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax while you're out.

Pour a jug of bleach in the pool this evening near a return jet. Run the pump for an hour to let it mix then test the water for chlorine and pH with your new kit. Report the chlorine and pH here and also tell us what kind of drops based kit you found.

Order a Taylor K-2006 testkit (or K-2006C - bigger bottles, better value). Accept no substitutes. Not available in stores. Without accurate testing, you (and we) are only guessing about how to treat your water.

Read the stickied threads in the testing, chlorinating, and SWCG forums. As a trial user, you'll have to log out to se the other forums. The How to Get the Right Testkits thread in the testing forum has links to the K-2006. If you buy through these links poolforum gets some coin to keep the lights on. Also read the guides on poolsolutions.com; pay special attention to the Best Guess Chlorine Chart. It explains the basis for the pool care method taught here.

Another note: When you tell us what you've put in the pool use chemical names instead of products. "Pool Shock" and "algecide" could be any number of things. We like to say shock is a verb not a noun.

Welcome

[Jenne03]

It still is hard to get through my brain that I can pour bleach into my pool..haha. ....You are talking about regular old bleach correct? I will go out and get the right test kit. Right now I have the 1 lb. bags of granual Shockwave ..I have a box full since that is what we were told to use. Can I still use them until they are gone? I will also go read the stickies. I have read from other forums..and Im still like huh? I know I will get it but..when I dream about it..I know it's overwhelming....haha.

Am I running my pool the right amount? Should I be at 75% or 100%

[Watermom]

Just plain ole bleach! Walmart's generic is fine and is 8.25% sodium hypochlorite. Liquid chlorine that you can buy at the pool store is the same thing, only stronger concentration --- usually 10 or 12.5% sodium hypochlorite.

What are the ingredients in the Shockwave? Be specific.

[Jenne03]

It is Calcium hypochlorite 68%
other ingredients 32%
Total 100%

[BigDave]

Cal-hypo is fine so long as the pH is in range and the Calcium Hardness isn't high (back to accurate testing). Each pound of 68% cal-hypo adds about 3ppm FC (Free Chlorine) to your pool and 2ppm CH. Cal-hypo can react energetically with stabilzed chlorine so do not add it to the skimmer if you have used trichlor tabs or dichlor granules in the skimmer.

I don't know enough yet to talk about the SWCG setting. We can start to measure chlorine consumption after you get the K-2006 (you have ordered one, yes?).