Thanks for the quick reply and the welcome Janet.

To answer your question of why do I want to lower my chlorine? I'm very new to all this very interesting pool stuff (pool is 6 weeks old). The pool store told me I needed to lower my chlorine to 1 (and I believed them, ha) because I have a Nature 2 Purifier and they said with this purifier I should be running my pool with very little chlorine. Is this correct information? I have no idea. But if you are saying 8 isn't high, I'm very happy. I also ordered a new test kit (Taylor 2006) which I hear is good and I'm going to see what I get for Chlorine with that kit since I'm getting a 3 with my current kit and even I know a 3 is fine.

And thanks for the sodium bicarb advice, I'll buy it in my grocery store next time.

DebPoolClueless