Janet;
Thanks for your quick reply, you provided a wealth of information. As for my water readings, yesterday I got no reading at all for chlorine or PH. At the pool store they told me my PH was well below 7, Alkalinity was 0, and calcium hardness was 60. I added 12 pounds bakung soda and 10 pounds Hard-plus last night, then 2 three inch pucks in the skimmer today. I checked the Chlorine this afternoon and it was ideal. The PH looked good too, slightly low but I am sure another couple pounds of baking soda won't cure.
I thought I knew it all, but after searching this site I am embarrassed by how little I know. I read a lot about CYA, dont really understand it all but I know I don't want it in my pool. Lastly, I routinely shock my pool once a week or so just to give it an extra zap of chlorine because the pool sits in the sun all day and we have a pretty active swim load. From what I read on this site it sounds that true shocking actually entails some sort of chemical reaction with the water. I don't really understand all this, I guess I have just been lucky for 10 years that the pool has pretty much run itself.
Thanks very much Janet, I appreciate the help.