first test results

[prh129]

Welcome to the forum. Your CYA is high - most people here shoot for 30 to 50 ppm so it means you will have to keep your free chlorine between 8 and 15 ppm (which it is). The OTO test reading for chlorine tops out at 5 (3 on some tests) so you would have to dilute your pool sample to get useful numbers for higher chlorine levels. Take a look at "Ben's Best Guess Chart" in the chlorine section to see recommended chlorine levels vs. CYA level. What type of pool is it (liner, plaster etc.) and what test kit did you use to test it? The calcium should not be an issue if you have a vinyl liner. Also, I found that the calcium test in the HTH 5-way test did not work right for me (and others) so it seemed like the calcium level was very high but it was really very low.

Keep in mind that if you are using tri-chlor pucks or di-chlor powder, they will cause your CYA to rise higher which you don't want. A lot of us here use bleach which doesn't affect CYA.

Everything else looks good.

Peter