Awesome! Thanks Steve and Richard, this is great! I think it's a plan too - I'm not looking to come home to a perfect pool, just would like to TRY to not come home to a disaster that my Intex pump will take a month to fix!! So:

- Raise pH (do you have a target #?)
- Raise alk (do you have a target #?)
- Get the slow release floater Steve recommends (couldn't find it using the link, but I will google and search a bit later. Should I be able to find it locally? I have a floater....can I just buy the stuff to put in it, or does the prepackaged one contain something special?)
- cover
- How bout the pump? Will I be OK leaving it off? If you don't recommend it, I will follow Karen in Tn's advice and take the skimmer off/replace with the strainer , DUH , that option hadn't even crossed my mind. Thanks, Karen!!
- Anything else?

This is great, I will be worrying about my animals so much it will be awesome to not have to also worry about my blue vinyl bag of water.....

Thanks so much, Amy