Okay

I'll get it. The worst that will happen is I have to ask for help on here lol.

I made a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel for anaylizing my testing. I did a test with the color test strips and used the values on the color chart and now realize why you all say that I cant trust it.

My total Alk is 0 and my CYA is either 0 or ideal at 30, but I cant tell which.

I used bleachcalc to see how much stuff I'd need to raise the Alk to 90ppm (Which the pool guide I bought says is midrange of ideal) and it said 31 pounds! That cant be right can it? Of course, this is all assuming the test strip is accurate which I dont really.

Ordering the PS234 now...

BTW... we went to the grocery today to get bleach... and it was only 1.89 a gallon. My partner was like "Lets go to the self-checkout... " cuz he didnt want to get strange looks with us buying 20 gallons of bleach hehe. I thought it was funny. I told him that I've read stories on this forum of people's partners acting the same way and to relax.

BTW, he thinks its great that I found this forum though.