desperate newbie

[Simmons99]

Okay here's what you need to do:

1. Go to the supermarket and pick-up generic 6% ultra bleach. Use one gallon to raise your chlorine level 6ppm per 10,000 gallons of water (so you need to add about 5 gallons to get to ~12ppm). You can search the forum for the "bleach calculator" to get a link to download a program to help you determine how much you need to add.
2. Then go purchase a drops-based test kit. A FAS-DPD test for chlorine is best, but if you cannot find one then a OTO test can be used (yellow gauge that tests up to 5ppm).
3. Add enough bleach to your pool to bring your chlorine level to 10-15ppm.
4. Keep your pump/filter running 24/7
5. Test your water 3X per day. If you get the kit that only tests up to 5ppm for chlorine, then you will also need some DISTILLED water. Take one part pool water and one part distilled water and test - then multiply your results by 2 (to test to 10ppm) OR 1 part pool water to 2 parts distilled water and multiply your results by 3. This isn't extremely accurate - but it's better than guess strips/running to the pool store.
6. Every time you test your water - Add more bleach to raise your chlorine level back to 10-15ppm.

While your chlorine levels are high - it will throw off the PH test. If you want you can lower the PH in the pool to 7.2-7.6 BEFORE you start adding all the bleach, but 7.8 won't hurt

You can add more CYA - but before you do - what are you using to normally chlorinate your pool? If you use pucks/sticks then you are adding CYA with those already.