Hi Waste,
Thanks so much for asking about my air leak. I ended up replacing the lid just in case that was it. So I turned on the pool and only had the valve open that feeds off the bottom drain. So far, so good, the water was crystal clear both in the pool and in the strainer basket. Then I very, very slowly started opening up the valve that feeds to the leaf skimmer. I had it about 1/3 of the way open, and everything was still looking good. Then as I opened it more, the water in the strainer basket started getting foamy. So I bled the air from the top of the sand filter. I went and looked in the pool and saw foam, and then just wanted to cry We did call the man that rebuilt our pool so I'm hoping he can get out in the next couple of days. Right now I have only the valve open that feeds from the bottom. Is it okay to run the pump like that for a while, with just the one valve open?

Thanks for the info on the Baquacil/Chlorine. I have a friend who has a salt water chlorine generator system and she loves it. I am definitely going to do some serious reading of the forum this winter so we can be ready in the spring. The cost of Baquacil is outrageous. Fortunately at the end of last year a pool store was converting their business from retail to just pool building so we got a decent deal on some Baquacil.