I went to the pool store today and had my water tested. A few days ago I had my pool drained, filled, and a swg added. The salt level on the aquarite machine reads 4000 which seems high but I don't know how accurate the machine is, nor how much it matters that it's a little high.

I bought 50 lb calcuum, 3lb (smallest they had) of balance pak 200 to put in 1 lb to adjust ph, and 25 lb balance pak 100 to raise alkalinity.

The pool store said that normally all I'd need to add is salt and mineral springs (which I don't think is needed) after the initial balancing.

I am wondering did I get ripped off? I did not know whether buying all those chemicals was helpful or needed, but I did it anyway. I did check the prices of what I bought, and they were in line with discount pool suppliers online.

My readings were: free chlorine 2.4 (good)
adj. total alkalinity 18 (says ideal is 80-125)
minerals 3500 (says ideal is 2700-3400)
saturation idx -2.1

If it turns out I did get ripped off badly, I am going to return the products to the store. If I just got ripped off a little I will probably just keep the products and take this as a lesson learned. So any input would be appreciated.