Let me simplify:

You want to do two things with your water:

1) Keep it sanitary--that means kill anything dangerous in it. Chlorine does that--Bleach is the best sanitizer you can use in your house and it works GREAT in pools.

2) Keep it not too acid and not too alkaline--that means keep the pH neutral.

EVERYTHING else you will do is to help and support those two things.

All of the B-B-B method is based on these ideas: Keeping your pool sanitary and pH-neutral.

You are NEXT going to wonder "Well, what should I be looking for?"

For Chlorine levels (measured by the Free Chlorine and Combined Chloramines tests in your new K2006) it will depend on the level of your stabilizer--CYA or Cyanuric Acid. They are related.

Here we have "Ben's Best Guess" table that tells you the amount of chlorine you need in your water (Measured in PPM--Parts per milion) for given levels of stabilizer--also measured in PPM. For starters, we look for a CYA level of 30ppm and for that Free Chlorine should between 3 and 6 PPM (Combined Chloramines should always be Zero--0).

For pH, we suggest between 7.2 and 7.8--I personally like 7.5 as my target, others like 7.6 or 7.7 as it's easier on the eyes. With your pool you should NEVER let pH fall below 7.0--or it could begin to damage the vinyl.

That's 90% of what you need to know at a minimum for your pool.

Welcome! There's no such thing as too small or too big a pool! What cools you off and gives your kids fun is the PERFECT size!