Test results - can I really go 4 days with no chlorine?

[MNPoolDreamer]

I bought some test strips the other day, to get an quick idea of where our water is at. I knew it wouldn't be pretty. Got a general idea that things we're looking like an up hill battle. Thought I'd go to the pool store to have a "free test" (I knew I had to buy metal out anyway).

Official numbers correspond pretty close to the strips...
TC = 0 obviously, it's tap water
FC = 0
PH = 8.2 YIKES!
TA = 205 YIKES! (already knew it was high)
CH = 325 YIKES! What do I do about this? Will I have scaling in my heater?
CYA = 0
Iron = 3.5 YIKES! (bought the meatal out stuff)
TDS = 500

So, she said to add the metal out stuff (can't think of the name, but it is by biogaurd). She said that product will tolerate the high PH and cold water temp better than ProTeam's product. BUT she said not to add the chlorine for 3 days or so until the metal is completely out. I realize with that much metal, the iron will combine with the chlroine and turn the water brown - pointless. So, I wait and then start working on the rest of this? In what order?

Would I want to get some stabilizer in there at the same time as the metal remover so when I start adding Chlorine, it won't disappear right away? Or will that interfere with the metal out product?

Thanks...I just want to do this right from the start. I will be ordering my test kit, soon.

 

[JasonLion]

CH at 325 is just fine.

Start working on lowering the PH right away. I suggest bringing the PH down to 7.2, but don't do that all in one step as large PH changes are too unpredictable.

You can lower TA over time by bringing the PH down to 7.2 every time it gets to 7.8. If the PH is going up annoyingly quickly, you can lower the TA more aggressively by following the directions on lowering TA in Pool School.

Sure, go ahead and start raising CYA. Like PH, it is best to not go all the way to your target CYA level in one shot, as it is easy to raise CYA but difficult to lower it.