I do use the oxidizer weekly. As to the Baq test strips - I'm not totally pleased with those. I don't seem to get the colors that I'm supposed to - especially on the sanitizer level. Perhaps it's because mine are well past an expiration date (though really what can go wrong with a test strip if it's past the date? It's not like we're talking about a 6-month old container of greek yogurt here), but anyway I don't like that the strip does not tell you what the level of oxidizer should be - it's either the lighter color (add initial dose) or darker color (add maintenance dose). All well and good....but...what is the color for the correct level? The lack of actual numbers on the strip indicating where the level is supposed to be within a specified range appears to be a significant disadvantage with these strips. Softswim makes a test strip that looks to be better but quite honestly I believe I'm going to invest in the Taylor kit that specifically (and I assume accurately) measures the amount of bigunanide and peroxide. I may be wrong, but I doubt if a test strip is as accurate as a kit that uses reagents.
Regarding the water, yes, I do top off with well water and do use Stain control. The only time I test for metals is when I take a water sample to the pool store, which, since having gotten a good Taylor test kit, I do infrequently. Good thoughts though about the presence of metals causing cloudiness. I'm sure that within the realm of all the various chemicals I put in there in conjunction with weather-related issues (we had rain almost every day the way it seemed the past few weeks), there must be a myriad number of scenarios that can contribute to cloudiness. It's just frustrating knowing how well the pool can look when everything is going well.
