Got my test kit! Here are the numbers

[Miki79]

K from what I can tell we are swimming in plain well water!
FC 1.5
CC 1.5
pH less than 6.8
T/A 20
The CYA test didn't work I could always see the dot. Not sure what I did wrong there, I did it 3x.
I dumped 5gal 12.5% chlorine in on Wednesday and have 6 trichloroethane tabs dissolving in the skimmer baskets per the pool store info. I used the pool calculator and cane up with adding 399oz bleach, 113oz borax and 657oz baking soda. Could this be right? Are we okay to swim in this water? It's just like swimming in a lake right? Thanks for your help!

 

[JasonLion]

Your CYA level is zero, or at least close. You did the CYA test correctly.

You should raise the PH and TA as soon as possible, before you swim. The simplest way to do that is to use soda ash/washing soda/PH Up, though a combination of borax and baking soda will also work. Keep in mind that PH and TA are somewhat interrelated. If you raise one the other will go up at least a little. Don't make large PH changes all at once, the results are not always what you expect. It is better to add perhaps half of what you think you need, give it an hour to mix in, test again, and adjust from there.

Hopefully you wrote that down wrong and your CC level isn't actually 1.5. CC is bad, you always want it at zero, or close to zero.

 

[Miki79]

The CC level is 1.5 I wrote it right. Does that mean I need to shock it? Also should I dissolve the borax and baking soda before adding it?

 

[duraleigh]

The borax and baking soda dissolve very nicely if you pour them slowly into the skimmer....pump running.

Do that first...get your pH around 7.4 and your TA around 80-120 or so. Next, get more chlorine in your pool. you will lose it quickly due to the sun and probably due to some organics in your pool. Putting it in in the evening will get maximum effectiveness because you have no CYA to protect it from the sun. Replenish the chlorine each evening until your CYA becomes effective (up to a week)

Get CYA in your pool...enough to get to 40ppm.

It's not quite like a lake in that there is not a natural balance that large (larger the better) have. Problems like bacteria, etc. can spread very rapidly in a pool where they wouldn't in a lake.

That said, swimming is up to you. I would do it (after some more chlorine) but others would not.