PB just finished our fiberglass pool and told me to start adding salt & stabilizer/balancer. Based on reading several of the forum topics, I went to the pool store near my office & bought a full test kit, 5 bags of salt to start and 8 pounds of dichlor. I used the Taylor test kit on a previous pool, so I knew what tests I wanted & the pool store had the Taylor kits, relabeled with their name. 
So I get home & start testing my water. When I get to testing the CYA, I realize there is no view tube in the kit. Called the pool store near home & they don't have any tubes in stock, so I go to the store to have them test my water. :? First they try to tell me that my salt level is 3100! When I tell him that my pool has no salt in it yet, I hear "Oh yeah, it was frozen on the last test result. Yeah, your salt level is 0."
So right away I'm suspicious. So I go home & compare the results to the ones I did get on my Taylor kit. Results:
Taylor:
FC 0
TC 1
pH 8.2+
TA 70
CH 70
Pool Store:
FC 2
TC 2
pH 7.4
TA 90
CYA 100
CH 200
OK, so now I know not to add dichlor if my CYA is REALLY 100. Text the PB to see if he added anything yet & tell him the CYA result. BIG help - NOT! He says to add 10 bags of salt & stabilizer/balancer. Told him CYA is already high & stabilizer will raise it. He says just to add the salt, that the recent deck pour & the deck sealer they put on today can mess with the chemicals, & the stabilizer can wait a week.
Not satisfied with this, I went to a neighbors & borrowed some strips.
Strip results:
FC 0
pH 8.4+
TA 80
CYA 100
I do notice on the strip bottle it says the CYA is not reliable if pH is out of range. So now I am confused about what to do? Used the pool calculator & it says to add so much stuff that now I am really confused! Help!
Cheryl
So I get home & start testing my water. When I get to testing the CYA, I realize there is no view tube in the kit. Called the pool store near home & they don't have any tubes in stock, so I go to the store to have them test my water. :? First they try to tell me that my salt level is 3100! When I tell him that my pool has no salt in it yet, I hear "Oh yeah, it was frozen on the last test result. Yeah, your salt level is 0."
So right away I'm suspicious. So I go home & compare the results to the ones I did get on my Taylor kit. Results:Taylor:
FC 0
TC 1
pH 8.2+
TA 70
CH 70
Pool Store:
FC 2
TC 2
pH 7.4
TA 90
CYA 100
CH 200
OK, so now I know not to add dichlor if my CYA is REALLY 100. Text the PB to see if he added anything yet & tell him the CYA result. BIG help - NOT! He says to add 10 bags of salt & stabilizer/balancer. Told him CYA is already high & stabilizer will raise it. He says just to add the salt, that the recent deck pour & the deck sealer they put on today can mess with the chemicals, & the stabilizer can wait a week.
Not satisfied with this, I went to a neighbors & borrowed some strips.
Strip results:
FC 0
pH 8.4+
TA 80
CYA 100
I do notice on the strip bottle it says the CYA is not reliable if pH is out of range. So now I am confused about what to do? Used the pool calculator & it says to add so much stuff that now I am really confused! Help!
Cheryl
