Welcome! Having recently joined myself, I find that there is a lot of great information here, and it can be overwhelming.
The first step toward maintaining safe pool water is to get that test kit. There are 2 really good ones, the TF-100 mentioned previously and the
Taylor K-2006. Folks here are real helpful, and we'll need your test numbers to make sure we're giving the right advice.
A clarification on Baquacil / Chlorine / Salt water question:
- Baquacil and Chlorine are 2 different sanitation systems. You have to pick one or the other, and switching back and forth takes time, effort, and money.
- Baquacil is a brand name; it uses biguanide as a sanitizer. (There are other biguanide products out there, but there's a lot less flexibility than you'd have with chlorine products.)
- Using a biguanide sanitizer system is more expensive than using chlorine sanitizers.
- Now on to salt water--salt water is used as a way to make chlorine for a pool that uses chlorine sanitizers. It's just one of the options on how to get the chlorine into the water. Everything you learn with a chlorine pool will apply to a salt water pool. You'll need to learn about the salt water and chlorine generator, but everything you'll already know will still apply. This is why it's recommended to start with a "simple" chlorine pool, learn how it works, and then add salt water later once you understand more and have some experience with maintaining a pool. This is not an option in the same way with a biguanide pool; you'd have to switch to chlorine, and then in addition, switch to salt water. If you start with a chlorine pool and then go to salt water later, you're adding to it more than "switching" to it.