So, after my first year of running my pool here in Illinois and subscribing to this forum it is all starting to make sense (sometimes it takes a while for me to grasp concepts without actually experiencing them). Here's what happened this year: I started out with acceptable ranges of everything but CYA (which was 90). Over the course of this year I've run through a LOT of pucks in my chlorinator. When it was hot (not very often this pool season), I had to add liquid chlorine on top of the pucks running my pump constantly in order to keep algae away. My pool is crystal clear now with just pucks and has been for nearly a month; however, my acid and TA levels have dropped like rocks and eyes are irritated when swimming (but man is it clear water). So, my overall understanding is that the pucks have lowered my acidity, lowered my TA, and raised my CYA (all bad things). If I fully subscribe to the methods shown in this forum I will be using only liquid chlorine, sampling more often, and not using pucks at all. I will need to remove about 1/3 of my total pool water before winterizing and then starting with fresh (well) water next year I will need to fully subscribe to the methods I mentioned in the last sentence. Make sense? Am I missing anything???