I used to maintain my own pool 20 years ago (my dad built and designed it... amazing plumbing and ultra robust... it was bulletproof). Fast forward and I recently moved into a new house with a nice pool but seemingly complicated plumbing (pool is on one level, spa is 4' up from that and pump is 3' up from there... so... 7' prime from the pool!) I'm now married with a baby I thought I'd rely 100% on a local pool guy. He's nice but can't provide the attention this thing needs, and is darned expensive. On top of that, my pump just died and I realize I should probably grab the bull by the horns and get everything setup right and manage it myself going forward. I'd love to hear from others with multi-level challenges (priming, wear on pump, etc), variable flow pumps (how to calculate to run at what settings?), water chem balance (great resources here it seems), and general maintenance approaches (backwash versus filter clean periods, types of algae, one skimmer skimming strong and one very weak, dealing with heavy leaves, etc). 
Congrats on the new pool and good choice taking charge. Here at TFP, we highly recommend the TF-100 test kit, followed by the Taylor K-2006C. No substitute for accurate testing. 
