+ Plain Clorox is fine.

+ Do you have a K2006 on order? (links below) If you're calcium is not too high, you can use cal hypo instead of bleach; and if your stabilizer is low, you can use dichlor.

+ The rather expensive ProVac is the vac head I've always used professionally; we have 6 year old 30+" one at the 200,000 local pool we service that's used once a week, and is still kicking. You'd want the 14" model though -- we use a dedicated pump to operate the big one!
Rainbow R201276 ProVac Commercial Vacuum Head 14"

This hose and pole are OK, but not necessarily better than what you can find locally:
Poolmaster 33430 Premium Vacuum Hose with Swivel Cuff, 30-Feet by 1-1/2-Inch
Hydro Tools 8365 8- to 16-Foot Adjustable Fluted Premium Fluted Telescopic Pool Pole, White

+ You should clean your filter, and then note the pressure 5 minutes after you first bring it back into full operation, with DE. Clean again, after the pressure rises more than 5 psi, but less than 10.

+ You should precoat the filter with amount of DE specified in the manual, EACH time.

+ You'll be able to extend filter runs by adding 1/4 of the pre-coat amount of DE each time you see the pressure up a psi or so. Don't do this more than 4x, before cleaning.

+ Adding bleach via the skimmers -- FIRST, make SURE there are NO chemicals, especially tabs, in the skimmer! -- will also extend the run

+ You should be able to find available bleach by using Walmart's online stock check:
Great Value: Bleach, 3 Qt
Great Value: Bleach, 1.42 Gal

Ben

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+ Get a cheap OTO (yellow drops) / phenol test kit, or if available at YOUR Walmart (check availability), get the HTH 6-way DROPS test kit, which is compatible with the Taylor K2006. Test the pool as soon and you can, and post the results. If you get the 6-way kit, ALSO test the water you FILL the pool with, especially if it's a well, and post THOSE results as well. (The HTH is the best available kit you're likely to find locally, but it's not the K-2006. It can only provide rough measurements chlorine levels above 5 ppm, and it measures "TOTAL" hardness, rather than "CALCIUM" hardness, which is not ideal.)

+ Having a good test kit makes pool care easier for EVERYONE, but is an ESSENTIAL tool for pools with problems. A good test kit means a kit that can test chlorine from 0 - 25 ppm, pH, alkalinity, calcium hardness, and stabilizer with reasonable accuracy. Test strips (AKA 'guess-strips' ) do NOT meet this standard. Some pool store testing is accurate; most is not. The ONLY way you'll know whether your pool store is accurate or bogus, is by testing accurately your own self. On the other hand, pool store 'computer' dosing recommendations are NEVER trustworthy -- ignore them. They are designed to sell more chemicals than you need, and WILL cause many pool problems.

+ We recommend the Taylor K-2006 test kit, which meets the requirements above, for many reasons. The HTH 6-way drops kit is a great starter kit, and is compatible with the K2006 (it's made by Taylor). There are a few alternatives; for example Lamotte makes an FAS-DPD kit that's OK -- but it costs 3x as much. But, we're not aware of any test that is better, and since we are all familiar with the K-2006 (and can help you with it) we recommend it exclusively ( Test kit info page )

One caution for the 2012 season: Amazon does not stock the kits directly. So when buying at Amazon, Amato is our current preferred seller. However, they often don't list enough stock to last the whole day, so try order mid-morning. You should expect a delivered cost under $60 for the K2006A and under $95 for the K2006C. If you can't find that, wait a day.

+ Here are links to the kits we recommend (you can check local availability on the HTH kit, using the Walmart link):
HTH 6-Way Test Kit @ Walmart
Taylor K2006A (3/4 oz bottles) @ Amazon
Taylor K2006C (2 oz bottles) @ Amazon