Clueless Newbie's pool

[CluelessNewbie]

This is my second season as a pool owner and the first went horrific. Last half of last summer, my dealer drained my bank account on chemicals and my pool continued to get worse. It sit for the winter until last Saturday. We drained the pool, cleaned everything by hand, and refilled. So far so good. I've been reading tons of material on chemicals and found pool solutions was the best educator. This summer my budget is extremely tight due to losing a job while remodeling our home and I have 5 kids screaming at me about this pool. I tested my water tonight and my chlorine was low, my ph was high, and my alkalinity was high. I've read that decreasing alkalinity is a difficult process and kind of thinking about it since I'm not chemically the best pool owner. Just kind of need advice on whether to try lowering it or just leave it alone for a while. Please help.

[PoolDoc]

OK.

1. Tell us what type & size pool you have, and what kind of pump and filter.

2. Do NOT worry about calcium hardness or alkalinity now. All you need to worry about -- for now -- is chlorine and pH.

3. Get a cheap OTO/phenol red kit like this: http://pool9.net/oto-kit/ and test your pH and chlorine. If your pH is between 7 and 8, don't worry about it.

4. If your pool is full, add 1/2 gallon of PLAIN 8% Walmart bleach for each 10,000 gallons of water. If you have any trace of algae or slipperiness, add 1 full gallon. Do this in the EVENING, each evening till you've worked out a better plan.

5. Read the Super Simple recipe page -- if you've just refilled it, you can follow it if there's no algae: http://pool9.net/ssr/

Good luck!