I found Walmart to have the best price on pool salt. Only $5.97 a bag. My local pool store sells the exact thing for $13.95 and another pool store sells for $7.99. Water softener salt without any extra additives is fine as well, might be a little cheaper at Lowe's or Home Depot, think I paid $5.40 a bag for water softener salt recently, it'll dissolve fine, just the stuff labeled pool salt is ground up more.
simply buy the required amount of salt for the pool from a pool shop or other salt supplier and and toss it in the water.
You can buy salt test stripes at any local pool store or have them check it for you.
Water.
Try a pool shop
Yes. The salt is run through a chlorinator that changes the salt to chlorine. It won't do it by itself so you have to buy the generator to do this.
To the best of my knowledge, no they can't. Your salt pool converts the salt into chlorine, and plankton cannot live in a chlorinated system.
You can buy salt test strips and electronic salt testers at any good pool supply store - Leslie's carries them.
buy the pump and the salt.
No, You have to have a salt/Chlorine generator or you'll just be swimming in a slime salt water body of water.
You don't convert a chlorine pool to salt pool. Chlorine generators use salt to make chlorine in your pool. Therefore a salt water pool is a chlorine pool, you are just introducing the chlorine to the water a different way. The cost is based on the price of the chlorine generator you buy and the amount of salt required for the number of gallons in your pool. If you buy a system from the internet and install it yourself, a typical model for a 25,000 gallon pool is about $1,000. However, this generally means no warranty as the "proper installation" caveat may apply. Purchasing the same model from a local dealer, installed, should run in the neighborhood of $1,500. This will get you a professional job and a full warranty. POOL_N_SPA_WAREHOUSE
There are above ground pool salt water systems available. These systems turn salt into chlorine. All you have to do is add a piece of equipment to your pool. Which product you buy depends on your pool. Your pool will look, feel, and smell much better. You will also spend less time maintaining your pool. It will cost you to buy the equipment ($150 and up), but I think you will be very happy with the results.
The Big Box stores carry it as do smaller hardware stores and pool stores.