Just Set Up Pool...Need some pointers

[madwil]

Shocking your pool isn't required, except when you have issues; many people, who maintain their Cl/CYA ratio, never shock at all!
Shocking just means to raise your FC up to shock level, and maintain it there until you pass the overnight drop test and have <.5 CC
Personally, if your water is clear, and you didn't let the FC stay low long (less then 6-8 hours maybe), I'd just raise FC to above 5 and keep it there- but Watermom is more proactive and shocks before problems...
I wait and try to "squeeze under the curve" of problems...
As far as the POOLIFE bag, we need to know the actual chemical name of it to tell you how good it is (or isn't)

[JSMANNING0001]

All the bag says is .... POOLIFE Turbo Shock treatment. it says 78% available chlorine with 22% other ingredients. Says a minimum available chlorine of 75%.

[CarlD]

Poollife Turbo Shock is actually Calcium Hypochlorite--Cal-Hypo. Unless your calcium hardness level is high, it's fine to use it, BUT DON'T MIX IT WITH ANYTHING ELSE! VERY DANGEROUS! (but you can safely put it in your pool when you've been using other chlorine methods. Just don't pour bleach over it, or put it in the skimmer with tabs already there).