lots of noobie questions re: swg, shocking, TA

[tltmom]

Brand new to site and pool ownership. new plaster (as of Nov. 2010 but closed over winter till June 2011) see rest of info in sig.
opened pool for 1st time in June 2011 so still learning. been fighting down the TA all summer with MA and some granular pHminus, also struggling to get pH to stay down (keeps wanting to bounce up due to TA and fresh plaster)
weaning myself off pool store water testing by ordering one of your recommended kits. using OTO/ pH drop kit for now
water test levels according to PS:
8/3
pH 8.o (worst reading of summer! never got above 7.8 before bc I was really on top of it)
tc 1.7
fc 1.7
cc 0
CH 345
CYA 45
CSI .7
8/4
Tc .2
FC .1
CC .1
CYA 61
TA 130
CH 272
pH 7.4
csi -.1
my kit showed similar pH/ tc result
pool water milky white, most definitely needed shocking. very faint scaling visible if any. PS wanted me to add 8 gal 12.5% hypochlorite. I added it in am, tested with home kit 24 hours later:
8/5 am
pH 7.9
tc super high (brown)
so I added muriatic to bring pH to 7.5
8/5 pm
pH 7.6
cl bright yellow ( so probably between 5-15)
now for my questions:
1. I've read a lot of TFP articles, so I think I need to perform a oclt asap when I get my new kit to make sure I fully shocked and work on lowering the TA with MA to closer to 60-80. is this correct?
2. I had the SWG on during this whole process. I think the 8 gal put me up at mustard shock level. do you think I wreced my SWg? I just turned it off this pm to let cl drift down.
3. I had a csi that was above .5 for probably a total of 7 days altogether this summer. I'm seeing very little if any scaling but I'm concerned. How concerned should I be?
Thank you in advance for your advice. Just want a happy pool!

 

[linen]

1. I've read a lot of TFP articles, so I think I need to perform a oclt asap when I get my new kit to make sure I fully shocked and work on lowering the TA with MA to closer to 60-80. is this correct?Continue the shocking process, you are very high right now, so I would let it drop a ways (I get 34 ppm FC with 8 gallons of 12.5% for 30000 gallons) since you do not really know your CYA.
2. I had the SWG on during this whole process. I think the 8 gal put me up at mustard shock level. do you think I wreced my SWg? I just turned it off this pm to let cl drift down.SWG should be fine, but don't use it while shocking.
3. I had a csi that was above .5 for probably a total of 7 days altogether this summer. I'm seeing very little if any scaling but I'm concerned. How concerned should I be? Sounds like your okay

 

[linen]

Oh, and don't worry about TA until you are done with the shocking process.

 

[tltmom]

Linen
thank you. i've learned more by "lurking" here for a few days than I did all summer at the PS.
I was just concerned about any possible damage I might have done to my pool with all the shock but sounds like I'm ok.
wish I had used pool calculator instead of trusting PS! Now I know better.

 

[linen]

Hopefully you kit will get here soon...my experience has been fast shipping. Just don't do that level of shock very often...it is hard on equipment/liners etc. If you had mustard Algae, you would need to go about that high. It will be interesting to see what your CYA really is...as you have read, it has a big impact on required FC levels.