According to the MSDS, Bioguard silk tabs are 95% trichlor pucks and 5% magic. Okay, it actually says secret ingredients.

You could easily switch to any brand trichlor pucks if you so desired. However, personally I'd switch to ordinary household bleach. The bioguard (trichlor) tabs are acidic which drives down your pH. That's probably the reason you're having to add pH up regularly. It's great business for the pool store selling you all that stuff. Tabs to decrease pH and pH UP to counteract the tabs. Not so good for the person paying for it, though.

This document will help get you started with getting a handle on things: http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/the-...pool-care.html