Deb,
I don't know what those shocking products are. But they are almost certainly Di-chlor, Tri-chlor, or Cal-hypo.
All basically add chlorine to your pool but also add other stuff:
Di-chlor and Tri-Chlor are VERY acidic and lower pH--even if you don't want them to. They also both add stabilizer (CYA or Cyanuric Acid) even if you have enough and don't want more.
Cal-Hypo adds calcium to your water at the same time.

Ordinary laundry bleach is Sodium Hypochlorite--the same stuff as "Liquid Chlorine" or "Liquid Shock" at your pool store. Bleach has NO side effects--it adds NOTHING but chlorine. You need 4 gallons of regular bleach to reach 15ppm. Or, if you use Ultra bleach, you need 3 and 1/2 gallons. You can pour the bleach in the return stream or the skimmer (while the pump is running).


As for CC, there isn't really a magic number, but a lot of us have noticed that we cannot get 0 CC and instead finding that our test indicates less than .5ppm of CC and that seems to be harmless. But if it's CLEARLY .5 or above (and you have .7) then it shock time.