OK, You started at the right place!

I hate to tell you this but you won't be using those tri-chlor tabs too long. They will saturate your water with Cyanuric Acid, aka, CYA,aka Stabilizer. In your WalMart test kit you can test for CYA--when it's 30ppm you are good, when it reaches 50ppm, you need to stop using those tabs. They are also VERY acid so plan on using Borax when your pH drops

Your "shock" is merely Di-Chlor powder. It's not too different than Tri-Chlor tabs, but it doesn't put as much CYA into the water and aren't nearly as acid. I'd almost rather see you chlorinate with that than the tabs. Chlorine is chlorine, but the different chemicals toss in different side effects.

You CAN (and most of us do) use laundry bleach for your chlorine AND your shocking. It has virtually no side effects--it's that only chlorine system that can say that.

1 quart of regular bleach will add about 3ppm of FC to pour pool. (generally a good amount).

1 quart of ultra bleach will add about 3.3ppm of Free Chlorine (FC ) to your pool.

All shocking is, is raising chlorine levels to burn off stuff. "Shock" is really a verb in pool care, not a noun. There is no such chemical as "Shock"--it's just hype for various types of chlorine salts.

We used and loved our Intex EasySet 15'x3' donut for 3 years. I learned SO much on it!

And, I guarantee you, on a hot day, laying back in a floating lounge chair with a cool drink listening to the ball game or fav music, it's JUST as nice as floating in the fanciest pool in the world!

Go to these stickies and read them--they will help I hope:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=1113

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=365

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=1652