Welcome to our forum.
I stopped using MPS after the first month because my water went south. I've been using strickly chlorine and have never had a problem since. The last water change, I thought I'd try MPS again to shock and guess what, my water went bad the next day. We use chlorine after each use and shock once a week with a slightly larger does of chlorine and have no problems. But, everyone is different.
What do you mean by your water went bad? You don't shock according to the method Chad mentioned?
what he said.you need dichloryou need stain/scale controlyou need ph up or down, depending on your water, I always need up since I'm so acidic by nature.anything else is fluff and not necessary,
i thought it was more for the pipes.