1. The shock proably won't last long as your stabiliaer is most likely nil and the materials your oxidizing are high. Since you see blue it's beginning to do its job. I'd suggest shocking again and adding a couple of gallons of muriatic acid at the same time.

2. It's okay to leave it running but it really helps to have a neighbor check your water level and the filter pressure in the middle of the week if you leave on Sunday aftewnoon. If the pressure climbs over 8 to 10 pounds have them turn off the pump. If you turn it off now and leave it till next week you pretty much wasted the time and chemicals you just introduced, a week from now the pool will only show slightly better.

3. If it a 6 position multiport valvr you'll want to turn off the pump and rotate the handle 180 degrees to 12 oclock, then start the pump and backwash. I always backwash a sand filter for about 2 minutes at a time and rinse for 1 minute after. I repeat the process several times over before going back into filter position.

See ya,
Kelly

As a rule you only need to backwash once a week. Honestly if the water is only 50 you could probably super shock the pool with several gallons on liquid chlorine and shut off the filter for the week.My advise is read your manuals,get advise from your local pool store, and go online to some of the more active pool forums that deal with chemistry. I have owned a pool for 6 years now and the pool store was very helpful in the beginning. I do have a pool maint company open and close the pool as well as take care of equipment.

One last piece of advise, dont be pound foolish and penny wise when it comes to pools. My husband learned the hard way.

Pool Care 101 for residential pools, if you are connected to the internet, and since you can see this, you are very likely to be, is, at this time, best handled by reading the Pool School section in the upper right of Trouble Free Pool web pages.

The is no hidden agenda, no reinventing of the wheel, no Jedi magic, nothing. It contains the honest facts. It tells you how. It tells you why. It tells you where, when, how much of what, etc...

It is what I use. It is what I tell my customers to go by. I make nothing from this site. Let me be clear. I use it and recommend its use because it works.

If you can't take less than an hour a week in 99% of the residential pools that exist today and are physically and mentally within the normal parameters we as a people have, you are BS-ing me and everyone around you that you NEED someone to care for your pool.

Sounds harsh? Maybe. But if you have to spend more than an hour a week on a regular basis, you didn't read and do what was told. Don't reinvent the wheel! Proper, sanitary pool care is not that hard to do and not that expensive.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Best Pool School I know on the net as of 3/17/2012