PITA indeed!!!!! I am going to get lectured for this one, but I’m so impatient with the sock method and it taking forever to dissolve (and then I have to wait even longer before I can test it), so I go ahead and use dichlor since it is pretty much instant AND I obviously test my CYA and pH beforehand. I make sure the pH isn’t too low and put all my results into PoolMath and use dichlor as my chlorinating method until I get my CYA where I want it to be and keep a close eye on the pH (I use borates and it it stays pretty stable). After I get my CYA where I want it, I let the FC get back down to acceptable range and go back to liquid chlorine. I know dichlor doesn’t get much love on here, but if you like instant CYA gratification, it gets the job done.
Oh, or you could buy liquid stabilizer but it’s so expensive and it didn’t work for me when I tried it. Probably a bad batch. Meh. CYA is annoying lol