Lost control of things, please help!

[pzmotorsports]

Hello everyone, you guys help me get things in order back around 07 when I build the pool. Well I been back home from Afghanistan about 1 1/2 years now. I had everything in order but I am now working out of town and my wife and son are taking care of the pool and the numbers are not within tolerance.

Thinking it was going to be easier to maintain they switched from liquid bleach to chlorine pills and these are the current readings.
FC .5 - Just added 1.5 gallons of liquid bleach
TA 240
PH 8.2
CYA 20 - Just added 8 lb of granular stabilizer, should bring reading to around 55
Timer runs for 8 hrs

I have a decent idea as far as taking readings with my TF 100 kit, but have not seen the pool this far out of tolerance in a while.
The pools sits on direct sunlight 3/4 of the day.

These are my questions:
Even do the pool is crystal clear, should I bring it to shock level before trying to adjust everything else?
Should I adjust the CYA reading first before taking care of the PH?
Once PH is correct, does TA adjust on its own?
We add water to our pool about every 3 days, should PH be checked every time water is added? Was told before to add about 2 cups of Muriatic acid a week to keep PH within specs?

One last thing, we have some very hard to brush stains on some of the pool corners on the deep side, dark green/brown. Also I have notice what I believe is scaling on the ladder poles, also on the ladder steps some light dust like algae.
Need to invest on a robotic pool cleaner, it will really help the wife instead of that crappy pole setup!

Thanks for the great advice!!

 

[pzmotorsports]

Here is the picture of the deep end corners with the stains.
**I am updating this post and adding two more pics of some hard buildup that seems like rock, red/brown in color, some of it brushes off but the majority is hard; also the seems on the liner on flat surfaces have this buildup. Please help???

 

[woodyp]

1.5 gallons of 6% bleach isn't enuff to get you to the minimum FC # for your level of 55 CYA if your current level is .5. See the chlorine/cya chart in pool school. If you shock...drop the PH to 7.2 first. Lowering Ph as it rises will gradually get your TA in line. Use the pool calculator to determine how much MA to add.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Every time your PH rises to 7.8 or higher, lower it with muratic acid to 7.2 Eventually these acid additions will lower the TA into range. Adjust the PH first before you do anything else. For today use a shock level of 12 and then in 2 days your shock level will be 20.

I would go ahead and raise to 12 this evening. Then do an overnight FC loss test. If you lose more than 1ppm, you will need to shock the pool until the FC holds overnight. Odds are you will, since I suspect what you are seeing is visible algae.

 

[pzmotorsports]

Thanks for the great advice! We are enjoying the pool this afternoon and tonight I will work with the PH and shocking it to 12, thanks again.