Is high TA an issue?

[waterbear]

The high TA is only an issue if you have trouble maintaining the pH and have a high acid demand. High TA means a lot of carbonation in the water and one of the main causes of pH rise is outgassing of carbon dioxide from the water. If you are constantly battling high pH and need to add acid frequently then lower the TA. If your pH stays stable then don't worry about it. Also, the lower you put the pH the faster it rises because more of the bicarbonate is converted into carbonic acid (which is basically carbon dioxide dissolved in the water). The higher the amount of carbon dioxide in the water the faster it gasses off into the atmosphere. This lowers the amount of carbonic acid (which is the carbon dioxide dissolved in the water) (operative word here is acid). Less acid in the water means the pH has gone up!
(this explanation is purposefully oversimplified but still essentially correct)

[CarlD]

Evan's information is more precise than mine and he's right. IF pH is stable, don't mess with TA. It's it's always rising you'll want to lower T/A.

Meanwhile your chlorine level is very low and you need to boost it!

Carl

[madwil]

its important to shock the pool for a period of time- shocking is a process, not adding chlorine once.
When you have algae, you have to get to shock levels, AND maintain those levels for a period of time.
If you add chlorine once (which it sounds like you may have done), then let it drop back down, often all the algae isn't killed and it grows back; you maintain the shock level until all the algae is cleared, and any other material in pool (organics from dying algae, etc) is cleared by filter and/or oxidation
your TA shouldn't be an issue right now- but the cloudiness and FC stability issues are indicators of incipient algae blooms...