I'm going to be even MORE radical and suggest you keep the FC OVER 20--but no more than 25 ppm.

If your pH is high and being masked by the high FC, then even more so should you be at 25.

The WORST that will happen is you will bleach your liner somewhat.

Don't worry about total alk at 140--in a vinyl pool that's just fine (no matter what the shills at the pool store tell you).

You've gotten good advice. You need to kill algae first. You CAN drain and refill your pool partially in the meantime to lower CYA, but you MUST keep your FC levels up or you are wasting time and money.

Getting the good test kit quickly was wise--Poconos gave you great advice on that. Yeah, there are other test kit options, but no better than what you got.