First of all, welcome to the forum!! We're glad to have you here....
So, to help with your questions...
First of all, I would leave your TA alone. In a vinyl pool, 160 is okay. Depending on your fill water, it may lower some over the summer due to splashout and refilling, or if your pH gets too high and you have to lower it, you can deal with the TA at the same time. For now I would leave it alone, it's fine.
I'm a little confused about your high CC reading--are you sure you don't have the CC and FC backwards? A pool with 5.5 CC and only .2 FC ordinarily wouldn't be clear. What testing method are you using? Total Chlorine = Free chlorine + combined chlorine.
Either way...to reduce CC, you can do two things: 1) leave the pool uncovered during the day, and let the sun help remove the CC, and 2) shock the pool. With a CYA of 30, you need to get your chlorine up to 15 and hold it there until the CC is gone. In your pool, each 1 1/2 quart of 6% bleach will raise your FC by 1 ppm, to go from .2 FC to 15, you would want to add 5 gallons of bleach. Test for FC and add whatever amount of bleach you need to bump it back up to 15, and the more often you can do this the faster the CC will clear. Once the CC is less than 1 ppm (hopefully 0) you can let the Cl drift back down.
Do not add 17 gallons of bleach at a time--you will kill your liner!!
Janet
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