Hey Teirae, we have an inground pool. It's my DH's job to look after it, so I don't know if I can answer all your questions!
8 hours a day does seem excessive, particularly as you likely won't use the pool at this time of year. Our filter runs for about two hours a day. Every few days DH hooks up the Barracuda (the vacuum thingy) to do a couple of laps of the pool. Our pool is salt water and so it has a salt/chlorinator cell which is part of the filter system and is supposed to take care of the 'chemical' element of the pool... this bit is really DH's department, but if you have questions I can ask him tonight!
About once a month in winter and once a fortnight in summer DH takes a water sample to the pool shop and they test it for him. You can get home test kits which are good for when you haven't had a chance to get to the pool shop and the kids want to swim! The pool shop tests the water with a computer and a printout tells you if the pool needs any extra chemicals/salt/acid. The pool shop does this testing for free. Make sure you take the water sample in a clean, uncontaminated bottle (an empty water bottle will do) most pool shops will provide you with a bottle which is solely for sample water so it's not contaminated by anything else.
I reckon the best place to start would be to find a good pool supplies shop and have a chat to them. You could also pay someone to come out and get the pool up and running and take you and DH through what you need to do to maintain it.
Good luck, we love our pool! It really doesn't take much time to maintain it and DH quite enjoys doing it all, the kids like to help. Having a pool in the back yard rocks in summer... although expect a lot of uninvited guests!!!
We have an inground salt one too so like nickle it cuts down on the chemical side. However we do still use chlorine in it (from memory and dont quote me here as this is DH's department) about 10ltrs a week. This is in the height of summer when we have about 10 boys a day nearly living in the thing!
Our creepy crawlie and pump run for four hours a day, in winter and in summer about 7-8 hours depending on how much swimming there has been, so it stays relatively clear and pretty much looks after itself.
I would recommend you put your timer on to run after 10 at night. We used to have ours going in the morning and when it was first switched over to night time I noticed $100 difference per quarter.
Take a water sample into your local pool shop and they will be a wealth of knowledge on what you need to get it back into shape.
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