High TA

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C

cdereu

0
May 28, 2012
16
Illinois
We opened our Intex pool a few weeks ago and had it filled with city water (I live in the country). I have not been able to get my TA levels down. I have put in around 175 oz. of muratic acid and my reading still says 380. My ph levels were high also until I added the MA, it is down to 6.8, which i need to raise. Do I keep adding the MA til I get my TA down? I will be taking a water sample to the pool store today to get a CYA reading. I have used the HTH drop testing and I can't get a reading on it.

Chris
Intex 16' x 4' w/SWG
 
Welcome to TFP!

You need to stop adding acid until you get your pH back to where you can measure it accurately. Dropping pH alone won't permanently lower TA. You need to aerate the water with a fountain or by swimming, until the pH gets back up to 7.4 or so, then add enough acid to get it down to 7 and aerate again. Repeat until the TA is where you want it. Here is the Pool School article that contains guidance Lowering Total Alkalinity
 
Just so I make sure I get this right - I can raise my PH by running my SWG and swimming til I get a PH of around 7.6, then add more acid to lower the TA. I keep doing this until I get my TA to where it needs to be? Can I still add the chlorine and stabilizer to get my FC and CYA levels up also while I'm doing this or should I wait until my TA and PH are correct? My water is crystal clear, which is amazing after the trouble we had last year!
 
Always keep the FC level above minimum.

Yes, you can add CYA during the aeration process.

The more vigorous the aeration, the faster the whole process goes.

It goes like this: Add acid to lower pH. pH and TA both go down. Aerate. pH goes up, TA stays down. Repeat. In your case, you can skip the first application of acid, as your pH is already way too low.
 
Don't add any more acid until you get get pH back high enough! If it isn't reading 7.0 soon, I might even consider adding borax or washing soda to raise it up this once.

Yes, you will be doing many cycles of adding MA to lower to 7.0, letting pH raise back up to 7.8, adding MA to lower to 7.0, letting pH raise back up to 7.8 etc.

Make sure you have your TA plugged in correctly on the calculator. I don't know if I have ever gotten my TA below 200 because my fill water has a high TA and every time I top off the pool, I add back in water with a high TA. Tend to start out at 325. I've added acid 3 times now and was at 275 last time I checked. Just keep an eye on your pH and add acid when it gets high. A high TA will cause your pH to raise more rapidly and can contribute to calcium scaling based on your CSI, but other than that, there is no harm in having a high TA. I was able to get by during the summer by adding acid 1-2 times per week normally.
 
In the beginning I found it helpful to think of my pool as 2 separate balances I was trying to create/maintain.

1) PH, TA, CH - PH makes the water comfortable to swim in, TA buffers the PH and CH is the calcium in the water

2) Chlorine and CYA

Thinking of my pool as 2 balancing acts - instead of 10 little abbreviations - made it all less confusing.

One thing I noticed - if you are planning on swimming soon I would raise the PH up to 7. Part of the reason is your test kit bottoms out at 6.8 - so it's possible your PH is lower than that. The lower the PH - the more acidic your water is and the harder it's going to be on your skin, hair and especially eyes.

Do you know the CH number for your pool? If you have soft water (low CH) you may not care much about your TA. The high TA will cause your PH to drift up naturally - which you correct with the acid and over the course of the swim season the TA comes down. If your CH number is higher - then the combo of high CH and high TA will cause scaling issues inside your salt cell.
 
Here I am again with a new year and issues with this again. Evidently where we get our water has extremely high alakalinity.
Reading so far are as follows:

PH - 7.8
FC - 8
CC 1
CYA - I think 0 - water stayed clear at the top of the tube.
TA - 460

THe only thing I have added was 2 jugs of bleach when we filled the pool yesterday. I think the next step is to add muratic acid and keep an eye on my ph levels and FC. We are not running the SWG at this point. Not sure if we are going to hook it up this year. I keep reading the pool school, think I have it figured out then I get my numbers and I'm confused again! HELP!!
 
Your request for help is a bit vague.....I'm not sure what you are asking.

1. Add enough CYA to get to 30 ppm. Purchase enough to get to 50 ppm but only add 30 for now.

2. What does your water look like?

3. What kit are you testing with? How new is it?

4. Lowering your TA is a good idea....do you want to start doing that?
 

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