Big CYA problem, minor pH and TA issues

[langerking]

Thanks to my extensive use of chlorine pucks from before my enlightenment, my CYA is 160. I have been slowly getting it down, it was probably in the 250-275 range. I had very low pH and TA also and got that corrected, in the meantime my pH has risen beyond my target (it's 8.0 now and TA is also a bit high (110). So my question is, do I put in some muriatic acid now (lower pH to 7-0 - 7.2 and aerate to raise the pH) or, just continue to drain and refill to get my CYA into the 30-50 range? In other words, there is still so much water replacing to be done, does it make sense to spend any energy on the alkaline issues at this point?

 

[jblizzle]

There is no reason to worry about the TA, but you should certainly keep the pH in the 7s to avoid any problems like scaling.

 

[Bama Rambler]

If you're actively draining and refilling I would wait till I got done with that to start adjusting much. I wouldn't let it stay high for more than a week, but a few days isn't going to hurt anything as long as your CH isn't very high. If the CH is high and you're concerned with scaling go ahead and knock the pH down now.

 

[langerking]

My CH is 120 and it's a vinyl pool, so I should be ok with scaling. Maybe I'll just put in a pint of acid for now.

 

[Bama Rambler]

With a CH of 120 I wouldn't worry about it. Just keep draining and refilling. However, acid is cheap and it only takes a minute to dump a little in.

 

[msgtdan]

Check the PH of your fill water, if it's high changing water will just keep increasing it so you'll have to adjust. If low changing water will bring it down.

 

[langerking]

Check the PH of your fill water, if it's high changing water will just keep increasing it so you'll have to adjust. If low changing water will bring it down.

Fill water is 7.2, so it might lower the pH. Funny thing is I have drained the pool down a total of 3 ft already and it hasn't brought my pH down. Is this telling me that the pH is actually rising faster? Another factor could be that when I drain the pool, one of my return lines (over the stairs) is exposed by several inches and there is definitely some aeration going on.

 

[langerking]

Check the PH of your fill water, if it's high changing water will just keep increasing it so you'll have to adjust. If low changing water will bring it down.

Fill water is 7.2, so it might lower the pH. Funny thing is I have drained the pool down a total of 3 ft already and it hasn't brought my pH down. Is this telling me that the pH is actually rising faster? Another factor could be that when I drain the pool, one of my return lines (over the stairs) is exposed by several inches and there is definitely some aeration going on.

I have made sure not to aerate during the refill and have gotten some slight drops in the pH and TA. Doing another 13 inch refill today. I am afraid to take my water much lower than that in my vinyl pool.