Trying to balance Alkalinity and PH, but finding immense difficulty. Suggestions?

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reggiehammond said:
If you don't use your test kit (testing TA) you're also flying blind. Your first scenario is a lot more work than the few seconds it actually takes to test TA.

While I don't disagree that you can get pretty good at guessing what to add based on years of TFP-style pool care, it's not advice this forum should be offering.
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I never test TA...only pH, chlorine and CYA...never have an issue.
 
tfpflana1502 said:
I never test TA...only pH, chlorine and CYA...never have an issue.
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proavia said:
You don't know what you don't know.

And it takes less time to test TA than going back and forth adding a little acid and having to retest the pH more frequently.
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TA shouldn’t change much in most pools without changing water, but it’s still important to know the level. It plays a critical role in chemical dosing for pH adjustments.

I typically only test TA once a month or so, and after adding or removing water.
 
Ok....help me understanding something, seriously. I see recommendation after recommendation to test for TA, however, isn't the point of testing TA is to understand if you're too alkaline in your pool water, and if so, you need to add acid to bring down the TA?

If the above is the case, then doesn't testing pH do the same thing? If your pH is over 7.4 (I usually see 7.2 to 7.4 being the recommended optimum pH level for at least a SWG pool), then doesn't that tell you enough (enough meaning you have too high alkalinity), without testing TA, that you need to add acid and bring down your pH?

Help me understand where I'm missing the point with TA testing if all it is doing is telling you your pH is probably too alkaline and you need to add acid.

Thanks for bearing with the question.
 
proavia said:
You don't know what you don't know.

And it takes less time to test TA than going back and forth adding a little acid and having to retest the pH more frequently.
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I admit that when you are new to a pool (whether you built it or bought a house with a pool and you've never had one), you need to test EVERYTHING frequently so you get to know the characteristics of your pool chemical additives, weather, climate, seasons, etc.... I would say for the first year, you need to do this to go through all 4 seasons.

After the first year, you should know your pool like you know your kids and you, and for lack of a better term, "grow out of" having to test everything, but you know where to focus, UNLESS, you have exception events or your water does something you've never experienced before. So after the first year, I end up testing maybe once every week or two...depending on the season (more testing in summer; less in winter).

I bought my house 2.5 years ago and did the above and I have only had cloudy water a couple times: first time was low chlorine, which was an easy fix and I just needed to turn up the SWG %; the other times was dirty filter and, again, another easy fix to replace the filter cartridges.

But....and this is HUGE, you absolutely, positively, must have a professional grade, chemical test kit that allows you to test everything and with certainty....the first year of testing everything gets you comfortable with such kit so you can be comfortable what readings mean what and what results in a clear pool and what doesn't.
 
tfpflana1502 said:
Ok....help me understanding something, seriously. I see recommendation after recommendation to test for TA, however, isn't the point of testing TA is to understand if you're too alkaline in your pool water, and if so, you need to add acid to bring down the TA?

If the above is the case, then doesn't testing pH do the same thing? If your pH is over 7.4 (I usually see 7.2 to 7.4 being the recommended optimum pH level for at least a SWG pool), then doesn't that tell you enough (enough meaning you have too high alkalinity), without testing TA, that you need to add acid and bring down your pH?

Help me understand where I'm missing the point with TA testing if all it is doing is telling you your pH is probably too alkaline and you need to add acid.

Thanks for bearing with the question.
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TA buffers pH changes. To illustrate, let’s use my pool. 13600 gallons.

Now let’s pretend my pH was 8, and I wanted to lower it to 7.2.

At a TA of 100, that would require about 38oz of 31.45% MA.

If my TA was 200, it would require 71oz.

If my TA was 50, it would only require 21oz.

So knowing my TA tells me how to effectively adjust my pH, otherwise I’m just guessing.

So there’s that. Then, if TA falls below 40-50, you’re more likely to see undesirable pH swings. So that’s not good either.

Lastly - for plaster pools, TA is used to calculate CSI, which is important to make sure you don’t leach calcium from the pool.

In the end, you can get by with a range of alkalinity so we don’t obsess over it. But, it’s good to know what it is, and that knowledge helps you to effectively manage your pool.
 
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magiteck said:
TA buffers pH changes. To illustrate, let’s use my pool. 13600 gallons.

Now let’s pretend my pH was 8, and I wanted to lower it to 7.2.

At a TA of 100, that would require about 38oz of 31.45% MA.

If my TA was 200, it would require 71oz.

If my TA was 50, it would only require 21oz.

So knowing my TA tells me how to effectively adjust my pH, otherwise I’m just guessing.

So there’s that. Then, if TA falls below 40-50, you’re more likely to see undesirable pH swings. So that’s not good either.

Lastly - for plaster pools, TA is used to calculate CSI, which is important to make sure you don’t leach calcium from the pool.

In the end, you can get by with a range of alkalinity so we don’t obsess over it. But, it’s good to know what it is, and that knowledge helps you to effectively manage your pool.
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Ok much appreciated!
 
That's all great advice and good to know! I myself wasn't 100% sure of the importance of TA other then it "balances" the PH and keeps it from doing violent swings, but I didn't know what the effects of having too high of TA would actually be. Since it's a negligible thing that's really useful to know, and my main focus can be on just keeping my PH at the 7.6 that it's currently at and hoping that my CYA eventually drops. I just really, REALLY hope things start to warm up as my pool can't get above 70F with all this cloudy, rainy weather we've been getting lol.
 
Really good responses bear repeating........nice work, Magiteck! :)
TA buffers pH changes. To illustrate, let’s use my pool. 13600 gallons.

Now let’s pretend my pH was 8, and I wanted to lower it to 7.2.

At a TA of 100, that would require about 38oz of 31.45% MA.

If my TA was 200, it would require 71oz.

If my TA was 50, it would only require 21oz.

So knowing my TA tells me how to effectively adjust my pH, otherwise I’m just guessing.

So there’s that. Then, if TA falls below 40-50, you’re more likely to see undesirable pH swings. So that’s not good either.

Lastly - for plaster pools, TA is used to calculate CSI, which is important to make sure you don’t leach calcium from the pool.

In the end, you can get by with a range of alkalinity so we don’t obsess over it. But, it’s good to know what it is, and that knowledge helps you to effectively manage your pool.
Click to expand...
 
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I haven't posted here in a while but wanted to let everyone know all has been VERY well with the pool, minus I found and had to eliminate nut sedge that grew out of the bottom of my pool last week :(. I found a similar post on here and basically followed it and was able to eliminate and patch the bottom of the pool and I'm hoping it stays away. It was only one, singular weed that grew about 1-3 inches away from the edge of the pool so... it was not pleasant at all :(.

But here was my test results from today:

FC: 5.0
CC: 0.0
TC: 5.0
PH: 7.4
TA: 80
CH: 125
CYA: 70
Temp: 76
 
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