HTH stabilizer & conditioner

[Kidney]

Moderator note - Moved from here: hth stabilizer conditioner? same as cya?

Resurrecting an old thread as I have a question after using this HTH product.

The one I used is that at http://www.homedepot.com/p/HTH-4-lb-Stabilizer-and-Conditioner-61316/100239944. It lists CYA at 96%, the rest being 4% of inert ingredients. The MSDS at http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pdfImages/df/dfe1947f-4e43-4732-b2ba-0324d018203a.pdf lists these: 97-99% of 1,3,5-TRIAZINE-2,4,6(1H,3H,5H)-TRIONE, 0-1% water, 0-1% Ammelide, 0-1% 1,3,5-TRIAZIN-2(1H)-ONE, 4,6-DIAMINO-. It seems to me one of the inert ingredients has locked my pool's TA.

As my pool's CYA level was a bit low, I upped it up using this product. Since doing this, my TA is locked at what it was prior to application, i.e. 90. Every time I add MA to lower the rising pH, TA no longer goes down (but used to before and I had to add baking soda to keep it around 80). This would be great if TA were at less than 90 (though I don't understand why TA is locked). I would like to now lower TA to 70 hoping to slow down pH rises but I just don't know how to achieve this TA of 70.

Would anyone know? Chemgeek?

 

[Azgirl71]

It does add CYA. As far as your TA I cannot say for sure. If you only added a little MA, it may not reduce your TA by much.
I did notice you said you added baking soda. This will make your TA rise, not lower.


Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

This will help you lower your TA. It is a process and takes time.

Pool School - Lower Total Alkalinity

 

[Kidney]

It does add CYA. As far as your TA I cannot say for sure. If you only added a little MA, it may not reduce your TA by much.
I did notice you said you added baking soda. This will make your TA rise, not lower.


Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

This will help you lower your TA. It is a process and takes time.

Pool School - Lower Total Alkalinity

Thank you Lisa: adding more MA than usual at once (following the pool calculator) rather than frequent smaller doses worked. I ran out of MA to reach a TA of 70 but TA is now down to 80 from 90

 

[Azgirl71]

Thank you Lisa: adding more MA than usual at once (following the pool calculator) rather than frequent smaller doses worked. I ran out of MA to reach a TA of 70 but TA is now down to 80 from 90

Your welcome. I battled high TA too and it took me a good month to get mine down.

 

[Crackerjack4u]

Hello Kidney,

I just wanted to bring this to your attention. There have been several people on here who have mentioned that they had a problem(s) when using the HTH brand stabilizer, as far as the levels not holding, or it not increasing them to the anticipated level, etc.

Here is a link that has some of those mentioned. http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/105175-CYA-levels-keep-declining

So IF you have a problem getting your CYA to remain at the level you Targeted it at, then it's probably not something going on with the pool, or anything you are doing incorrectly, it is probably and issue with the HTH brand stabilizer itself, so you'll want to switch to a different brand.

I personally use the Step 1 Clorox Chlorine Stabilizer, and have no issues with it holding etc. (I get mine at Lowes, but a lot of other places carry it too).

Anyway, I just thought I'd mentioned this as an FYI so you aren't fighting a declining CYA level, etc., thinking it's being depleted/lost somehow, when in fact , it could just be the HTH brand of stabilizer itself causing the issue. I hope this helps, and Have a wonderful day.