Akalinity is high, leave it or fix it?

[nam11b]

Hey all - Pool is open, water is now clear, and the temperature is coming up slowly (72 yesterday). My problem is, my alkalinity is really high and I do not know how it got there or if I should mess with it. My PH is pretty good, do I wait a couple weeks and see if it comes down when the kids start playing, or do I bite the bullet and buy a gallon of muriatic acid?

Some background. Pool was very green to start off with. I started with a bottle of polyquat 60 (had it on hand) and then SLAMd the pool. Chlorine has been holding, PH started low, but my TA has been high the whole time. Both my Taylor kit and test strips show it high, I don't think it is testing. Any ideas or suggestions?

Numbers:

FC 6
PH 7.5
TA 180-200
CH 200ish (I generally ignore CH)
CYA 40

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I can't say why it is that high but you can lower it by using doses of MA to bring your pH down to 7.0 to 7.2, and then aerate with water features such as fountains or sump pump to raise the pH up again.

Each time you lower the pH down with MA it also works to lower the TA. It isn't instant lowering but done in steps it works well.

Use Pool Math to tell you how much MA to use to lower your pH.

 

[Richard320]

Buy some acid.

Aeration will raise pH only. It won't lower the TA. Acid lowers pH and TA. When pH goes up, lower it with acid and TA will also come down. You can follow the directions in the How-to section of pool school, or just deal with it over time as pH rises. Either way, it will require the same amount of acid. It's just how much it bothers you to be adding it all the time. You can get aggressive with it and do all you acid additions over a couple days, or take the lazy approach and let pH rise at its own speed and tend to it then. But you will need a couple gallons of acid.

 

[nam11b]

Thanks guys