Hi all,
First off, what a great resource this forum is! I've spent hours on the forums and I feel I have a general sense of how to proceed, but I wanted to consult the experts about my very high TA levels. The details of my setup should be in my signature line.
My water readings are:
FC: 0 (pool not full yet)
CYA: 0 (none added yet)
pH: >=8.2 (my 6-way test kit doesn't go any higher)
TA: 310
Total Hardness: 280
My tentative plan was to use the pool calculator and add as follows in this order:
1) bleach to around 3-4ppm
2) salt to 3000ppm
3) CYA to meet around 70ppm
4) wait 2-3 hours with pump running but no salt water generator running
5) recheck pH levels, chlorine, salt, and cya levels and adjust accordingly
6) start running SWCG + pump on a daily basis to maintain chlorine levels
now my main concern is how to reduce the TA to acceptable levels. From my reading, it sounds like you hit it hard with muriatic acid to lower pH to 7.0, then run the pump? When pH levels rise, repeat again and again until TA is in optimal range? This is the main step that really isn't clear in my mind, for example, how many hours of agitating the water, and how many repeat attempts might this take to lower my quite high TA levels.
Thank you for the advice!
First off, what a great resource this forum is! I've spent hours on the forums and I feel I have a general sense of how to proceed, but I wanted to consult the experts about my very high TA levels. The details of my setup should be in my signature line.
My water readings are:
FC: 0 (pool not full yet)
CYA: 0 (none added yet)
pH: >=8.2 (my 6-way test kit doesn't go any higher)
TA: 310
Total Hardness: 280
My tentative plan was to use the pool calculator and add as follows in this order:
1) bleach to around 3-4ppm
2) salt to 3000ppm
3) CYA to meet around 70ppm
4) wait 2-3 hours with pump running but no salt water generator running
5) recheck pH levels, chlorine, salt, and cya levels and adjust accordingly
6) start running SWCG + pump on a daily basis to maintain chlorine levels
now my main concern is how to reduce the TA to acceptable levels. From my reading, it sounds like you hit it hard with muriatic acid to lower pH to 7.0, then run the pump? When pH levels rise, repeat again and again until TA is in optimal range? This is the main step that really isn't clear in my mind, for example, how many hours of agitating the water, and how many repeat attempts might this take to lower my quite high TA levels.
Thank you for the advice!
Gee, .... you just made our job easy. You just about nailed it. I like your plan and you have obviously been paying attention. 
As for the amounts of acid/aeration attempts and/or hours of aeration it really depends on what you have available to aerate. If you have a way to really aerate that water surface good, you'll see changes quicker. But you have a good plan once the pool is full. Great to have you with us.