Opened pool. TA & pH very high. How?

[jjoshua]

I opened my concrete pool yesterday. TA=400, pH=8.5!

I'm going to be adding a lot of dry acid to the pool over the next 2-3 weeks to try to fix things.

How did this happen over the winter? I use a solid cover. My closing kit included a floater with white pucks inside - I'm not sure exactly what it was.

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

Do you have relatively fresh plaster? If your pool was plastered last fall, the plaster curing over the winter will have raised both the PH and TA.

If you don't have fresh plaster, you should check the TA level of your fill water.

Note: some people have had problems with the TA test reading higher than actual. The drops from the TA bottle should be the same size as the drops from all the other bottles. If they are smaller, try wiping the dropper tip with a damp tissue and retesting.

You might want to think about using muriatic acid, instead of dry acid. It is a little annoying to handle, but it is noticeably less expensive.

 

[jjoshua]

It's an older pool. The chemicals looked ok before closing.

I used test strips which were off the chart and then I went to a reputable pool store for a computerized test.

 

[reebok]

I went to two "reputable" pool stores for a while (pinch a penny and leslies) who basically have a chemistry lab looking setup to test water and they were both way off on my CH, TA and chlorine.

 

[JasonLion]

Test strips can be wildly off sometimes, and many of the pool store tests are just as bad. In fact the "computerized" tests are often some of the worst.

I strongly recommend you get a good quality test kit of your own. It will save you from getting in trouble by relying on possibly incorrect pool store test results. I recommend a kit from TF Test Kits, see the link in my signature. The Taylor K-2006 is also good.