High TA water source, will I ever use BS?

[VoR]

Does Alkalinity ever drop on its own do to sunlight or bleach or anything else we put in the pool? With a high TA from our water it seems the best way to lower Ph when need be is to add acid and aerate right? Am I missing something?

[PaulR]

Alkalinity drops when you add acid. I don't think there's any other way for it to drop. If you have high TA fill water then yes you will probably never use baking soda. I am pretty sure I haven't; maybe once in the spa to recover from a screwup.
--paulr

[JohnT]

Probably not, since you can just use your tap water to add alkalinity. My well water is almost 500ppm TA, so I never add baking soda. Weekly muriatic acid the first 3 years, but now I only have to add MA when I add water to the pool.

Many pools that use only unstabilized chlorine sources such as bleach rarely, if ever need baking soda or borax (for rasing pH). They are more likely to need acid on a somewhat regular basis.

[VoR]

Thanks all. I guess this big bag of BS is headed back to Costco unless I open a bakery

This is exactly why it's a good idea not to buy anything other than bleach until you test your water and fill water (and also why I have objected and still object to the name BBB since it really does not bear any reality to what is needed in the pool unless the primary sanitizer is trichlor and the bleach is just used to shock.) If you want a three letter acronym then ABC is more accurate for Acid, Bleach, and CYA. IF you buy these things you will use them all sooner or later!

[New2Me]

I'd add an "S" to that for "ABCS" if you have a SWG. Just re-filled my 24k pool and used 5 gallons of Acid, 6 bottles of bleach, 16 pounds of CYA, and 740 pounds of salt(NaCl?)

Maybe it should be "AB²CS", 'cause I also used 88 pounds of Borax(20 Mule Team.)

[reebok]

This is exactly why it's a good idea not to buy anything other than bleach until you test your water and fill water (and also why I have objected and still object to the name BBB since it really does not bear any reality to what is needed in the pool unless the primary sanitizer is trichlor and the bleach is just used to shock.) If you want a three letter acronym then ABC is more accurate for Acid, Bleach, and CYA. IF you buy these things you will use them all sooner or later!

it's probably not up for discussion, but I've been thinking about this since I read it and I definitely prefer the ABC acronym.