Should I raise my TA ?

[poolnew-b]

Ok I just finished refilling my pool yesterday after having to remove a rock and patch a small hole.

Well my TA is only 20ppm and my ph is low my kit reads down to 6.8 and my ph may be lower than that.

The pool calculator is telling me to add 38oz of baking soda to raise my TA.

Should I wait is there a chance my TA will go up on its own.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

No.

You'll need to use Borax to raise the PH and Baking Soda to raise the TA.

Let these chems circulate for 2-3 hours and retest.

 

[poolnew-b]

No.

You'll need to use Borax to raise the PH and Baking Soda to raise the TA.

Let these chems circulate for 2-3 hours and retest.

Ok thanks FPM.

I just like to be reassured.

Will be dumping baking soda in as soon as the wife gets home with it.

Should I raise ph after I do TA or can I just do them at the same time?

 

[JasonLion]

It doesn't make a huge difference which order you do things in, though there is a difference. I like to raise TA to 40 first, then adjust PH, then raise TA more. The main issue is that it is very easy to change the PH too much by accidentally when the TA is very very low, while it takes more total chemicals to change the PH when TA is higher. Raising TA to 40 first balances out those two factors, raising TA high enough to give you some control but not so high that you need a lot more chemicals.