Can rain water increase TA?

[MNPoolDreamer]

Test number:
Fc 8
Cc 0
Tc 8
Ph 7.3 (can I believe this number with high fc?)
TA 275 (up from 250)
Ch - didn't test, almost out of reagent, but close to 300 I'm sure.
Cya 50 (does temp affect this)

I've added 1/2 gallon of muratic acid, and 5 lbs of dry acid and it seems my TA is going up! It has rained a few days but I thought that would only affect the ph and lower TA.

So I'm confused and feeling defeated. My water is still cloudy, chlorine is holding steady..was 9 a week ago and is still at 8, but I haven't added chlorine. I suppose cause it is so cold and I'm leaving it covered, there won't be much loss.

I went to the pool store to test for metals and they of course have different numbers...they have the following:
Fc 7.1
Cc 0
Tc 7.1
Ph 8.3 (is that because they aren't adjusting for high chlorine?)
TA 215 - if that is true then I am making some progress.
Ch 300 - seems about right, I had 350 about 10 days ago, before I added scale inhibitor.
Copper 0.3 (remnant from winter closing kit, yes you can yell at me for doing that)
Cya 10

So they told me to dump in a ton of ph down. Im hesitant because my tests and the strips I quickly check with tend to match up (you can knock the strips if you want but my results are pretty close to what I get on the strip) with the ph. I don't want to bottom out and ruin my heater.

I'm still thinking this is scale of some sort...does that make sense since filtering isn't clearing it (I use skimmer socks to help catch some stuff), and the chlorine levels are holding? If this were algae, wouldn't I have chlorine consumption?

I'm wondering if I should just keep tackling the TA in small doses as I've been doing.

Any advice is appreciated...

 

[JasonLion]

Trust your own test results, especially if the drop test and test strips agree. Also, try to be patient. Lowering TA takes time and you won't always see much progress day to day. The differences are much more obvious week to week.

You are making progress, regardless of what the test results appear to say. Every time you add acid the TA is coming down.

It is possible for rain to raise the TA, but that is rare and wouldn't be enough of an increase to make much difference.

Your PH reading and the pool stores PH reading are way way off from each other, which is surprising as PH is one of the simplest and most reliable tests. Neither FC level is high enough to cause trouble for the PH test, which is good up to FC levels of 10.

Low temperatures can sometimes cause the CYA test to read lower than actual.

You might well have been getting some scaling when the PH was higher.

 

[linen]

Your PH reading and the pool stores PH reading are way way off from each other, which is surprising as PH is one of the simplest and most reliable tests. Neither FC level is high enough to cause trouble for the PH test, which is good up to FC levels of 10.

This is concerning me too, what are you using to test ph at home with? It might be possible that your ph test has been wrong and reading low all along? You do not want to get back into the scaling condition you were in before. If the pool store result for ph is correct you will start having scaling problems. As a double check, I would buy one of the cheap total chlorine/ph drop based tests available at walmart, hardware stores, etc., since they are typically acurate for ph.

 

[MNPoolDreamer]

I have a tf-100 and the Taylor basic (k-1000) that came with it. My kit isn't even a year old and its alway stored in the house. I find it hard to believe my ph was that high ever! I checked distilled water with my kit and got 6.8...just as a reference of some sort.

04/14 ph 7.5
Added 1/2 gal muratic acid pointed return up
04/16 ph 7.3ish
04/19 pool store test 8.3 my test said 7.5+
Added 2lbs dry acid - diluted in pool water before adding removed cover, rained that day
04/20 ph 7.5
Added 2lbs dry acid
04/22 ph 7.3 turned return up to aerate.


So here I wonder what numbers to believe. Again it seems the question of is the cloudiness scale that I cannot control, or is it some type of resistant algae? I have been brushing the walls and bottom every day and did a good vacuum today.

 

[duraleigh]

I find it hard to believe my ph was that high ever!

Yeah, I think the pool store screwed up the test. As stated above, pH usually is a test that they can do accurately but I guess not that time.

Trust your test results.......you have too many occurrences of similar results not to believe it.

 

[JasonLion]

Nothing you have said in this topic suggests algae. Looking back I see you had another topic where you were talking about possible algae because of milky/cloudy water. Since you haven't been having any trouble maintaining an FC level (correct?) it seems much more likely that you have calcium clouding. Your levels are just about ideal for calcium clouding. There is no way of being completely sure until your get your CSI down quite a bit from where you are now (i.e. lower TA).

 

[MNPoolDreamer]

Okey dokey. I'll keep adding acid and areating to see if I can get the TA down. Thankfully I have a month and a half before we'll be swimming. Glad I started early. I would be so bummed if this were now the 2nd week of summer vacation and we were still waiting to swim.

Yes, the chlorine is not dropping more than 1 ppm a week it seems...maybe more tomorrow since the birds were dropping presents into the pool while I was vacuuming. I'm going to keep the cover on during the days I'm at work. It is super windy and the farmer behind us is going to start working his fields, so any protection from debris is needed.

Thank you for walking me through this. I feel like this is therapy...I just don't have the patience to wait and you all are helping to get me through this!

Michelle

 

[linen]

I have a tf-100 and the Taylor basic (k-1000) that came with it.

Good, just be sure that you haven't adjusted/compensated your reading of the taylor kit level to what the strips have/are indicating. Pardon this stupid question...your are adding 5 drops of the R-0014 reagent?

Keep up the good work

 

[MNPoolDreamer]

Yep, 5 drops. Only 5 drops. And I'm as precise as can be with filling to the line. I'll fill with water drop by drop until the meniscus is even with the line.

I really do trust my results. But was faltering in my belief. Back trusting myself and thinking this is major calcium. Took a look at the solar cover and it has white "scale" on it like last year (could that be chlorine too?)

Dh just got home and were thinking of a drain and refill with trucked in water. That was our plan all along and we jumped the gun opening so soon.

Thanks everyone. I'll let you know what we end up doing.