the process of adjusting TA

Jump to latest Follow Reply
8

8corneflakes

0
Platinum Supporter
LifeTime Supporter
Jul 13, 2009
392
Fort Wayne, IN
Okay, I know that adjusting TA is a process but I have a few questions.

My TA was at 180. I added 1.5 bottles of MA, an hour later, the kids got in and splashed the heck out of the water for an afternoon.
Tested. TA had dropped to 160. Repeated process again and the TA lowered to 150. Last night, I added another 1.5 gallons of MA which brought my TA to 130. My pH is 6.8.
Here are my many questions.

1. Do I HAVE to aerate to raise the pH to an acceptable level before I add more MA?
2. Can I just add more MA tomorrow to lower the TA again?
3. I know that the MA lowers the pH. Is the fear that the pH will get dangerously low and that is why it is a process?

At this rate, I will have to add MA and aerate once or twice more.

Again, thanks to everyone on this site!

theresa
 
You need to get your pH back up before lowering again. You need tobe careful since your test is at its limit at 6.8, and you can't really evaluate your TA change unless you measure at the same pH.
 
1) Yes. You never want the PH going down to 6.8, let alone lower.
2) That depends on what your PH does in the mean time. Your PH is already too low and if you lower it further you will only make that worse.
3) Exactly. Your PH is already dangerously low.
 
thanks for the immediate response. Now I am nervous about how much I lowed the pH. Should I just sleep peacefully through the night and start the deck jets and slide fountain in the morning, or should I be totally freaked out and swim and splash through the night? In hindsight, I think the constant use of the deck jets and slide, and average of 8 kids per day splashing around for six hours was making the pH rise. That is why I was hoping to lower the TA in the 1st place.

WE LOVE TFP...Hey pool store, put that in your pipe and smoke it!
 
Don't freak out. With the amount of acid you added, your pH isn't much lower than 6.8 and by now is probably higher. At a low pH, the carbon dioxide outgassing occurs faster. For aeration, you can point your returns upwards and run the pump on high. That's what I do when I want to aerate and it works reasonably well. Probably not as good as a bunch of kids, but I can have it running like that all day and night if I want to.
 
Should I just sleep peacefully through the night and start the deck jets and slide fountain in the morning, or should I be totally freaked out and swim and splash through the night?
Click to expand...
Of course, sleep peacefully is the answer but that is a funny mental picture of you doing laps and the splash dance all night to raise pH.

BBB'rs are pool nerds, aren't we? :mrgreen:
 
You guys should have told them to splash around violently all night! :lol: The neighbors would have gotten a kick out of it anyway!
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
The cause for alarm with the low pH is that it can start to eat the metals in your pool. Things like pool lights, metal parts in your filter, ladders, your pump etc. can quickly ca-rode and then you have an issue for eternity. If you want to see what happens stick a piece of metal into the muratic acid and see what happens.

This is actually a method for quickly aging metals in applications like restorations etc. Just remember next time to add enough to get pH to 7.2 then aerate to raise to 7.8, then repeat the process until you are at the desired TA.
 
If you started with a pH of 7.5 and TA of 180 and added 1.5 gallons of full-strength Muriatic Acid (31.45% Hydrochloric Acid) three times (so 4.5 gallons total), then the TA would drop to 112 ppm and the pH to 6.4 if there were no carbon dioxide outgassing. I would bet that your kids splashing today gets the pH at least up to 7.0. If it doesn't, then add some Borax to move it up further. As you've noted, if the pH isn't moving up with kids splashing and aeration from the water slide, then your current TA may be good enough.
 
I just tested again and here are the results.

pH still 6.8
tA 130

I added 16 oz of borax that i had laying around. I know that it will only raise pH .05 I would have to go to the store if I need more. EXACTLY what/ or how much should I do next? Out of panic, I took the ladder up. The lights are gonna have to fend for themselves.
 
8corneflakes said:
I just tested again and here are the results.

pH still 6.8
tA 130

I added 16 oz of borax that i had laying around. EXACTLY what/ or how much should I do next?
Click to expand...
Well, circ for an hour and retest. If you got to 7pH, good. If not, add more borax and repeat.

ETA: Only added 16 ozs? Is that a typo?
 
8corneflakes said:
see my edit above. it's all I had on hand. kids used it to make play-doh or something messy and useless.
Click to expand...

So the answer is that you need more borax. At least 385 more oz and probably more because your pH could be even lower than 6.8. I think a trip to the store is a better option than causing damage to the pool equipment. I would get at least 6 boxes. Even if you don't use them all, you will have them on hand for the future.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply