I raised my alkalinity too much... need to lower

[watermonster]

ph 7.3
TA 130-140
CH 305
CYA 50 ( my pool store said much higher, but I have done this several times, they reported 130, but said fine between 30-200 )
TC 5+

Water is 86 degrees.

I have an OTO test kit with a Taylor on the way. (as an aside the Taylor is cheaper from the manufacturer than Amazon )

I am a new pool owner and have finally found this site. I was a little impatient when I found a little algae in my pool and wnt a little overboard with shock packages ( put two in about 30 hours ago ).

I do not have the capacity to measure FC yet but will soon.

I also overdid a bit and added too much alkalinity plus (hth product). I raised my TA from 80 to 140 with 5 lbs of the HTH Alka plus material. The pool is somewhat cloudy but I think this is related to the algae that I recently killed.

I have started aerating the pool to help raise the PH in preparation for lowering the alkalinity somewhat.

Finally to my question... I have 8 lbs of sodium bisulfate (left by previous owner) which says it will lower my PH. Will it also lower the Alkalinity? Pool calculator is suggesting that I add 17 oz of washing soda or 33oz of Borax

 

[Bama Rambler]

You need to read the lowering TA article in pool school. It's a process of aerating to raise pH and then acid to lower both TA and pH.

 

[watermonster]

Thanks Dave. I think I got it. I got the general theory from pool school but the specific problem of if sodium bisulfate would work was my big issue in that the package reads that it lowers PH but doesn't mention TA. I did find that this chemical does indeed lower both. I will go at this slowly so I don't play too much back and forth.

 

[watermonster]

Applied Sodium Bisulfate it was packaged as Low'n slow from HTH. I was conservative and applied roughly 16 oz when the package called for roughly twice that to lower my TA by 20ppm. I am really glad that I was careful as I hit my TA goal perfectly (110). I have been aerating the pool for about 24 hours and my PH stayed roughly around 7.3.

My pool has lost 90% of the cloudly look although after swimming in it for several hours it is back to being just a little cloudy. My TCL is still at 5+ ( I can't easily measure above that ). I have to say it is very satisfying to have my pool respond so quickly.