When refill water has high TA

[ecowolf]

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, I have been doing partial drains and refills to lower my CYA as I start in on the BBB method. I have now gone from 200 down to 80 with my CYA. Yay! Here's the problem though:

I mentioned that my TA was climbing rapidly as I did this. I did wait until my FC levels were at 7 and then retested TA. It still came out at 225. Out of a hunch, I decided to test the water from the hose that I was refilling with, and lo-and-behold; the refill water had TA of 240! I then jumped on the computer and checked the water analysis for our city, and sure enough, the last test showed TA at 245. Now, every site I've looked at considers this a normal range for tap water.

So first question is does every person who refills their pool have to deal with high TA?

Second question is: do I need to lower my TA? And to answer the question of whether it is causing a problem, I have this data: we do have calcium deposit lines at the water level on the boulders that surround our pool. Other than that, I haven't had any major issues with calcium. As far as PH drift, the only real data I have is that I went away for six days last week, and while I was gone the PH rose from 7.4 to 7.8. That was with my wife adding about 1/3 of a gallon of bleach each day.

fc 7
cc 0
ph7.8
ta 225
cya 80
ch 330

 

[coffeegoddss]

The water coming out of our hose has a TA of almost 300! Yikes! I stopped fighting it. I simply let it drift down on it's own every time I lower the pH using muriatic acid. Everytime the pH creeps up to 7.8, I drop it down to 7.2 with the acid. The pH eventually starts creeping back up - all the splashing kids help! - and it's just a cycle. It seems to be working so far - my TA is @120 after a few weeks.

 

[ecowolf]

Yep. I thought that seemed high, but I have checked many city water reports across the country, and they all come out over 200. I'm finding the discrepancy between this and pool water recommended levels very confusing.

 

[Smykowski]

Yep. I thought that seemed high, but I have checked many city water reports across the country, and they all come out over 200. I'm finding the discrepancy between this and pool water recommended levels very confusing.

You can try using rainwater to refill the pool. It's clean and it's free!

 

[MNPoolDreamer]

We have high TA and ch and we celebrate whenever it rains. Thanks to 10 inches of rain this year and two gallons of muratic acid my TA is now near 100 - may even be lower thanks to some recent rain again.

Lower your TA and you won't have to worry so much about the scale. Since our TA has dropped the scale is coming out of the heater. I can't believe how much was in there from last years bad chemistry. Plus your water will be more clear with the lower TA.

I cringe every time I have to use the hose to fill.

 

[Richard320]

Just plan on using a lot of acid.

High TA doesn't make it unsafe in any way - you've been drinking, cooking, and bathing with that water for how long?

Just keep adjusting pH every day or two depending on how fast it rises, and stop worrying about TA.