TA, Ph and other mysteries of the universe

[midlander]

I have a pool. I have a TF100 test kit. I have motivation. I thought that was supposed to be enough!

My fiberglass pool is 20,000 gallons. Opened clear and enticing this year here in Midland, TX, where today will be the 4th 100degree day this week. I keep it covered with a blue bubble solar cover so babies and grandmas enjoy the temp. Did a series of drains to get CYA down to 40. I didn't understand the puck/CYA conundrum, but have only used bleach since last summer. Chlorine has been holding nicely at 3 with negligible combined chlorine. Alkalinity was really high before the drains, running about 280. The most recent test at L****es said 150, but my drop test, which looks just like theirs, said 180. (Could that be their motorized little shaker-upper they use?) I wanted to bring Ph and Alkalinity in line, so I've been adding Muriatic Acid and aerating. My husband hooked up a PVC pipe to a compressor, and blew bubbles until the compressor broke. Bought a bigger, badder compressor and it has been running continuously since Tuesday night. I suppose my biggest issue is I'm not too good at the Ph drop test, and I'm probably a coward to boot. I add the acid, 32 oz a pop, to drop Ph to 7.0, or somewhere in the vicinity. Then I check back in several hours and I don't see much movement. Maybe to 7.4. I drop Ph again, and although it seems to rise a little, the Alk never seems to significantly change. I finally tested the fill water and it runs about 150 per my handy-dandy TF100 test. But my understanding is regardless of the fill water, I should still be able to lower my ALK.

I had a lovely chat with Dave (prompt service is our motto) earlier this week after receiving my reagent order. He is very knowledgeable and suggested I just keep doing what I'm doing. It would appear all I'm doing is making the electric company record profits. I'm looking for suggestions. Maybe I'm expecting too much movement in too little of a time span? When I read the sticky, it didn't sound like this was going to take me the entire summer to get this right.

Thanks for your help.

 

[lovingHDTV]

I found lowering my TA worked best if I kept the PH between 7.0 and 7.2. I ran the jets on my spa to get air into the water and I had to add acid every 3-4 hours.

My fill water has a TA of 210, so I end up doing this quite a lot to keep my TA ~60-70.

The pvc pipe you are using, did you cap it and make several little holes? I believe it will be most effective if you get lots of little bubbles, compared to fewer big ones. I do know people on the forum have done this very effectively.

 

[midlander]

It is capped. The original was a long piece of pipe with lots of little holes. We were afraid that is what caused the demise of the original compressor. So this new pipe is significantly shorter and just makes big bubbles. But shouldn't big bubbles eventually do the trick?

 

[JasonLion]

Lots and lots of little bubbles is much quicker than a few large bubbles. Lowering TA does take time.

 

[sevver]

I honestly found that creating a water jet and letting it stream into the pool worked faster and better than my compressor. Do you have a puddle pump you can rig a hose onto? I put a barbed hose connector on the end of mine, which basically reduces the hose diameter down to about 3/8 inside diameter through the reducer and creates a good stream. The act of it hitting the water made lots of tiny bubbles.

 

[midlander]

OK. Let's assume that when husband comes home he doesn't want to invest any more money in any more gadgets. We have this nice yellow 15 gallon compressor and lots of pvc pipe. What is the optimal length of pipe, size of holes and number of holes? Is that a ridiculous question? I'd like to accomplish the task with the tools on hand. I also don't want to ruin another compressor. Thanks for sharing your brain power.