Bringing down TA proceedure questions...

[jhieger]

I'm trying to bring my pool to the specs that will make it the safe, clean and clear. I'm trying to determine the order of things to adjust first.

I have read conflicting info on this subject. Please give me your opinion. What I have read is that the order of getting water into specification levels is:

1. FC
2. TA
3. PH
4. CYA

I agree with what that says above.

So now I'm trying to reduce my TA from110 to 70. The pool calculator says:

"To lower TA you reduce pH to 7.0-7.2 with acid and then aerate to increase pH."

Using acid I have reduced my pH to 7.0. I tested and my TA is now down to just 100.

Now what do I do? Do I just wait for the TA to keep going down? How long should it take for a little 5.5K gal inflatable pool to do this?

My thinking would say to add more acid to bring pH down further which is what lowered the TA too when I did it last time. Would I keep adding acid at all cost until TA test at 70 then aerate the water to bring the pH back up? Or do I just wait while my pH sits at 70 and hope the TA keeps dropping? Thank you very much for your help.

 

[jhieger]

I found my answer:

You can lower TA by lowering the pH to between 7.0 and 7.2 with acid and then aerating the water to bring the pH back up. Aeration can be supplied by spa jets, waterfall, fountain, rain, kids splashing, compressed air, or by aiming a return up towards the surface so it breaks the surface of the water and causes bubbles. This process is then repeated until you reach the desired TA.

So the answer is to slpash about, bring PH back up, add acid again and repeat until TA is right.

 

[Divin Dave]

I will throw in my .02 cents.

This is what I do and seems to work for me.
Test teh PH, if its below 8 and above 7 then I dont make any adjustment - yet.
If PH is above 8 or below 7, adjust it to 7.5 - +/- 8/7 is not good for anything

Adjust CYA - Recommended FC is dependent on the CYA Level - CYA is an acid anything acidic will drop the PH.
Adjust FC - It prevents algae and I dont want anything to do with algae. Recommended FC is depnedent on the CYA level
Adjust PH - Bring it to desired level -
TA - if above 60 and below 110. Do nothing (this is me, you can make adjustemnt if you want to. It wont hurt anything). Monitor the PH over the course of several days. If the PH constantly needs lowering, then work on bringing the TA down a bit, then monitor PH again.. make more TA adjustments as needed until you reach the point where the PH is steady over a long period of time. Once you get your TA just right, It might be a long time until you have to adjust it again. Mine has been rock solid 7.5 for over 2 months now.
Im stoked about that!

Have a great weekend and enjoy the pool!