ok to add salt while TA is high

[Ms Flo]

I'm trying to get our water balanced so we can switch to a SWG. We replaced the liner & refilled the pool at the beginning of the month. Between the tap water & rain that filled the pool, I started with a TA of 240. Two weeks & a gallon and a half of muriatic acid later, my TA is still at 150. :-( I believe I should be between 60 & 80 before I start the SWG, so I've still got some work to do. Is it okay if I go ahead & start dissolving salt in the pool while still adding MA? I want to get the SWG going ASAP so I have time to get the hang of it before the Independence Day holiday.

FWIW, I haven't really done anything to aerate in between acid applications. I've been out of town quite a bit, so the pH has just come back up on its own. I've also added a pound and a half of CYA. I'm guessing that put me at about 10. I know that needs to be higher, but I'm waiting to test because I don't have a lot of the CYA test chemicals. (...planning to order test kit refills soon.) I've also used about a pound of tri-chlor tabs along with about 4 gallons of 10%.

Thanks!

 

[JasonLion]

It is fine to be working on adjusting TA and salt at the same time. They do not interact at all.

 

[Ms Flo]

Thanks Jason! My husband was very happy to add another 120 pounds of salt. He loves the way the water feels now! We did a test run with the SWG last night. I expected it to say that the salt level was low, but I was surprised when it ran just fine. Unfortunately, I still need to lower my TA. I can't seem to make much progress. My readings actually went up once! (At least I don't think I messed up the test...) Is there anything I can do to speed up the process? Just do a better job of aerating? If no one is going to be swimming in the pool, how low can I safely lower the pH? (AGP w/vinyl liner) Would that make any difference in how quickly the TA drops? I'd like to make major progress in the next 48 hours. I have a lot of other stuff going on after that, and it would be nice to be able to use the SWG & not have to worry about someone else taking care of the chlorine. Thanks for any input.

latest readings:
water temp 82
Chlorine 5 (test strip also said 5)
pH 7.5 (test strip said 6.8 ??)
TA 150 (test strip said 120-next reading goes up to 180, so that makes sense to me)
CH 270
CYA almost 20
salt test strip between 2500 & 3000

 

[elwood58]

I would knock your pH down to 7.2 with Acid, and then aerate it back up to 7.6. Repeat until your TA is where you want it.

 

[Ms Flo]

Thanks for the advice elwood. That's what I've been doing, but it seems like it's taking forever. :-/ Oh, I guess I didn't say that I've been aerating for the last few days while I've been at home. I've got another 46 hours or so when I'll be able to really keep an eye on everything, but after that I'm not going to be able to mess with it very much. So I was hoping to really get things going. I think I may finally make a trip to the hardware store to get stuff to make a bigger, better aerator. My little fountain just isn't getting the job done in a timely manner. :-(