jojoman: our pH rises every time we use the swim jets just to swim. They're heavily aerated. So it's always rising, but I do think I've nearly got it under control. I've been using the 31.5% with a great 3M organic AND acid vapor mask and some goggles from Lowes. I didn't smell ANY of it. Of course I may have put too much because the pH is down to roughly 7.0 (just a smidgen more orange than 6.8 on the testing vial). But the TA is finally down to 70 from a high of 140 (swg recommended being 60 - 80).
I am guessing you may be right about the plaster because I tested our tap water at about 170CH, 140TA and =>8.2pH (yikes!) and the CH in the pool is up to about 425CH (down from 500 the week before). Since I'm told the CH doesn't evaporate, it probably doesn't come down with the rain so I'm guessing it's all that brushing the pool builder did to the plaster while it was in the early curing stages. All of that was brushed into the filter intake so I'm quite sure it's dissolved into the pool. Since low CH leaches calcium from plaster, that tells me that the plaster is filled with calcium and that's probably had a hand in spiking both the pH and the CH. Still, with the TA at 70, I should be able to get some control over it and maybe it won't spike as much. Have you found that to be the case at all?
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@smackdab: I agree and that's what I'm using and I bought 5gallon plastic pails for the bottles.
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There's a place in Baton Rouge that does the reverse osmosis water treatment and services New Orleans. I'm probably going to do that in November and order all new salt and everything.