Does TA really matter much for me?

[UnderwaterDogg]

Hello there,
First season of our pool, trying to get “it all“ figured out I have a high TA…about 260. I have been trying to reduce it by using acid, but it isn’t really going down. (The pH did, which was good—now it is about 7.5) I read about how its a process of adding acid to get to 7.0 or 7.2 then aerating to increase ph to 7.6. I read it can take many times of repeating this process to make progress on the TA. My question is—does this chemical/level matter very much? I am a mom to three young boys, and I have precious little spare time! Just curious if this will be detrimental to the life of anything in my pool, or the health of the swimmers If it matters, the Calcium hardness is also a little high, at 525 today. Not sure if that is relevant, or if that could possibly be something of greater importance? Just trying to wrap my head around all this, it’s kind of ”a lot” right now! Thanks to everyone here…I think I am going to have to contribute because the forums here are a godsend!

 

[mknauss]

With that TA and CH, you are in the range were scale can occur. So be aware of that. Do you see scale at the waterline? The heater could also scale (the heat exchanger) because as you raise the temperature of the water, the scaling tendency goes up.

 

[duraleigh]

While you are a candidate for scale, I would suggest you are not a good candidate. This is not an emergency.

So, if time is a factor, monitor your pH keeping it into the 7's by using muriatic acid. The TA will reduce slowly.

What is is the CH of your fill water?

As always, remember that keeping your FC in the correct range is far more important than this issue.

 

[PoolStored]

Marty and Dave are spot on. I calculated your CSI from your logs at 60 degrees water temp, CSI is .33. With water temp of 80, your CSI is .510. That is quite high.

The easiest chemical to change and reduce CSI, which is an indicator for Scale, is TA. Reducing your TA to 100 with water temp of 80 gets you to CSI of 0...which would avoid scale.

Dave's question is a big one, and I'll extend it...what is the TA and CH of your fill water. High TA and CH in your fill water will tend to drive both higher, and CSI higher. Test and report your fill results.

I am a mom to three young boys, and I have precious little spare time!

You can reduce TA with very little time. I got a sump pump and built this (picture below) on top of the sump pump. The trick to reduce lowering TA with the method in the article below is to make LOTS of TINY bubbles, which this does. (and my grandkids love to play under it). As you read in the article, reduce pH to 7.0 and run the aerator. I reduced mine from 140 to 70 in about 3 days. I just kept the sump running 24/7, and checked my pH every 12 hours and added acid to reduce back to 7.0. In the end, my TA was 60. If you have high CH and TA fill water, it may be worth building something like this to help manage your TA and reduce CSI and your potential to scale. It only took the time to build it, and test and add acid. YMMV

Aerator.jpg

• PoolStored
• Jul 5, 2022

Lower Total Alkalinity

A lower Total Alkalinity level can help a pool owner stabalize their pH increase. We'll explain how to lower TA with a little help from muriatic acid.

www.troublefreepool.com

Post up your TA and CH results from your fill water...and we can go from there.

 

[UnderwaterDogg]

Let’s see, I know the TA of my fill water was 280. I don’t have the CH number offhand, I’ll have to test tomorrow for that. We do have an autocover, so I don’t really add a whole lot of water, just to replace backwashing, which has been pretty minimal. Yes, the aeration will be tricky for us. We have kids, so the autocover is on nearly all the time (no fence). Where theres a will theres a way I’m sure!

 

[UnderwaterDogg]

With that TA and CH, you are in the range were scale can occur. So be aware of that. Do you see scale at the waterline? The heater could also scale (the heat exchanger) because as you raise the temperature of the water, the scaling tendency goes up.

I don’t see scale yet, What does it look like/feel like? There is a small bit of scum which I am thinking is sunscreen/body residue

 

[mknauss]

Typically scale will first show up on or out of your SWCG. Flakes will be expelled when the SWCG reverses polarity. Are you seeing any?
Otherwise it might be along the waterline, etc. White, hard, calcium scale.

 

[clambert1273]

Typically scale will first show up on or out of your SWCG. Flakes will be expelled when the SWCG reverses polarity. Are you seeing any?
Otherwise it might be along the waterline, etc. White, hard, calcium scale.

Oh here let me see the white ring that previous owners left me all around the pool

 

[PoolStored]

Waterline Scale Removal - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[UnderwaterDogg]

Ok. So my fill water is about 465 on the CH scale. And the TA was 280.

 

[duraleigh]

Wow! That's troublesome fill water. Do you have a whole house softener that you could tap into for your pool refills?

 

[UnderwaterDogg]

We do have a softener system. I am not sure if it only does the hot water or all of it. Something I can look into for sure. Thanks everyone. I am going to add some muriatic acid and see what I can do with my cover pump and returns pointed up….Right now the flow is set for 29 gpm, guessing I need to turn that up to get the water shooting out more aggressively.

 

[duraleigh]

refill your pool with that softener. It can't do it all at once but say maybe 10 refills and then do the CH test.....it will some down,

 

[UnderwaterDogg]

refill your pool with that softener. It can't do it all at once but say maybe 10 refills and then do the CH test.....it will some down,

When you say refill, you are not saying drain the pool and refill it all, correct? You just mean when the pool needs more water, to use that softened water? We will have to get a plumber out to add a line out for it I’m guessing…or—I guess maybe we could just attach a hose to our sink….hmmmm the possibilities!

 

[Texas Splash]

I made a split at my water softener so that I have the option to connect a hose for things like the pool or washing a car if I wanted to. It can be convenient. Yes, you have to be careful about the amount of soft water used at one time as they aren't designed for such a high demand like a pool and will require more frequent Regen cycles. I used my soft water for occasional top offs.