First time fill.. TA off the charts. Help?

[MrBeetle]

OK, so I'm opening for the first time this spring... Pool installed late last year after it was too cold to swim, so I basically just did a closing only. Using a TF-100 test kit.

pH - 7.5
CYA - not measured yet, but put in 5 lbs of stabilizer yesterday
FC - Double-shocked it last night. Currently about 6.
Calcium - About 90
TA - About 250. Checked it a few times. Verified with a test strip as well.

(Yes, I did wipe the bottle)

So, I tested my source water... TA of about 250. (Filled over the course of about a week and a half, via a well with a water softener due to iron). Due to the distance from street to house/pool, water delivery would not be a real option. Distance is 600-700 ft. Too much hose, and a truck would destroy the driveway.

Water looks good, if not a touch cloudy.

What should my treatment plan be? I added some citric acid when I opened (had some rust stains) which cleared things up, but lowered pH to 6.8ish. I have been aerating to get the pH back up.

Am I resigned to pouring in gallons upon gallons of acid to get TA down? (so... Like, every day or two, a gallon of MA, then let my water aearate to raise it back up to 7.5 or so, rinse and repeat)

 

[Texas Splash]

Actually, some in your area have a TA much higher. I've seen them close to 500, so you're doing fairly well. Still, it will take time to lower. Let the pH climb to about 8 then hit it with enough muriatic acid to lower the pH to 7.0-7.2. Do that over & over and eventually in time the TA will come back down to where you need it to keep the pH stable.

As for the cloudy water, might be residual from opening or might be signs of algae. I'd suggest doing an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test in the next day or two to see if a SLAM Process is required. Until then, keep the FC in that 6-8 range and monitor.

 

[wireform]

Manage it slowly as the PH comes up with muratic acid or you can drop the PH now to 7.2 then aerate it back up and drop again. I would go with the first method.

 

[JohnT]

TA is important for two main reasons: pH control and CSI. Since your pH is nearly perfect I’d mostly ignore TA for pH control and just watch CSI which probably won’t be a problem. Let rain fill the pool as much as possible to get as much 0 TA 0 CH water in there as you can. Your real area of concentration is going to be the iron. Be sure to get a phosphonic acid based metal sequestrant in the pool on a regular basis.

 

[Enumjon]

I was in your shoes about a year ago. Just filled up the pool, fill water TA of 350. I also had high CA to worry about, but that only meant keeping a close eye on CSI. Yes, I dumped in about 30 gallons of acid last summer and never got TA as low as I wanted. But now, a year later, my pool seems to be in a happy place. Just find a way to have your pool aerating continually. Last year I had the spa spillover going full waterfall all the time. This year I put in a VSP, and if I run it at the proper speed I am sucking in air via the solar heater pressure relief valve - which turns one return into an amazing aerator. All this aeration allows you to drop the TA until your pool finds it's happy place.