Fresh Start - New Liner - Fresh Fill - Crazy Numbers

[cargopilot]

New liner installed 1 week ago. Filled by truck delivery from our local municipality.

Straight off the truck readings:

TA 280
CH 300
pH 8.0

Latest test results:

pH 7.2
CYA 40
FC 4.0
CC 0.0
TA 280 (has not moved after 3 gallons of acid in the past 36 hours and round the clock aeration)
CH 300

I know TA reduction is a slow process, but I would have thought it would have moved some by now.

I'm stuck with the CH. No other place to get water.

 

[Fast7]

Don't stress about TA too much. It's not hurting anything in your pool and it will come down eventually.
I was pretty much in your shoes last year when I got my pool installed in August last year. Fill water was 300 TA, at pool closing in early November I was down to 170.
After opening this season I was back to 220, now down to 110. I keep my return pointed upwards at about 45 degree angle and let my pH drift to about 8 before bringing it down to 7.2.
CH is in range even though it doesn't really mater in your case anyway.
Just keep your water properly chlorinated and enjoy your pool.

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum

I assume your water is very clear, correct? Just reinforcing what Fast7 said above...........keep doing what you are doing and the TA will come down.......no rush.

It may take several acid/aeration cycles to get it to move.

What will you use for refill water? What is the pH and TA of that?

 

[cargopilot]

I assume your water is very clear, correct?

Yes, it is crystal clear.

What will you use for refill water? What is the pH and TA of that?

I will refill from our outdoor faucet. We are on well water and it is 35 grains of hardness.

TA from the faucet tested at 300 and pH at 7.0 this morning.

There was some progress on the TA overnight. It's down from 280 to 240. pH seems ultra stable around 7.2 even with the return blasting the surface. It took all day to go back up to 7.2 from 7.0. I just put one more quart of acid in just now to drop back down to 7.0.

 

[Richard320]

With the new pool, that's likely a new test kit. There is a known issue with static on the R-009 TA reagent. It makes the drops small so it takes more so it reads falsely high. The cure is to wipe the tip with a damp paper towel before each drop. Try that the next time you test.

And what is your urgency in lowering TA anyway? It has nothing to do with clarity or algae formation, and apparently it's not driving your pH up at an alarming rate. I'd just leave things be and go swimming. When the pH hits 7.8, lower it. But I wouldn't keep adding acid just to get TA to some arbitrary target number. It's not toxic.

 

[cargopilot]

With the new pool, that's likely a new test kit.

Just a new liner, not a new pool. The original test results were with my old kit. And those agents expired in 2017. So I figured maybe the agents were bad and giving a false reading.

So I ordered a new kit and got the exact same results.

And what is your urgency in lowering TA anyway? It has nothing to do with clarity or algae formation, and apparently it's not driving your pH up at an alarming rate. I'd just leave things be and go swimming. When the pH hits 7.8, lower it. But I wouldn't keep adding acid just to get TA to some arbitrary target number. It's not toxic.

I guess I never really understood the relationship between alkalinity and pH as well as I do now. Still learning though. Have struggled with high pH since we bought the house 3 years ago.

We had a yellow algae outbreak last fall and I'm just very nervous and still have PTSD from that mess.

Just trying to keep things a lot tighter on recommended numbers from here on out.