Help TA = 275

[tgillesp]

I am an old member and used this forum often for my pool which I no longer have. I am trying to help my daughter and she is a first time pool owner living in another state so we can only communicate through phone and message. She bought a house which came with an Intex 4600 gallon above ground in pretty bad shape. When she bought the home last summer CYA was off the charts and I had her partial drain and refill several times. She became frustrated and gave up and covered the pool. We are now communicating back and forth with me giving her instructions and these are the numbers (She is using the Taylor drop kit):

FC: 10
CC: .8
Ph: 7.5
TA: 275
CYA: 35

We have been keeping above shock level for the last week and she has been brushing walls and bottom daily. Yesterday's CYA was 0, ph was 8.1 and TA was 280. After adding cya and 12 oz of Ph reducer her ph came down to 7.5 but TA barely moved. Her pool had began to look a little clear until the last 2 days and she says it is now very cloudy. I told her to add another 16 oz of ph reducer tonight. I read somewhere that we don't want ph to go below 6.8 so I am wondering how we are going to get this TA level down? Also, how soon should we measure after putting in Ph reducer? Pics are in order so you can see the day 4 pic is more cloudy than the day 3 pic: Apr 24 lots of algae; Apr 26 looks a bit clear; Apr 27 very cloudy; Still very cloudy today. I know with CC .8 we still need to keep at shock level and am doing that.

 

[Richard320]

TA is the last thing to worry about, after the pool is clear and sparkly and she's bored. It will come down some each time acid is added. If you (or she) plugs the numbers into poolmath and gets the acid dosage, then scrolls down to Effects of Adding Chemicals and inputs that, it will tell you the expected TA drop. Ignore the pH change -- it will never match what the calculator above says. But TA by itself is no problem. It will push the pH up faster the higher it is, but it's not something to worry on. SLAM Process it to clear the algae now. Deal with high TA later.

Another point I just remembered: if that is a brand new test kit, she may have static electricity on the tip of the R-009. Wipe the tip with a damp paper towel to remove it. The problem should disappear in a few days.

 

[tgillesp]

I will relay this advice to her. Thanks so much for the quick reply.

 

[JamesW]

If the calcium hardness is high, be extra vigilant about keeping the ph in line.

 

[tgillesp]

Thank you for that info James. I have her using ph reducer to bring the ph down in an attempt to lower alkalinity. Is this not the correct procedure? I thought we keep lowering ph and the alkalinity would come down, but it has not changed at all.

 

[Richard320]

Thank you for that info James. I have her using ph reducer to bring the ph down in an attempt to lower alkalinity. Is this not the correct procedure? I thought we keep lowering ph and the alkalinity would come down, but it has not changed at all.

I just tried Effects of ADding Chemicals and in a pool that size, 12 oz of acid will only reduce TA by 10. That's within the test tolerance so no wonder she saw no drop.

Just keep knocking pH down to 7.2 whenever it gets to 7.8 TA will sloooooowly come down. When the pool is cleared up and everything is swell, then maybe work on lowering TA

 

[tgillesp]

We are using the ph minus powder form. I'm not sure what to select on the pool calculator. Would I select dry acid?

 

[Richard320]

We are using the ph minus powder form. I'm not sure what to select on the pool calculator. Would I select dry acid?

Yes.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I think muriatic acid works faster to lower pH. Probably cheaper too. Find it in the paint section of most hardware stores.

Maddie

 

[tgillesp]

Still another problem she is dealing with. Her pump is the small Summer Escapes pump that came with the pool. It only has a filter cartridge. No sand filter. She is having a great deal of trouble getting the pool to clear up. There is still a grey residue in the pool. I'm sure it is just the dead algae. The problem is she cannot vacuum to waste. Is there any other way of getting this out of the pool? It seems to be causing the cloudy issue. Her pool is pretty clear as long as it sits on the bottom but as soon as she vacuums and it is circulated, it's cloudy again. Her numbers have all been pretty perfect except the TA which is still high and we are working on bringing that down. Thanks again for any advice. If I was there I am sure I could help her get it straightened out as I have never had any problem with mine, but I am so far away and she is very inexperienced.

 

[drharris]

Can she vacuum to recirculate, and use some sort of manual filter on it? There was a thread awhile back where they were suggesting a 1 micron diesel filter attached to return jets. Probably wouldn't need anything nearly that tight to get dead algae out. If it's like the pump my friend had (really simplistic, either on/off just through filter), there was a special kind of vacuum that had a cloth filter inline with the vacuum (so it pumped water through the cloth filter before hitting the cartridge filter). Something like that might work, but it's going to take a lot of labor.