High Alkalinity City Water (Maple Grove, MN)

[kyleedwardhoegh]

I was able to SLAM my troubled pool successfully earlier this year, thanks! Now I am curious about long term strategy for keeping my alkalinity in check. We have extremely high alkalinity city water (I tested at ph 7.4, alkalinity 300 ppm). Currently, I'm consistantly adding acid which has it down to about 150 ppm. Is there any hope for a long term solution that doesn't call for consistant acid purchase in my future do to always adding high alkality water from evaporation? I've read some of the following in these forums and curious to get takes:

1) Don't worry about alkalinity unless your ph gets too high. This seems like a possibility, but at such high levels of alkalinity I think I would be consistantly too high with my saturation index. I also have hard water (~350 ppm), and thus high saturation index. Maybe if I found a way to add water from my house after it's been softened, I could get away with this?
2) Other ideas?
3) Continue to just add acid for the rest of my pool's life? In this case, basically, it sounds like I just need to continue to keep it at a level where I can keep my saturation index at 0.3 or lower. Or do other people with high alkalinity water let it go higher?

Basically, I'm thinking there is no silver bullet for having 300 ppm Alkalinity fill water, but looking for guidance from the group on the least bad option and maybe advice on what things are highest priority, and what things I can maybe give a little on (for example higher saturation index okay as long as PH stays in check???).

Any advice much appreciated.

Thanks,

Kyle

 

[PoolStored]

You can spend a focused amount of time to get it down, then it should be easier to maintain with water additions.

For reference, in a 30K pool, I can reduce TA by 20 in 24 hours. Might take 10 days to get it down to 100...maybe quicker at 25K gallons.

Lowering Total Alkalinity (TA) Quickly with the Acid Aeration Method

Thought I'd make a post that might help others. We've had quite a few members this year with high TA, and I've been typing the same information over and over. I'm going to post this so I can link it to help others. High TA can cause rapid pH rise. High TA is typically caused by high TA fill...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

Just keep pH in range. You will burn through some acid. With a vinyl pool, you don't really need to worry about CSI. You could add softened water for top offs to keep CH in check.

How are you chlorinating?

A solar cover would help to reduce evaporation.

 

[kyleedwardhoegh]

Thanks everyone, very helpful so far! I switched this year to chlorinating with liquid only which has helped a lot to keep my cya down.

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

If you're CYA level begins to drop, consider supplementing with trichlor tablets. They are acidic and will help to control pH a bit while adding FC and CYA. Just keep an eye on rising CYA levels.