I just installed my new pool a couple weeks ago. Initial fill was from a water truck and topped off with my local well water. Total Alkalinity was high from the start. I only had the pool store supplied test strips to test alkalinity which measured around 200 ppm. Over the course of several days, I added 3 gallons of Kleen Strip Green Muriatic Acid, which is all I could find locally. From what I've been able to determine, this might be 20%...or could be even lower. All the SDS says is "less than 30%". Got my hands on a few gallons of the 31.45% acid and added 43 oz about a week ago.
Through all this, the test strip reading was jumping around. 200, 180, 150, 120, 180, 100, etc., so either I am terrible at reading the colors or the strips aren't very accurate.
My Taylor K-2006 kit arrived a few days ago, and this read 200 first time I tested, and 160 after adding 56 oz. of the acid two days ago. Currently waiting for pH to raise enough to add more acid. Everything else is testing fine.
So...my question is: How worried should I be about the high Alkalinity? Should I just slowly lower it whenever my pH is high enough to add MA? Not worry about it at all?
Through all this, the test strip reading was jumping around. 200, 180, 150, 120, 180, 100, etc., so either I am terrible at reading the colors or the strips aren't very accurate.
My Taylor K-2006 kit arrived a few days ago, and this read 200 first time I tested, and 160 after adding 56 oz. of the acid two days ago. Currently waiting for pH to raise enough to add more acid. Everything else is testing fine.
So...my question is: How worried should I be about the high Alkalinity? Should I just slowly lower it whenever my pH is high enough to add MA? Not worry about it at all?