Is measuring TA really necessary

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cj133

Well-known member
May 6, 2018
701
NJ
Usually..I measure my pH a few times a week and it's stable. If it's high, which is usually my case if anything I'll add a few hits of muriatic acid, no measuring just a guess and I'll let it circulate for a few days and do a few tests before doing anything else. I usually take my time with this and try to be very patient.

Generally, I'll let it slowly come down and then it stabilizes and I can get it to stay very close to 7.6. During this, I never check my TA.
My reasoning is, if the pH is stable then it really doesn't matter what my TA is. If the pH tends to drift in a direction, then that tells me what the TA is anyway (too high, or too low) without actually measuring it. No?

I can see TA being important if you're maintaining pools for customers and can't sit around for days and days constantly checking but for an end user like me, is my procedure acceptable or does it actually not make sense and I've just been lucky?
 
You test TA when your pH rises to the point you need to lower it. The TA number is used in PoolMath to determine how much acid is needed to achieve the pH level you are targeting.

If the way you are managing your water chemistry works for you, do it.
 
With a vinyl pool and user friendly NorthEast fill water, I rarely need to check mine either.

I mean. I felt guilty mid season and checked it for fun, but it was right where I left it. :)
 
As @Newdude alluded to, it’s much less of concern when you live in the Northeast where water tends to be very soft with low mineral and temporary hardness. You also have less to be concerned about because you have an AGP with a vinyl liner. So your surfaces and equipment are not really bothered by high CSI. If you had an SWG or a heater, then you should keep a closer eye on your saturation index to protect the equipment from scale.

In your case, it would simply be easier to use the Taylor acid demand test to see how much acid your pool needs. Basically you add the drops to your pH test and count the number of drops needed to get to a desired pH level (say 7.5/7.6). Then you lookup the amount of acid that corresponds to in a table. You don’t need to know your TA or any other information. Just the number of drops and the look up table. Then you can measure or eyeball your acid addition.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
As @Newdude alluded to, it’s much less of concern when you live in the Northeast where water tends to be very soft with low mineral and temporary hardness. You also have less to be concerned about because you have an AGP with a vinyl liner. So your surfaces and equipment are not really bothered by high CSI. If you had an SWG or a heater, then you should keep a closer eye on your saturation index to protect the equipment from scale.

In your case, it would simply be easier to use the Taylor acid demand test to see how much acid your pool needs. Basically you add the drops to your pH test and count the number of drops needed to get to a desired pH level (say 7.5/7.6). Then you lookup the amount of acid that corresponds to in a table. You don’t need to know your TA or any other information. Just the number of drops and the look up table. Then you can measure or eyeball your acid addition.
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See this is where I think I'm not understanding, so I have more to learn.

What's temporary hardness?
 
Temporary hardness is a term used is boiler water management. I should have used the term carbonate. It’s basically “hardness” you can make go away by adding acid.
 
Just use the acid demand drops (R-0005 with the #9056 comparator) to determine how much acid to add. That way you’ll rarely need to measure TA.
 
cj133 said:
Generally, I'll let it slowly come down and then it stabilizes and I can get it to stay very close to 7.6. During this, I never check my TA.
My reasoning is, if the pH is stable then it really doesn't matter what my TA is. If the pH tends to drift in a direction, then that tells me what the TA is anyway (too high, or too low) without actually measuring it. No?
Click to expand...
Your logic is basically solid.

However, it's not that hard to test TA and you should monitor it periodically just to know where it is.
 
My Ta is pretty stable between 50 and 60. It seems to be where my pool likes it. As ph rises and I knock it back down.....I'll check TA every couple weeks because acid lowers it as well. Baking soda is your friend.
 
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TA affects pH rise and it affects how acid changes the pH.

By knowing the TA, you will have a better understanding of the pH and what it will be in the future under different conditions.

You could probably maintain the pool without ever checking the TA as long as the pH was fine.

You could probably also maintain the pool without ever checking the pH and only checking the TA.

If you maintain the TA at 60 ppm it's unlikely that the pH would go to an unsafe range.

In any case, I would test both regularly as they are interrelated and knowing both gives you more assurance that everything is good.

Both tests are relatively quick and easy to do and it makes no sense to avoid doing either test.
 
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And once you're monitoring it and it stays put, you'll switch to monthly testing and then maybe even more (y)
 
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