Does anyone know if Muriatic Acid loses its potency? I am using 31.45% but seem to be having a SLOW time lowering my TA in my 350 gal Hot Springs spa. Did a refill today after using Ah-some. TA is very high in our well water -300 to start and I've been working on lowering it for the past 4.5 hours. So far I've used 22.5 oz to get TA to 130. My goal is 80 for TA. Last time I had to use a little over 24 oz to get TA to 80. Any thoughts if acid loses its strength? What do you think the maximum amount of MA that could be added at each 30 minute interval? I've checked the pH about 5 minutes after adding the MA and it's still 8.0
Muriatic Acid expiration date?
- Thread starter Osunurse
- Start date
- Jun 22, 2014
- 49,340
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
MA has basically no shelf life. It can sit on the shelf for years and still be just as good as day one.
- Jun 22, 2014
- 49,340
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
It may help to make sure you are lowering the pH to 7.0-7.2 before letting the aeration raise it again. As long as the acid mixes well and the pH rises back up to a safe point at about 7.8 or so, you can hit it with more acid whenever you are ready.
Lower Total Alkalinity - Trouble Free Pool
You know, that's probably the problem. I have been leaving the aeration on the entire time rather than letting the MA circulate and then turning up the aeration. Sometimes it takes another set of eyes to look at a situation !
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Latest reading at 7:45
CH 100
pH 7.8
TA 110
Br-zero- I haven't added any yet. I was trying to get TA lower first but will have to add some soon because I'm going to call it a night very soon
CH 100
pH 7.8
TA 110
Br-zero- I haven't added any yet. I was trying to get TA lower first but will have to add some soon because I'm going to call it a night very soon
are you able to test and dose muriatic acid every 30min? (Dropping PH to 7.2 from 7.6+)
Yes, I had been testing and dosing with MA every 30 minutes. I think I have found the sweet spot where the pH didn't move too much. Last night reading pH 7.5, TA 70. It took about 27 oz of MA to get it to that level. I would like to add the borate today, but according to pool math, I would need to add another 9 oz of MA and I don't have 8 hours available to add and monitor. I've read that lowering the pH with more than 1-2 oz of MA at a time can be harmful to the heater for my volume of spa.
But you didn't add 27oz all at once right?
It was in multiple additions?
And you allowed the PH to come back up before adding more MA/lowering again?
Absolutely! The bulk of the MA was added over 7 hours at 30-45 minute increments and the last few additions were fine tuning over the past two days. Most of the additions were less than 2 oz. I targeted the pH for 7.2 and then it would come back up to at least 8.0 (the highest reading on my test kit). this last addition it only came up to 7.5 pH and TA was 70.
So you're safe
The additions were controlled, tested and measured. Nicely done, BTW!