Ph 7.2 ta 50

[sjoefl01]

CYA 50
Clorine 4

How do I get the TA up?

 

[AimeeH]

you can raise TA with baking soda. Check pool math to determine best course of action

 

[sjoefl01]

My PH keeps walking up and I have been having to add acid to bring it down. This is always the cycle with this pool. The TA usually stays fairly well. This is the first time I have checked it in a while. If I add baking soda wont I end up adding acid to offset the PH increase?

 

[AimeeH]

Yep.....some. Baking soda to raise TA doesn't raise PH "that" much. But if your PH is creeping up then why are you trying to raise the TA? You might just find your PH rise is buffered better with the lower TA.

 

[gregsfc]

This is not advice, because this is an area of disagreement on this forum; only telling you what works for me. I no longer ever adjust TA for the sake of keeping TA in any specific range. I usually don't even test for it unless I'm having PH swings. I went through the same cycle as you back in 2015. Forum members kept telling me that my TA needed to be between whatever and whatever, but Chem Geek came on and told me with the numbers I gave him that my pool would be safe at anything above TA of 30, and so when I quit raising TA back up due to continual acid doses, gave three or four more doses of acid on each drift up out of range, my PH finally quit drifting up and my TA ended up being somewhere around 40. I didn't touch TA again. And I also didn't have to adjust PH again that season. I opened the pool 2016, and the opposite was going on. My PH was dropping every few days. I proceeded with caution and added half the recommended borax; it would drop again; every three or four days, it'd drop out of range. I'd add half the dose again, and finally added just bit of baking soda when it became obvious that TA was too low. I think I put in enough to raise it only by 5. I didn't want to over do it. This was March 2016. The TA ended up being around 50; 10 higher than the year before in the same pool, and I have not adjusted PH since. This year, my TA tested around 60 when I opened, but that's just where it happens to be and my PH has stayed in range. I won't touch TA unless my PH starts drifting one way or another. I am not in the camp of those that say that TA has to be anything other than high enough to protect your pool from a PH crash, which is usually going to be between 30-40, and the best level to keep your PH the most steady. It works for me. I focus on the PH, and especially if it's drifting up, the TA will take care of itself and drop after several acid doses that I'm doing to lower PH, and then when the PH quits going up, I know that the TA has moved to the right place for my pool for that season, and I frankly don't care what it is. I have lobbied to have the TA recommendation removed or better explained. Others have been through this same pattern as you and I and some will give them the advice I'm giving you and others will say it needs to be in range. There should at least be an explanation that the TA recommendation is just for an average pool in an average season, and not a hard guide like FC, because without that or learning it on our own the hard way, how would we know. It's not a trouble free pool when your making constant PH adjustments and then resetting TA, when it's the resetting that's the root of the problem.

 

[AimeeH]

This is not advice, because this is an area of disagreement on this forum; only telling you what works for me. I no longer ever adjust TA for the sake of keeping TA in any specific range. I usually don't even test for it unless I'm having PH swings. I went through the same cycle as you back in 2015. Forum members kept telling me that my TA needed to be between whatever and whatever, but Chem Geek came on and told me with the numbers I gave him that my pool would be safe at anything above TA of 30, and so when I quit raising TA back up due to continual acid doses, gave three or four more doses of acid on each drift up out of range, my PH finally quit drifting up and my TA ended up being somewhere around 40. I didn't touch TA again. And I also didn't have to adjust PH again that season. I opened the pool 2016, and the opposite was going on. My PH was dropping every few days. I proceeded with caution and added half the recommended borax; it would drop again; every three or four days, it'd drop out of range. I'd add half the dose again, and finally added just bit of baking soda when it became obvious that TA was too low. I think I put in enough to raise it only by 5. I didn't want to over do it. This was March 2016. The TA ended up being around 50; 10 higher than the year before in the same pool, and I have not adjusted PH since. This year, my TA tested around 60 when I opened, but that's just where it happens to be and my PH has stayed in range. I won't touch TA unless my PH starts drifting one way or another. I am not in the camp of those that say that TA has to be anything other than high enough to protect your pool from a PH crash, which is usually going to be between 30-40, and the best level to keep your PH the most steady. It works for me. I focus on the PH, and especially if it's drifting up, the TA will take care of itself and drop after several acid doses that I'm doing to lower PH, and then when the PH quits going up, I know that the TA has moved to the right place for my pool for that season, and I frankly don't care what it is. I have lobbied to have the TA recommendation removed or better explained. Others have been through this same pattern as you and I and some will give them the advice I'm giving you and others will say it needs to be in range. There should at least be an explanation that the TA recommendation is just for an average pool in an average season, and not a hard guide like FC, because without that or learning it on our own the hard way, how would we know. It's not a trouble free pool when your making constant PH adjustments and then resetting TA, when it's the resetting that's the root of the problem.

I got through most of this and I think you are confirming my question. Why adjust TA up if PH is rising naturally. I didn't think this was a place of disagreement on the forum. TA is only a buffer for PH. If PH naturally rises, then keeping TA in a lower range works to help stabilize PH.

You shouldn't ever be chasing a TA number without taking PH into consideration. In other words....chase a TA number ONLY if you're chasing your PH

 

[pooldv]

TA at 50 is fine as long as your pH is stable.

 

[sjoefl01]

My favorite thing to do is nothing. I've managed this pool for about 10 years now on liquid chlorine, muratic acid and a little CYA from time to time to save some of my chlorine. I probably don't test as much as I should but the water stays clear. I can sense when it is time to kick a jug of chlorine in the pool. We don't have many kids or friends that would urinate in the pool so, for the most part it is not a lot of work. I have a Polaris and I cut all the trees back.
When I talk to people that hate their pools I find that they are spending too much time fretting about them.