Ph/TA

[Fathead657]

My water has has been mostly in range except for the spring openings.

My pool builder had to come do some work on some stains on my fiberglass pool and I have now found out that he poured like 4 gallons of erratic acid in through a PVC pipe to a sponge to try to get rid of the spots.

They spent three days last week, adding pH up and muratic acid because the levels kept going from off the charts low to where ph couldn’t even register to ph at 8 and ta 220.

They then dumped more acid in for a third time and lowered it way to low again. So for the last 3 days I’ve been adding 1 pound ph up every 5 hours trying to control the rise. I’ve been aerating the best I can for the last three days while adding chemicals.

Now I’m back to maybe 6.8 ph but my TA is already back in the 150 range.

I know some people say that alkalinity is good to 180 but my pool manufacturers requirements says 80 to 120

Sorry for long post. I just don’t know what to do anymore. I’m about out of regents for my test kit now that should have lasted to end of season.

Any help would be great. I gotta get this back in balance.

 

[Mdragger88]

Are you pointing your jets up? Do you have a sprinkler/fountain you can use to help aerate?
Aeration takes time.
You can add a little borax to increase ph to the low 7’s without impacting ta too much but with ta of 150 you’ll likely soon have a ph in the 7’s anyway.
If you choose to do this add 1/2 of what poolmath says and test again in 30 minutes or so. No need to wait 5 hours.
Sounds like you’re almost to the point where you’re done with chemical intervention.
Btw- The higher ta isn’t hurting anything. It just causes ph to rise more quickly.
When ph rises to 8 lower it back down to low 7’s with acid and the ta will come down some each time you do that. High ta is one of the very last things to worry about.
Order some more reagents now- they have a 2 year shelf life if stored properly.

 

[Fathead657]

I will add a picture lol. I have my returns pointed up breaking the surface of the water. I had a pump with a top discharge on a shelf, running making a fountain of water coming out, and I had a second pump in the deep end hooked to a sprinkler on the edge of my pool, blowing the water back into my pool for two days, and didn’t really see any rise in pH

Picture was before I added second pump

I’m thinking of buying these. https://a.co/d/15uE8fV

 

[Mdragger88]

If your ta was initially very low the ph rise from aeration would be quite slow. Each pound of soda ash increased your ta by approximately 6ppm. So with the higher ta now its going to be a faster pace. Once ph is in the 7’s you can chill. Then work on lowering ta when you wish or just let it happen as you manage ph rise.

If you’re going to purchase anything go for the fountain type. Also great for cooling the pool!

 

[Bperry]

My water has has been mostly in range except for the spring openings.

My pool builder had to come do some work on some stains on my fiberglass pool and I have now found out that he poured like 4 gallons of erratic acid in through a PVC pipe to a sponge to try to get rid of the spots.

They spent three days last week, adding pH up and muratic acid because the levels kept going from off the charts low to where ph couldn’t even register to ph at 8 and ta 220.

They then dumped more acid in for a third time and lowered it way to low again. So for the last 3 days I’ve been adding 1 pound ph up every 5 hours trying to control the rise. I’ve been aerating the best I can for the last three days while adding chemicals.

Now I’m back to maybe 6.8 ph but my TA is already back in the 150 range.

I know some people say that alkalinity is good to 180 but my pool manufacturers requirements says 80 to 120

Sorry for long post. I just don’t know what to do anymore. I’m about out of regents for my test kit now that should have lasted to end of season.

Any help would be great. I gotta get this back in balance.

TA of 180 is terribly high and not useful. A TA at 50-60 would be better to keep the pH stable as long as you aren’t using tablets to chlorinate.

 

[Fathead657]

TA of 180 is terribly high and not useful. A TA at 50-60 would be better to keep the pH stable as long as you aren’t using tablets to chlorinate.

I live in Indiana, so we don’t usually worry about cooling the pool. The fountain type are you talking about the ones that just float around in your pool because I don’t wanna have water going outside of my pool it doesn’t stay centered

You don’t think that Ventura style is good to use?

 

[Mdragger88]

Something like this - usually around $20
Screws into the return - this one is a double but there’s single ones too. Thats what I have. You can adjust how far they spray.

 

[Fathead657]

TA of 180 is terribly high and not useful. A TA at 50-60 would be better to keep the pH stable as long as you aren’t using tablets to chlorinate.

This is the battle. I’ve watched the people working on my pool go through. They put tons of erratic acid in to bring it down in the bottom by pH out. They put pH up to bring pH up up and goes to the roof. I’m going to attach a picture of the pump that circled where I’m trying to aerate my pool, but is causing a foam on top of my water

 

[proavia]

High TA and low pH (6.8) - pH will correct itself into the 7's pretty quickly.
A pH of 6.8 isn't an emergency, just aerate and pH will rise on its own with your high TA.

What exact reagents are you running out of?

Post a full set of current test results. Or enter and save them in PoolMath, which is alrrady linked to your forum account.
FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA
Water temperature

Are you still using UV and the Frog?

 

[Fathead657]

Something like this - usually around $20
Screws into the return - this one is a double but there’s single ones too. Thats what I have. You can adjust how far they spray.
View attachment 606571

Has anyone tried one similar to my link above. The fountain would suck having an auto cover that’s closed most the day

 

[Bperry]

This is the battle. I’ve watched the people working on my pool go through. They put tons of erratic acid in to bring it down in the bottom by pH out. They put pH up to bring pH up up and goes to the roof.

I thought it was a typo but what are they trying to do exactly. Adding acid (erratic acid?) lowers pH and then adding pH up raises the pH. So I’m not following what’s going on unless they are just pushing the pH up and down in circles for fun.

 

[mknauss]

auto cover that’s closed most the day

That will severely restrict your pH from rising. Open the cover. As often as you can. The CO2 must outgas for the pH to rise.

 

[Fathead657]

High TA and low pH (6.8) - pH will correct itself into the 7's pretty quickly.
A pH of 6.8 isn't an emergency, just aerate and pH will rise on its own with your high TA.

What exact reagents are you running out of?

Post a full set of current test results. Or enter and save them in PoolMath, which is alrrady linked to your forum account.
FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA
Water temperature

Are you still using UV and the Frog?

I’ll post numbers here I don’t know how to make them sync to here for sure

Regents 600, 14 and 9 are low from all the testing
Will probably just order those three through Amazon. I will be closing pool in about 5-6 weeks

Frog and UV are plumbed but not being used

Haven’t done a full test since Friday. Trying to get oh right first

Fc .5
Cc .5
Ph is now maybe 6.8
Ta 140
Ch 275
Cya 50
Water temp 86F

 

[Fathead657]

I thought it was a typo but what are they trying to do exactly. Adding acid (erratic acid?) lowers pH and then adding pH up raises the pH. So I’m not following what’s going on unless they are just pushing the pH up and down in circles for fun.

Muriatic acid sorry was using talk to text.

Yes they are just playing around. Up and down up and down

 

[proavia]

Add chlorine right now to get FC to upper target level for your CYA.
FC/CYA Levels

You don't want to get an algae bloom.

 

[proavia]

Since your season is almost over, go to Walmart and get the "Clorox 3-way test kit"

Robot or human?

It is similar to using R0600 and R0014. Last I saw, they also stock a refill of just the two reagents without the comparator.
I've successfully used the refill when I ran out of R0014. I double check the results against my neighbores TF100 reagents.

Chances are - with your higher TA - you don't need to worry about testing TA for the next month.
Order a full refill kit in the spring when TFTestkits offers their March sale.