Should I lower TA now or wait?

[Ksterl10]

I am a new pool owner. I have had my pool up and running for one week now. I am disinfecting with liquid chlorine now (past two days) but had tricolor tablets in the pool from day one. My alkalinity started around 140 but seems to have settled around 120. pH has been at 7.6 until recently rising and currently is at 7.8. The Pool School says only lower TA for two reasons with one reason being a climbing pH value. Should I go ahead and lower the TA or wait to see if the pH continues to rise? Thanks

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!
When your pH rise to 8, lower it to 7.6. Over time, the TA will fall some. And the pH will rise less.
Most important, maintain your FC based on the FC/CYA Levels
I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry.

 

[Richard320]

pH will always rise. You were adding acid with those trichlor pucks, whether you knew it or not, so the pH seemed stable. Now you've stopped so you'll need to use Muriatic Acid. To lower your TA to a certain number will take the same amount of acid whether you work at it aggressively, or whether you just maintain the pH and let the TA come down slowly. Without seeing all the test results, we can't say whether you're at risk of scaling. And how often do you need to add acid? Once a week? Meh. Twice? Still no big deal. Daily? That could get real old real fast so you'd want to really go after the TA then.

TA won't have anything to do with chlorine consumption, or algae, or clarity.

 

[Ksterl10]

Welcome to the forum!
When your pH rise to 8, lower it to 7.6. Over time, the TA will fall some. And the pH will rise less.
Most important, maintain your FC based on the FC/CYA Levels
I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry.

Great! Thank you.

 

[Ksterl10]

Latest test results from this morning

FC 1.2
CC 0.1
ph 7.8
TA 120
CYA 20

With these numbers, do you think I should be aggresive now or like mknauss suggested wait until the pH continues to rise to 8? Thanks for all the help.

 

[mknauss]

I would get some chlorine in that water now. You need to be no less than 3 ppm. Some CYA would also be a good idea. Start with 20 ppm worth.

 

[Richard320]

Latest test results from this morning

FC 1.2
CC 0.1
ph 7.8
TA 120
CYA 20

With these numbers, do you think I should be aggresive now or like mknauss suggested wait until the pH continues to rise to 8? Thanks for all the help.

I agree with Marty. Chlorine. Now. Then CYA using the sock method. No need to wait between those two. Tomorrow, maybe the day after, you might need to deal with pH.

Is there some reason you didn't test CH? People often misinterpret "Low CH is no problem for a vinyl pool" into "ignore CH" when that's not the case. You should know what it is, even if it doesn't need attention. High CH can be a problem for any pool. You won't know if it needs attention if you don't know what it is.

Also, please fill out your signature so we know if we're dealing with vinyl or plaster or fiberglass and what kind of equipment you have.