SUPER high alkalinity! Help!

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thefloatqueen

thefloatqueen

Bronze Supporter
Dec 24, 2018
1,377
Columbus, Ohio
Pool Size
8000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
As seen in my previous posts, I’ve been having issues with alkalinity and cannot get it down no matter how much dry acid I use. The dry acid works to keep my pH levels balanced TEMPORARILY (like for the day so I can swim lol) but it jumps back up to around 8.0 (mine was 7.8 this morning before I added the dry acid....it is now 7.5) by the morning and I know it’s due to my high alkalinity. My local Lowe’s only has one type of muriatic acid in stock. It is 10° baume (15.725%). Below is a screenshot from the Pool App with my testing results from this morning.

B4D07E86-C908-4091-B154-D95CF4D83BB8.jpeg

So my question is, how much of the 10° baume (15.725%) muriatic acid would I need to bring my alkalinity down to an acceptable level? Is this something I will need to add daily to maintain? I don’t know how much to buy and the PoolApp isn’t much help. It just tells me to lower my pH and aerate to lower TA. Clearly, I failed chemistry lol. I need help! How much of this stuff do I need to buy and how much do I need to add?

And I checked other stores for higher strength. There is construction galore in my area (so traffic!!) and I am not driving to Hope Depot or Menards (I will be in traffic forever). My local Lowe’s only carries the muriatic acid that I mentioned, so beggars can’t be choosers here lol. Thank you in advance! TFP is the best! :)
 
You want to follow the Lower Total Alkalinity - Trouble Free Pool page. It takes time and multiple doses of MA. Make sure to lower the pH to 7.0-7.2 for best impact on the TA. Then you can aerate to increase the pH while leaving the TA alone and slightly lower each time. Let the pH rise to 7.8-8.0 before hitting it again with the MA. The PoolMath tool will help you to determine how much MA to add to go from a pH of 8.0 to 7.2. Once you get the TA down to something a bit more reasonable, say 100 for example, then let the water acclimate and see how well the pH does after that. Good luck!
 
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Texas Splash said:
You want to follow the Lower Total Alkalinity - Trouble Free Pool page. It takes time and multiple doses of MA. Make sure to lower the pH to 7.0-7.2 for best impact on the TA. Then you can aerate to increase the pH while leaving the TA alone and slightly lower each time. Let the pH rise to 7.8-8.0 before hitting it again with the MA. The PoolMath tool will help you to determine how much MA to add to go from a pH of 8.0 to 7.2. Once you get the TA down to something a bit more reasonable, say 100 for example, then let the water acclimate and see how well the pH does after that. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Dumbest question you’ll see all day..... how do I aerate? Can I just stick the “jet” part of my pool straight up so you can see the water coming out versus it being underwater? If that makes sense? Sorry I don’t know the terminology. I don’t have a fountain or anything like that.
 
Texas Splash said:
You want to follow the Lower Total Alkalinity - Trouble Free Pool page. It takes time and multiple doses of MA. Make sure to lower the pH to 7.0-7.2 for best impact on the TA. Then you can aerate to increase the pH while leaving the TA alone and slightly lower each time. Let the pH rise to 7.8-8.0 before hitting it again with the MA. The PoolMath tool will help you to determine how much MA to add to go from a pH of 8.0 to 7.2. Once you get the TA down to something a bit more reasonable, say 100 for example, then let the water acclimate and see how well the pH does after that. Good luck!
Click to expand...

And when you say “time”, are we talking hours/days/weeks? I’m in central Ohio and only have so much pool time left lol
 
Lowering your TA is not a dire need. Also, a pH of 8 or a little above is no safety concern either.

Swim. Add acid when the pH gets above 8.
 
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mknauss said:
Lowering your TA is not a dire need. Also, a pH of 8 or a little above is no safety concern either.

Swim. Add acid when the pH gets above 8.
Click to expand...

Oh I’m swimming. I’m just going through dry acid quickly and having to add it every morning (and it does work quickly to get the pH down to the 7.2-7.5 range). It is getting a bit expensive, though. Water is crystal clear, no skin irritation, no red eyes (other than at night from my allergies), and so far everything has been gravy.

Side note, is 5.0 a good amount of FC for a 7000 gallon pool and given the rest of my test results or should I aim it a little higher or lower? It says between 3.0 and 7.0 on the pool app so I set my goal at 5.0 since it’s the middle ground lol
 
Also keep in mind I switched to liquid chlorine (6% bleach) starting today/tomorrow. Previously used Dichlor and my results above are from the Dichlor. I did not need to add any chlorine this morning as it was 5.0 when I woke up.
 
Your pH will rise with the higher TA.

I would add chlorine so my FC never dropped below the lower target range.
 

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