TA dropped overnight?

[teener629]

Brand new plaster pool so I have been adding muriatic acid daily so far. My TA has been 110 or 120 every day so I’ve been lowering my pH from 7.6 down to like 7.2 to daily to try to get it to drop a nudge but in two weeks it really has just held steady there.
My salt finally got added two days ago. Yesterday my TA was 120. I added the typical recommended amount of muriatic acid to drop from 7.6 to 7.2. Then all of a sudden today TA is 60?? And my pH again 7.6 today. Makes no sense to me unless the salt did it? I know it’s not really a problem I’m just trying to understand.
Unrelated, I’m doing some quality control on some test strips. I got the aquachek 7 and have been using both those and my Taylor kit daily to see how reliable the strips are. They’ve been pretty good actually so far this week since I got them.

 

[wireform]

60 is actually good but wait a few days and check it again. TA with new reagent is tricky as there's an inherent static problem with R-0009. You need to turn the bottle right side up between droplets and wipe with a moist paper towel and go it again. Make sure bottle is completely inverted and not sideways so all droplets are the same size. The static causes the droplets to be smaller yielding more drops till the color change which may be how you had the 120.

 

[teener629]

60 is actually good but wait a few days and check it again. TA with new reagent is tricky as there's an inherent static problem with R-0009. You need to turn the bottle right side up between droplets and wipe with a moist paper towel and go it again. Make sure bottle is completely inverted and not sideways so all droplets are the same size. The static causes the droplets to be smaller yielding more drops till the color change which may be how you had the 120.

Oh interesting. Though yesterday my Ta with drops was 120 and on the strip was 100. Today with the drops 60 and the strip read also 60ish. I’ll try your method and report back thanks!

 

[Mdragger88]

The wiping the tip thing only needs to be done the first test or two & the static situation should resolve itself.

 

[pjt]

What test kit are you using? For the TA test, are you continuing to add drops until there's no further color change?

My TA has been 110 or 120 every day so I’ve been lowering my pH from 7.6 down to like 7.2 to daily to try to get it to drop

Your TA is reasonable, and TA is the least important variable in your water chemistry. You don't need to make a dedicated effort to lower your TA. Manage your pH with MA, and let the TA settle where it's happy. What startup guide are you using?

Plaster Start-Up Guides - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Unrelated, I’m doing some quality control on some test strips. I got the aquachek 7 and have been using both those and my Taylor kit daily to see how reliable the strips are. They’ve been pretty good actually so far this week since I got them.

Test strips are far inferior to a quality test kit and only introduce confusion.