TA too low, PH too high

[Desiato]

Sorry to ask such a basic question but I've been searching the forum for half an hour and can't find a definitive answer.
I've been steadily lowering my TA and it's been stable at 50 for a few months now but after some heavy/dirty rain the pH has risen to 8. Normally I would add some hydrochloric acid to lower the pH but this will drop the TA too low.
The logical thing to do would be to add some BiCarb to raise the TA and then, some point later, add some acid to lower the TA/PH.
Is this the right way to do it? Never had TA this low before so this problem never came up.
Maybe I should keep my TA a little higher as it says in the Ideal Pool Levels? (50/60 acceptable but 60/80 ideal).

 

[ajw22]

Just lower your pH to 7.8 and it will hardly effect your TA.

 

[Desiato]

My PH only ever goes up so at some point I'm going to have to raise the TA as 50 seems to be the lowest I should let it go.

Since writing my post I did find an old post where someone mentioned adding BiCarb and 15 minutes later adding some acid. I think I'll do that as the water is a little cloudy which is usually the tell tale sign that the PH is too high and this gives me a little TA buffer if I need to add some more acid.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[pjt]

I've been steadily lowering my TA and it's been stable at 50 for a few months

Are you continuing to add drops until there's no further color change?

The logical thing to do would be to add some BiCarb to raise the TA and then, some point later, add some acid to lower the TA/PH.

Don't get on the baking soda / MA seesaw. TA of 50 is perfectly fine. pH in the high 7s or 8.0 is also perfectly fine. Manage the CSI.

I think I'll do that as the water is a little cloudy

That's not a TA/pH problem. Cloudiness suggests insufficient FC and algae. Post a complete set of results from your K-2006C.

 

[Desiato]

I've had this happen a few times before and the only thing that was off was the high pH and as soon as it was lowered, the water cleared up. I've just googled it and there are sites saying high pH can cause cloudiness but I also see a link to high calcium levels and I have quite a high CH of around 400 so that could be the link.

FC 4.5 this morning, added a bottle of bleach, now 5.5 at 7pm (been sunny all day)
CC 0.5
CYA 40
TA 50 (turned light pink after 4 drops and dark pink with 5th, No change with 6th drop),
CH 400 (chemicals expired 3 years ago but it was in the high 300's when I used to check it, it never changed).

PH was 8 this morning but after adding some acid is now 7.4. That's lower than I would have expected as I only added a litre of acid, maybe it was slightly more as I was guesstimating with a 5L bottle (1L equals about a quarter of a gallon). I'm Ok with a pH of 7.4 because I was told here many years ago to keep it at the lower end of the scale with such a high CH. I'm leaving the pump running for another 5 hours and then I'll see tomorrow morning how things look.