My instructions that came with my TF100 say that a "good number" for TA is 60-90 with a SWG and 90-120 with a manually dosed pool. Last year was my first year with the TFP method and I remember giving up on trying to hit that 60-90 TA range, while manually dosing my pool. I was finally glad to live on the "wild side" with a TA of 100-110 for most of the season, with no apparent ill effects. I'm still manually dosing this year and am already getting frustrated with keeping the TA under 90. Any suggestions?
TF100 TA Test
- Thread starter ghall6292
- Start date
- May 3, 2014
- 58,570
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Manage the pH and TA will take care of itself. When pH hits 8, lower to 7.6. Test TA when you need to lower pH. You need the current TA value to enter into Poolmath to calculate how much acid you need to add.
Thanks Marty. I'll just keep doin' what I did last year. It seemed to work pretty well.
- May 23, 2015
- 24,455
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
If you are manually dosing a vinyl liner pool then you want to simply let the TA drift to wherever it wants to be so that you can get a stable pH with reasonable acid demand. Please post all of your test results but I suspect you have soft water where you are and so managing TA really isn't a big concern. Just try to keep your pH in the 7.6-7.8 range and your TA will settle down on a number. You should also test your fill water to see what the pH/TA/CH is at.
Hi Matt, Here are my latest numbers as of an hour ago. Please note I have not yet opened my pool. I started by adding an elevated dose of 10% liquid chlorine just to get some into the pool after winter to keep algae away until opening. It has taken two weeks to drift down from 11.5 to 9. Once I pull the winter cover off this week and the sun hits it, it should be around 7.6-7.8 relatively quickly. Then I'll boost CYA to 50 for the season.
Pool Water: FC 9.0 CC .5 pH 7.5 TA 100 CYA 40 CH 125 Temp 54 Fill Water: pH 7.2 TA 150 CH 175
Pool Water: FC 9.0 CC .5 pH 7.5 TA 100 CYA 40 CH 125 Temp 54 Fill Water: pH 7.2 TA 150 CH 175
- May 23, 2015
- 24,455
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
So your fill water has high TA and anytime you add it it’s going to push up your pool water TA. It’s no wonder you were having a hard time keeping the TA below 90. I really wouldn’t mess with your TA as long as your pH can easily be adjusted to the 7.6 to 7.8 range without having to add acid all the time. Any aeration (like swimming and splashing) is likely going to raise pH but you can easily knock it back down with acid. If you keep a summer cover on the pool, the cover will limit outgassing of CO2 and keep the pH more stable. It will also reduce evaporation loss of water which helps to keep the high TA fill water use to a minimum.
Thanks Matt. We do use a summer cover whenever the pool isn't being used. It helps a lot with evaporation as well as keeping the pool very clean, eliminating a lot of backwashes with the sand filter. Only backwashed three times, including the closing. Less fill water needed, less TA issues to fight, right? In poor swimming weather, I take the cover off for a couple hours each day just to let it breathe- not sure if that's necessary or not. Even though I was around 90-110 TA all last year, my pH took quite a while to drift up from 7.6 tp 8.0. I used less than a gallon of MA for the whole summer. So maybe my pool found it's own balance? (That would great if I just lucked into that; I usually have to get beat senseless first!) 
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