HELP! My Ph is right but total alkalinity is over 180?

Question

I've been adding PH minus to bring it down. I added a pound to a 5,000 above ground pool last night and it's still between 180-240. What do I need to do?

Answer 1

Above grounds can be difficult when it comes to dropping TA. Ideally, to drop TA, you add muriactic acid to a pool's deep end, away from pool returns and let it drop into the deep end hopper where it will lower your TA without messing with pH. This is called "slugging".

In your case, likely without a dished out above ground ( no centre deep spot), you'll need to shut down the pump for an hour or so, prior to adding the acid ( don't use pH minus, it's granular, you want liquid acid which is what muriactic acid is). Shutting off the pump lets the water currents in the pool settle down and allows the acid to drop to the bottom, where you need it, instead of getting mixed in the water column , which does you no good here. Given the volume you stated, I'd add half a litre of acid. Let that sit for an hour and then restart your pump. Check your chemistry after about 12 hours and see how much .5L has dropped your TA and use that as a guide to get it the rest of the way down in a subsequent slug. Your pH will want to stay where it is right now, since the high TA is causing what's called pH lock. It ain't going anywhere until the TA comes down. You just lucked out that it locked in a normal range. Usually it's locked high.

Answer 2

you will need to use some muriatic acid to lower the alkalinity however it will lower your ph in the process. you will have to keep an eye on the ph and raise it as needed. do not use more than a 1/4 at one time in a day. retest the next day. hope that helps.

Answer 3

You must have a test kit, there should be instructions on how to get a balance, there are several types, at one time there was only one which I favoured, it had 2 sections and if both were the same colour that was all that counted, but someone decided that was too easy. You can take a sample of water to a pool accesories supplier, and have it tested, they will tell you what is needed