Dropping TA, for the workin man or woman....

[steveinaz]

I know what your thinking. "This will take how many days? I have a life ya' know..." I said the same thing. I just recently re-visited my battle of the high TA, and I think I can shed some positive light on the procedure, and show you how to fit it into your schedule.

Here's what I did; I work from 0700-1530, so I'm generally home by 4pm:

1. Open cold beer, change into swim wear.
2. At 4:15'ish I check TA, then pH to see how much acid to add, to bring me to 7.0
3. Add the acid, let pool circulate for 10 minutes
4. Switch on waterfall or other aireating device
5. At around 6:00'ish (5-7 beers later) I check the pH again, usually at this point I can add about 2 cups more acid.
6. Repeat steps 3 and 4
7. Aireate until pH is up to at least 7.1, turn off aeration, cover if want to at this point, or you can continue.
8. Next 7 days, Check TA then repeat 1-7

**You MAY hit a TA "plateau"--I did at 120ppm, it just didn't want to drop below 120 for like a day and a half--keep hitting it, it will respond. If your pool has relentlessly rising pH all the time (like mine), don't be afraid to get a little aggressive with the acid (no pun intended).

This method allowed me to go from 180ppm TA to 90ppm, in 8 days. So generally I spent about 3.5hrs a day, and of course it doesn't require constant monitoring, so you can be listening to music, watching TV, getting other things done. The quick version:

Get pH/TA reading---Acid---Areate---1.5hrs---Get pH reading---Acid---Aerate---> I did 2 "rounds" per evening; about 6 total cups of acid for a 12,000 gallon pool.

Not as bad as it seems, and I'm already reaping the benefits of a far more stable pH.