High PH, Alkalinty within Normal Limits...At a Loss

[CarlD]

Hi Carl,

Thanks for your response.

CH was sitting at 290 the last time I checked and that was about a month ago. My CYA has been around 60 but at one point I did accidently put too much in and it got up to 90. I did some draining and now it's sitting at 60. Would those factors make a difference?

I'm not sure what SWCG is but I do know that we have chlorine tab reserve that we put 3 inch chlorine tabs in and then use the dial to control how much we want to enter the pool (1-4 dial).

So are you saying to add the 74 ounces of muriatic acid and not do anything with the Alkalinty and just see what happens?

Your CH is fine at 290.
CYA at 60 means you shouldn't use Tri-Chlor tablets or Di-chlor powder: your stabilizer is fairly high and you need to maintain your free chlorine (FC) between 5 and 10, and if you need to shock, raise FC to 20.
SWCG=Salt Water Chlorine Generator. If you don't have one, you don't need one (they are convenient but expensive).

Total Alkalinity (TA) is connected to pH. I won't explain how (not sure I can) but they are. Most ways that you raise or lower pH raises and lowers TA as well.
So when you add the Muriatic Acid to lower pH, it draws down the TA as well. When you add baking soda (that's all Total Alkalinity Raiser is) it pushes TA back up.
Therefore if, when you lower your pH and you see your TA go down as well, if you do NOT add the baking soda, TA won't rise, at least not as much.

TA is generally a pH buffer to help keep it from dropping too much, or rising too much and you push your TA the opposite direction of you pH trend. So if pH were to keep falling, we'd suggest raising TA.
Since yours is rising, consider lowering TA and see if that helps.