Is there a certain window of time

[Rangeball]

Higher Alkalinity means a more stable PH, lowering the TA means the PH will actually be less stable.

That's what I understood. However when I get my PH down to 7.2, it's back up to over 8 within a week. Perhaps that's just part of the BBB method, and I should just be happy to acid each week to knock it back down?

I have the same trouble you do with Fill water....it will always creep up when you have to replace from evaporation.....although slowly.

Mine seems to shoot up as fast as the PH does.

My plan is to get the TA down to somthing reasonable so that I can get a stable PH....then forget about the TA and Stop aerating.

Mine too, but it's not working very well

Remeber that aerating will raise your PH. If you have a PH you like, then Stop aerating and dont worry too much about the Alkalinity.

When I do this, the PH continues to shoot up. It's hard to stop aerating when cannon balls are so much fun That's why I started this thread. It seems like just swimming and general splashing around is causing the PH to climb. Since the alk climbs with it, I figured I'm not doing a good enough job aerating, and the carbon dioxide formed from lowering the PH is being re-converted to whatever instead of gassing off, giving me the increased alkalinity reading.

Unless you have a problem with scaling I would forget about trying to "fix" the TA because your fill water will mean a constant battle....you'll never get it to stick at a low number.

My grand vision was to get the alk down, then as I have to add an inch or two of fill water, I can easily beat it back down. Do you think this is futile?

No matter what you do you'll probably always have to add Acid....the good news is that your PH should stay fairly steady compared to other pools. The High TA doesnt cause the PH to shoot up....thats another problem and may be related to your TA increasing on you.

If my PH would remain stable, I wouldn't give the alk a second thought. Whats the other problem you mention in your last sentence?

Thats my understanding from the technical explanations yes...but I have seen it bounce around a bit, I always attributed it to my testing or other factors.

I've tried to be as precise and consistent as possible in my testing, but it's possible I'm getting bad readings, I guess.

Thanks a bunch for the input

[Rangeball]

I forgot to add above-

Looks like the rain has a great chance of missing us again, so when I was home this noon I tested again.

PH- 7.8, up .2 from yesterday
Alk- 190

I added the acid to knock PH down to 7.0, and set up my sump pump with a hose returning to the pool to aerate. First time I've done it this way. I also plan to do some serious splashing about this evening

I'll retest in the am, and assuming alk has dropped, will knock ph back down and continue daily as needed.

[Tredge]

I'll be curious about your results in the morning.

The problem I was refering to about your PH climbing is an unknown....what I was trying to say is that a high TA doesnt cause the PH to rise, "somthing" else is causing them both to rise.

What that somthing else is....other than your water source...is still a mystery. Someone smarter than me will have to answer

[Rangeball]

I'll report back in the morning.

Looks like the rain may be re-grouping and we may get some after all. I won't hold my breath

From what I understood in the "lower your alk" sticky, if you don't gas of the C2O when the PH is down it can convert back and measurable alk goes back up with the PH.

I'm hoping that my previous aeration efforts were just inadequate. We'll see.

[Rangeball]

Got up early, grabbed my test kit and headed to the pool. It never did rain.

Pool had been aerating since noon yesterday.

Tested-

PH- 7.6, only dropped a bit.
Alk- 180, only dropped a bit.

I had expected a much bigger PH drop from the amount of acid I put in. I also expected the alk to be much lower.

I thought about this for awhile, and came up with a hypothesis.

In the "lower your alk" sticky thread, a poster asked if you could start aerating as soon as you add the acid. Ben responded stating it wouldn't work until the PH dropped but it probably wouldn't make a difference either way.

I'm wondering if thats correct.

If aeration increases PH while gassing off carbon dioxide to keep alk down, adding acid and immediately aerating seems counter-productive. My pool has been constantly aerated either by young swimmers or air in my return line. In looking back, the only time I got a good PH drop was when I had the air leak stopped and was getting good flow with no aeration and low swimming load.

I turned off the sump pump aeration, and added more acid, but didn't have enough to get PH as low as I need. I'll get more some time today, retest my PH and add more. I'll then try to hold the kids off from swimming tonight, retest tomorrow morning and hopefully begin aerating then.

Make any sense?

If this doesn't do it, I guess I'll be forced to live with high alkalinity and rapidly escalating PH levels

[Tredge]

Interesting thoughts.
Maybe your aeration isnt enough? Or maybe you are not maintaining the PH at a low enough level for long enough....since it tends to creep up so quickly maybe its demanding more attention?

My pool is filled and I have the High TA also so I begin my aeration process tonight.

I should also have good numbers today so we can compare notes.

[Rangeball]

Interesting thoughts.
Maybe your aeration isnt enough? Or maybe you are not maintaining the PH at a low enough level for long enough....since it tends to creep up so quickly maybe its demanding more attention?

How long is it recommended to let the water circulate before testing PH? I gave mine a good 19 hours of circulation before testing PH. The water probably turned over 3-4 times, so it should be plenty mixed. I'm thinking the PH was dropping but being offset by the aeration so it stayed more or less stable as the end result.

I added acid this morning. I'll test ph again at noon to see what it did. This will be 5 hours later. If PH is low enough, I'll check alk. If not, I'll add more acid. I'm starting to run low on my alk reagent, and although it only costs $1.69 for another bottle with free shipping, it's a flat $6.99 "handling" fee.

My pool is filled and I have the High TA also so I begin my aeration process tonight.

I should also have good numbers today so we can compare notes.

Sounds great