The Long Road in Trying to Lower TA

[Watermom]

How often are you testing and adding bleach? If you have a cc of 1, then you are fighting something in the water. Test and dose it back up to shock level as many times a day as you can. There is no such thing as too often. The sustained high cl is what will clear a pool. At least twice a day, 3x is better and more than that is better yet!

By the way, aeration does not get the alk down. It is the muriatic acid which will bring it down along with bringing the pH down. Then, you aerate because that takes the pH back up without raising the alk. Once the pH is back up to around 7.6, you add more acid and repeat the cycle until the alk is where you want it. Do not let the pH drop below 7.0, however.

Also, I don't think your tap water has a CC of 3.5. Try that test again.

Hope this helps.

[polyvue]

Also, I don't think your tap water has a CC of 3.5. Try that test again.

This level does seem unlikely. My tap water (in Sacramento) consistently measures pH 8.0, FC 1.0 and CC <= .2

But I remember that chem geek posted somewhere that his water utility (SF Bay Area) adds ammonia to the water supply (converts to monochloramine) for sanitation. Pretty sure that he also reported the level of CCs but I cannot locate the post. If the test result is repeatable, try contacting your water supplier in N. Virginia for a report.

[chem geek]

The monochloramine level, which shows up as CC, is 1.2 ppm in my tap water. It is possible that a reading of 3.5 is accurate, though that does seem high since usually water districts target 1-2 ppm for the monochloramine level (for those that use monochloramine for a residual in the distribution system; some are still using chlorine which registers as FC).