High Alkalinity, lowering Alkalinity in your pool

I’ve searched the whole internet to find out how often to add muriatic acid to keep lowering TA. Then finally here you are!! Thank you so much for this piece of info!

Thanks so much for posting these videos, they are very helpful! I really need some help though, I'm experiencing high alma it

Thank you very much. That's what I figure but I am glad I got confirmation from a pro like you. Keep up the good work. Thanks again. Rgds

thanks! this helped so much!

Great videos. Very informative for a new salt water pool owner like me. Somebody hopefully can help me with this question, I have noticed some calcium flakes close to the water jets and by the stairs. I believe it might be due to the pH being slightly above 8 but just want to make sure. I have the Intellichlor IC20 and my concern is that the flakes might somehow plug it. Any idea on how to deal with this issue? Your responses will be highly appreciated.

The IC20 will reverse flow a few times each time it is operating. What you are seeing is calcium flakes that would normally stick to the cell plates. Eventually you will need to clean the salt cell as the calcium buildup continues. Keeping the pH in range -below 8.0 helps. I little harder in a salt pool as the pH tends to always drift high. Pentiar tech also showed me a trick with "Phosfree" - add a capful (4 oz) a week into the skimmer and blowback will be reduced. Not sure why but it works.

thanks very helpful

Sounds like you need to raise your Conditioner level up. Try adding enough to shock it - 10 ppm and that will also usually do the trick. But check your conditioner levels and make sure they are at 30-50 ppm.

I have a problem with a spa showing the Ph starting at 7.0 and passing 8.0 finishing with a dark purple in a minute, so I don't know what Ph exactly is in the spa, and the alkalinity is showing a color light yellow almost clear, and green is that is supposed to have when react with R-0009 of Taylor tester. Could you help me to clarify what is happening with this situation. Thank You

I put chlorine manually everyday because the chlorinator is not working, and always find it the next day to 0, but I put 4-6 oz of Trichloro to 99% Ingredients, and 60% available chlorine.

Is the Calcium Hardness reading from a Taylor Test kit or a Test Strip? You will just need to add acid on almost a daily basis. When the pH drops below 7.0 stop and wait til it gets back to 7.4-7.6. Then add acid again. I have successfully dropped high alkalinity like this. Had a new in-ground spa with Alk at 240 and it is down to 110 now. Your Chlorine is high because the Conditioner is high. High chlorine is not hazardous - according to the experts at least ;0

thanks man

My spa is 280 total alkalinity but the ph is 7.5 ish. How do I get the alkalinity to a proper level? It's an 840 litre tub.

Sorry typo error on last comment. What I was trying to say is that I am experiencing some high alkalinity@ 280ppm, slightly high pH @8.0, calcium hardness @780ppm, cya between 150-180ppm, with free and total chlorine @9.0. Is my pool doomed!?!?

If your chlorine reading is very high the Taylor kit will not get an accurate reading. How high is your chlorine reading?

Can I use muriatic acid in my inflatable hot tub? I live in an area with very hard water - I live on a farm - it’s well water… FULL of metals. I mean seriously everything rusts here, tub is literally red/brown… I manage to get the metal out of the water with a homemade wool sock filter, the water was literally red/brown… after I made a homemade wool sock filter, put it over the intake and after about 6 times of me taking the sock off and cleaning it and reattaching it, after about 12 hours the water was clear… but the p.h and alkalinity is still sky high. It didn’t move even after I took all the metals out. The P.h is like 8.5, and my alkalinity is over 300ppm… I have added lots of PH decreaser, multiple times, & absolutely nothing changed… it won’t move.. the PH is still sky high in the dark pink zone, and alkalinity didn’t move at all… Also one of the things I never did is shock the water… I simply added bromine tablets, which are rendered completely ineffective, bromine levels are at 0, because my PH & alkalinity are so high… Now the water is completely cloudy, and no amount of chemicals is fixing the problem… done adding chemicals as it’s just getting worse and worse. Basically just turning into a chemical slurry at this point. We are no longer able to use the tub, me and my gf actually got sick a couple nights ago from the water! We didn’t change it for 3 days, and we used it because it looked clear to us.. even though the PH and alkalinity was high, we live like an hour away from any store that sells pool chemicals so we took the chance and sat in the tub, but obviously it definitely got us sick because we both got some kind of respiratory illness, our lungs/throat hurt along with stuffed up noses! Since the water chemistry is off, some kind of bacteria in the water we breathed in… we definitely aren’t getting in the water anymore since it got us sick! We are headed into the city hopefully tomorrow to get the chemicals we need… if you could please respond before then it would be greatly appreciated.. It’s a 220gallon Saluspa 4-6 person inflatable hot tub… I am going to drain the water completely, and then refill this time using a hose filter to hopefully catch those excess metals so I don’t have to do the wool sock thing again. … the only thing that’s correct is our calcium hardness! Everything else, our P.H & alkalinity, is too high… Really would appreciate your response. Hopefully you see this and can give me some information on what to do. As far as my understanding goes, it’s more common for people to have too soft of water and need to add chemicals to make the ph/alkalinity/calcium higher, but in my situation having such extremely hard water, I need to go in a different direction than most people. Also what kind of shock do I use? I have heard different from multiple different channels. Some say to use a chlorine shock & that a non-chlorine shock can be ineffective at truly sanitizing and killing any bacteria the water & others say to use a non-chlorine shock in the spa.. I don’t know what to do! I am using bromine tablets with a floater but again they are ineffective since my water chemistry is so off. Appreciate your reply, thanks so much for the video.

hi! sir what is the solution if the ph is 7.5 but the alkalinity is only 80 if i add baking soda it can effect the ph! thanks

Hey Im having trouble with my pool. Every weekend the pool starts turning green, and is says that they is no chlorine. But it has tablets and it was fine on monday. What could be causing it to turn so fast? The alkalinity is high, and Im thinking that may be the reason?

i have a small 1200 gallon pool (intex metal frame) and it reads 150 alkalinity, do i shock it? i am using an app that tells me to aerate it. How do i aerate my pool? TY in advance...it reads 0 chlorine, 7.8 ph and 150 ta

I have an in ground16X32 rectangular pool that is 3 ft. in the shallow end and 8 ft. in the deep. I tested the water using a Basic 4 Test Kit and the ph tested at 7.2 and the alkalinity tested at 60. I then brought a water sample into the local pool store and was told to add 25 lbs. of AlkalinityUP. I was instructed to "Add it all at once". I mentioned that I heard it should be added slowly, testing in between applications so as not to add too much which would cause high alkalinity. He said not to worry about it and that I should just add it all at once, that it would be fine. I did. It wasn't. I tested my water and now the alkalinity is 200 and the ph is 8.2. Should I add muriatic acid? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.