Help With Total Alkalinity....

[bart6453]

So I have been helping a friend with his pool that had a huge failure of sanitation....he was using peroxide and once the summer heat and sun combined with fertilizers being blow in from the surrounding fields he had a massive alge bloom when he got back from stugis.

Since draining was not an option....he didnt want to use 14,000 gallons of water, and the peroxide was all used up anyways....we started the switch to chlorine as he has a pool party for his kids next Saturday.

We started by bring his CYA up to 40ppm....then brought the FC to 20ppm and have held it there since Monday. Scrubbed the whole damn pool every day twice a day...and things are getting nice. It is cloudy white, which is what I assume just particulate matter from the death of all the organics. His FC is begining to stabilize to about 25% demand overnight. So we are now in the process of getting his PH and TA under control.

His TA is at about 410........what is a good level to keep it at in an outdoor, uncovered, vinyl lined, Minnesota pool?

We have the Borates at about 25ppm (I know, too low, but he will be shutting down the pool in a month so does not want to spend the money for more, hey...it's not my pool), the chlorine will be stabilized at about 4ppm, with CYA at 40PPM.

thanks for the help!

[RMS]

So I have been helping a friend with his pool that had a huge failure of sanitation....he was using peroxide and once the summer heat and sun combined with fertilizers being blow in from the surrounding fields he had a massive alge bloom when he got back from stugis.

Since draining was not an option....he didnt want to use 14,000 gallons of water, and the peroxide was all used up anyways....we started the switch to chlorine as he has a pool party for his kids next Saturday.

We started by bring his CYA up to 40ppm....then brought the FC to 20ppm and have held it there since Monday. Scrubbed the whole damn pool every day twice a day...and things are getting nice. It is cloudy white, which is what I assume just particulate matter from the death of all the organics. His FC is begining to stabilize to about 25% demand overnight. So we are now in the process of getting his PH and TA under control.

His TA is at about 410........what is a good level to keep it at in an outdoor, uncovered, vinyl lined, Minnesota pool?

We have the Borates at about 25ppm (I know, too low, but he will be shutting down the pool in a month so does not want to spend the money for more, hey...it's not my pool), the chlorine will be stabilized at about 4ppm, with CYA at 40PPM.

thanks for the help!

With pretty much any pool you'll want these readings:

Chlorine 1.5-3.5ppm

pH 7.6-7.8, not 7.2. You'll use too much acid. You may hear to keep your pH at 7.2, which is using the Langelier Index. This was initially used for public water systems, not for pools.

Alkalinity 80-100ppm

Calcium Hardness 150-250, not up to 300-400.

Go to:

http://www.clean-pool-and-spa.com/swimming...nance-tips.html

http://www.clean-pool-and-spa.com

for more info on how to accomplish this.

[waterbear]

Where you put the TA depends on the sanitizer you are using.

With unstabilized chlorine and SWGs 70-90 ppm

with stabilized chlorine, gas chlorine, bromine, or continual use of MPS shock 100-120 ppm

The first groups is basically pH neutral and the lower TA will slow the outgassing of CO2 and the pH rise it causes.

The second group are acidic and benefit from the pH rise that higher TA causes because of the higher carbonation level in the water.

TA is actually a measure of bicarbonates (carbonation) in your water and is also called carbonate alkalinit or carbonate hardness.

BTW, the lower you put the pH the faster it rises (because you convert more bicarbonagte to carbonic acid and the higher the concentration of the carbonic acid, which is basically carbon dioxide dissolved in the water the faster it will outgas and cause the pH to rise. This is useful for lowering TA but for normal pool operation keep it between 7.5-7.8

[billp]

...he had a massive alge bloom when he got back from stugis. ...It is cloudy white, which is what I assume just particulate matter from the death of all the organics.

I have found it sometimes difficult to filter out all those little blasted algae bodies. While I usually use SeaKlear as my clarifier of choice, in this case I would use Gold-N-Clear (by Applied Biochemists) if the cloudiness persists. It has worked reasonably well for me.