Algae, TA or what?

[PoolDoc]

Hey Guys;

I'm missing some things here.

Waterbear, I'm not clear on your thinking about TA. You may have some really good reasons behind your thinking, but right now, I'm kinda puzzled. Do you have reason to think that lowering Alk will reduced acid demand or pH rise? Have you seen evidence that a really low Alk (below say 50 ppm) is OK for a plaster pool? Why did you feel that lowering Alk was more important than dealing with her algae?


CarlD, are you aware that chlorine becomes less effective against algae as pH increases? The most dramatic problems are with unstabilized chlorine, but as best I can make out, the problem is still significant in stabilized pools, too. Since she reported that her pH was tending to go ABOVE 8, it's my opinion that that's an issue that needs to be addressed in the short term, in addition to raising the chlorine.


Chem Geek has done some stuff with 'carbonics' that I haven't had a chance to digest, or much less fully consider yet. However even once I do, I'm not prepared to toss out all S.I. considerations without some experimental verification first. Stoichiometry is nice, and successful process chemistry often resembles the stoichiometric analysis, but rarely is identical with it.


I'm leaning toward stating some 'standard' recommendations for Pool Forum responses, but I'd like to see what y'all have to say, first.

As always, thanks for all your help.

Ben
"PoolDoc"