Alkalinity?

[jenmenke]

Look for the liquid muriatic acid at a regular hardware store, usually near the paint. It's about $3-4/gallon around here.

I can't respond to your chemical questions, but look at the thread titled "lowering Alk -- fountain or ripple." http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=783

It has lots of similar info you are looking for. I'm in your same boat: high Alk, low Ph. I'm doing what you're doing and no one has said NO!!! STOP!!! So that's a good sign, I guess.

(I've added 2 gallons of acid to my 40,000 gal IG vinyl pool and I've lowered it from about 250 to 160-170 over the weekend. Ph is lower, but I'm aerating too, hoping to bring it back up. Have no idea how long that takes, tho...)

Jennie

[duraleigh]

Jennie and "Doc",

You each get a Gold Star!! IMHO, lowering alk thru aeration is a high level of understanding how your pool chemistry works. I cannot tell you how long it will take.....there's lots of variables perhaps most importantly how agressive you can get with aeration. HD/Lowe's has muriatic in the paint section.....pricey, tho.

Doc, you can dilute your pool test water by 1/2 with distilled. The Cl test will then double in value. (reading of 4 means you've got 8ppm) You could even dilute it by thirds and should be able to test reasonably well up to 15ppm. Ben's kit will remove any remaining unhappiness in your pool life!!

I'm pretty sure Ben has a sticky posted at the top of the "alkalinity" forum called "Step-by-step....." Check it out.

[savdoc2]

I did read the sticky on how to lower alkalinity and that is what I am following.

A quick question about the liquid muratic acid: Is there an equivalency between liquid muratic acid and the dry acid? In other words, how much muratic acid should I add at each time?

[aylad]

I think you'll find that it takes less muriatic acid than dry to get the job done, but there's not really an equivalency between the two....just add enough muriatic acid to get your pH down to the 7.0 - 7.2 range. mwsmith has a calculator at this link http://www.hal-pc.org/~mwsmith2/BleachCalc262.exe
that can help you figure out how much to add, based on your current pH.

Janet