Is Total Alkalinity Important For Pool Water Balancing? 

* I am watching Steve while my swimming pool is closed in February because Steve is a reminder of future sunshine and happiness.

Thanks again Steve for helping us novice pool guys 🙏

TA does matter, but more so for pools that are running Trichlor tabs and plaster pools. Just use an LSI calculator and delete the mystery. Salt pools naturally move up in pH b/c saltwater is quite alkaline. The best LSI for salt pools is high calcium hardness (300ppm plus) and lower TA (70 minus in low temp water and 80 plus in higher temp water). Trichlor pools have CYA being added. CYA is an acid and so it’ll reduce the pH and carbonate alkalinity. Adding bicarb each week is a must to prevent low pH issues. I’ve never actually seen “wild” pH swings as is normally stated with low TA. That’s a textbook explanation. The reason is b/c pool water constantly has stuff going into it and that’s means the pH will trend in either a high or a low direction (but not “wild” and it’s easily predictable). TA really allows for the pH to remain relatively static when stuff is added to the water. However, it’s more for the carbonates to protect plaster from the water. An LSI balanced with water temp over 80°F, TA over 80ppm and CH over 300ppm is a recipe for salt cells spitting calcium carbonate into the pool. Produces white sediment all over the pool floor. I just let the pH go to 8.0 and balance TA, CH, TDS and CYA according to LSI within 0.25. TA will never control pH. There are feeder systems out there that run thousands of dollars to manage pH. Use TA to protect your plaster by running LSI/CSI balance.

Manage the pH and let the TA settle where it's happy. A non-trichlor pool will almost never need baking soda. LC and SWCG pools with a TA of 50-60 and pH in the high 7s works great.

I just adjusted my alkalinity to the perfect level and now increasing ph is causing my alkalinity to spike back up! ph is currently very low. Is it correct that I need to do alkalinity first ?? Confused.

When I was using trichlor those TA numbers were fine but last year I decided to go with liquid chlorine and rising oh was driving me nuts until I let my TA get to 60 and everything stabilized.

I have been told that the higher the cyanuric acid level is in the water, the higher the total alkalinity needs to be. Is this true? I live in Texas and use tabs. My cyanuric levels get high fast and I have to drain the pool occasionally. I keep my total alkalinity between 80-120.

How do adjust the alkalinity?