Question about pool chemicals and the PH

Tweet

With regular home tests, if the PH his high - at about 7.7 or 7.8, how can you tell if you need to bring the PH down or if you need to brink the alkalinity down? Last week my PH was 7.8. I had the water tested at my pool shop and they had me add 64 ounces of Muratic Acid (HCL) to our 10,000 gallon pool because their computer said our alkalinity was too high. Today I had the same readings on my test strip and my manual 5 drop tester. I added half the dosage of the acid just to make sure, and my PH plummeted down to 6.2! So even though I had the same readings I really just need to use my PH decreaser. With my old problem last week I tried to self-remedy the pool with my PH decreaser and it didn't do a thing, which is why I had it tested. Is there a better home test out there? I'm getting pretty good at knowing which chemicals I need when but this is the only think I don't get. (I have a 10,000 indoor/in-ground pool and it is sanitized with bromine instead of chlorine because of the wood beams in the room - not that it has anything to do with this case...just some background.)