Best why to lower alkalinity

[Stuart 8]

I have just bought a house and I am the proud owner of my first ever pool. The previous owner left me instructions on maintanance but they never mentioned anything about alkalinity. Today I took a sample into Leslies and my alkalinity was thru the roof at 290, she said that best way for me to bring it down is to drain about 2 feet of water (35K Gal Pool), refill and bring another sample back in two days. There has to be some other way right? My Chlorine is spot on but my Ph is high around 8.1. The last two mornings I have put in half a gallan of acid to bring the Ph back into range. Any advice would be greatly appreciated...thanks

[pool tech]

every time you add acid you lower the alkalinity along with the ph. Whith a alkalinity level that high the acid will not have to much of an effect on ph until the alkaliity gets to around 120-140 so keep pouring in that acid and your problem will eventually correct itself

[Backglass]

While draining and refilling a portion of your pool WILL work, it's a "sledgehammer to kill a fly" move.

You can lower TA with Muriatic acid. You can get it at Home Depot, the local hardware store, or even the pool store (triple the cost though). Basically what you do is aerate to raise your ph...you can do this with a bubbler, fountain, or even turning your eyeball up so the return water breaks the surface and gurgles. This will slowly raise your PH. When you ph gets to 7.8-8.0, add the acid, which will bring down both, TA and PH. Repeat. Over the course of a few days, you will reduce your TA.

You can also use Borax to raise your ph without raising your TA, then acid to bring both down together. This has the added benefit of adding borates to your pool which act as a low level algaecide and add a certain "sparkle" to the water.