My new pond is a mess, as new ponds tend to be. I'm trying to be very
patient as the water gets greener before it gets clearer.

The one spot I have tried to meddle in is lowering the pH. After a
month, with plants (alive but not thriving) & turtles but no fish, my pH
was high at 8.4, and my total alkalinity was high at about 250. I very
cautiously used pH Down and now the total alkalinity is about 120, which
my test kit says is ideal, but my pH is still about 8.4. What can I do
to lower pH without further lowering total alkalinity? Nitrate & nitrite
are both in the safe zones and the water has gone from very hard to
somewhere between hard & soft. The pond is about 1400 gallons with a
small waterfall and 8' stream emptying into the pond. I'm in the Sonoran
Desert in southwestern Arizona with temps 100+ most days and I have to
top off the pond about every other day to cover evaporation. I spent
last weekend erecting a shade cloth awning over the pond to help with
sunlight & heat issues.

Gabrielle, who is not a chemist