In numerous applications of gels, one sometimes needs to control the gelation process. Here we focus our investigations on a particular means to attain this aim for the scleroglucan-zirconium system. For this purpose some oxyacids have been added to the system. Since the oxyacids involved are known to form complexes of various stability with zirconium, the whole gelation system follows from competition between oxyacid-zirconium and polymer-zirconium complex formation. The zirconium used in this study was in the form of zirconium lactate, and our results show that gelation diminishes in the order of citric, malic, tartaric and lactic acids. This hierarchy was compared to that expected from available equilibrium constants of oxyacid-zirconium complexes.