PH Level and Muriatic Acid

[johnallen21]

Hello All, a quick question about my PH levels. I've been caring for my pool for a little over 2 months now and I'm noticing an odd trend. My PH levels seem to love to be at an 8.0 with an alkalinity of 80. I follow pool math and add Muriatic acid weekly to drive it down to the prescribed 7.5-7.8 range but after a week (with no rain) it's back up to an 8.0. I do have a small waterfall on my hot tub (hot tub is pool temp), my thought is the small bit of aeration caused by the hot tub is causing the PH to trend upwards. Does that make sense?

here are numbers from today's testing:

FC: 6.5
pH: 8.0
TA: 80
CH: 300
CYA: 75

Thanks,

John

 

[JVTrain]

It does make sense. What I would do is allow your TA to drop to 70 and see if your pH rise slows. Even let it go to 60 and see how that goes. I think you'll find you'll be using less muriatic acid with slower pH rise if you allow the TA to drop a little more. The only thing you'll have to worry about is your CSI being too negative at that lower TA level. Check it out with Pool Math link up above.

Welcome to TFP!

 

[DaninFLA]

going from 7.5 to 8.0 over a week isn't very bad at all. lower it to 7.2 and see how long it takes to get to 7.8. lowering it to 7.2 will help lower your TA some as well, but honestly your rise seems very maneageable.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

You mention you've been caring for the pool for two months- is this a new pool? If so it certainly should still be curing and the pH rise is expected during this time. Just keep monitoring it and bringing it down with the MA. You can also drop your TA a bit as suggested above and see if that helps.

Also-remember that anything providing aeration such as a fountain or spill over will also naturally raise the pH. Try curbing that (if applicable) and seeing if that helps.

 

[johnallen21]

Thanks everyone, much appreciated!