7800 gal above ground oval pool, vinyl liner. Just had the liner replaced, filled the pool and can't get the pH to budge off of 7.2. have added 4# of Borax three times per the pool calculator and no effect. Everything else is in range CH = 230, alk = 100, cya = 70 a little high. Using liquid bleach to shock and dichlor granules for daily chlorine add. Any ideas?
pH problem
- Thread starter irishsmith
- Start date
- Jan 4, 2016
- 5,288
- Pool Size
- 44000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
Welcome to TFP! Good to have you here 
Please review "Read before posting" (linked in my signature below) and follow the advice there, and you will get the best possible advice here.
What test kit are you using?
Please review "Read before posting" (linked in my signature below) and follow the advice there, and you will get the best possible advice here.
What test kit are you using?
- Mar 24, 2014
- 2,455
- Pool Size
- 32000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool SJ-55
If you keep using dichlor your CYA will keep going up. Just use liquid bleach/chlorine every day or so to keep FC in range.
Why are you trying to raise pH? There is nothing wrong with 7.2.
Why are you trying to raise pH? There is nothing wrong with 7.2.
Welcome to the forum.
What test kit do you have? How old are the reagents? Each 4lb addition of 20 mule team borax would have raised pH 0.9, adding three times would have raised pH a total of 2.7
What was your TA before adding the borax?
BTW- dichlor adds CYA to your pool. For every 1ppm of FC added by dichlor, you also add 0.9ppm of CYA. Your CYA is already very high, and you are just adding to it daily.
You should switch to 100% liquid chlorine (aka bleach), which adds nothing but FC & a trace amount of salt, and consider a partial drain & refill to lower that CYA level.
Why do you 'shock' your pool? Do you have re-occurring algae?
Dom
Taylor K-2006, TA = 100, I used the Pool Calculator to find our how much Borax to add to rais the pH. as stated the pH has not budged even 0.1. Took it to a pllo store and they got the same result 7.0-7.2 despite adding all of the Borax. Shocked it as I had 5 kids in the pool all week and high temperatures. Thanks.
I believe that using dichlor is creating two problems for you - elevated CYA and low Ph. While 7.2 is fine, continued use of dichlor is just about to start causing you other problems. I would switch to liquid chlorine if I were you.
- May 23, 2015
- 24,382
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
I agree with others, you should switch to liquid chlorine for daily chlorination and save the dichlor granules for....well, for a while.
Because you have a K-2006 kit, you should have a red capped bottle of the R-0006 base demand reagent. You can take a sample of pool water and add the R-0004 phenol red pH indicator. Then you can add the R-0006 drop-wise and count the number of drops until you get to your desired pH level (7.6?). There's a chart in the little booklet that can convert the drop count into the amount of base needed to raise the pH. Pool Math does these calculations for you BUT I like the acid/base demand reagents because they can give you a very clear and visible indication if something is not right with the alkalinity or acidity of your pool water.
Give it a try and see if the drop count you get matches what the Pool Calculator tells you....speaking of which, you should be using Pool Math to do your calculations. While Pool Calculator is based on some of the same underlying java code as Pool Math, I don't think the owners of that website/app are even updating it anymore. On TFP, we only really trust test results from a Taylor kit and we only make prescriptions based on Pool Math, everything else is suspect.....