High ph

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Sammib

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Jun 14, 2011
6
I am new to all of this. I just put up our pool and added my salt this weekend. I do not have a good test kit yet, for I knew my swg had some testers, so figured I'd start from there. Tested an my ph is 8.5 and total alk is like 240 (I think....my readings I wrote down are not with me at the moment)

The testers only gave me copper which looked on the lower level side, free chlorine looked good.

What would make the ph go to high? And to add acid to lower? Where to get, and what's the cheap way?

I noticed that my skin is very dry from the water. I was wondering if it was the salt itself? I have not tested that yet, but the swg indicator was not to low or to high. Could the hi ph be the cause, or the salt?

I also noticed that the pool was a bit slimy and dirty looking, earlier in the day (before testing) so I turned on and ran the swg for most of the day for the initial start up of pool.

Ps I did read pool school first.
Thanks
 
It is probably the high pH causing the skin dryness, but without a full set of test results we can't say for sure. Muriatic acid is the most cost effective way to lower the pH. Outgassing from the SWG (which is normal) can cause pH to rise, especially if you have high TA. You will need to use The Pool Calculator to determine how much MA you need to lower the pH to 7.2. You will need to test the pH daily and try to keep it in the 7.2-7.8 range by adding MA as needed.
 
Thanks!
Can i get Muriatic acid from walmart??
I am also going to pick up a good testing kit. The strips that the my machine came with says to wait 15 seconds, so i did, and the readings were not as bad, but if you wait like a whole whopping 30 seconds, the readings get worse, so I'm a bit un easy about the results being acurate.
 
Most hardware stores have muriatic acid. WalMart occasionally carries it, but not usually.

I recommend getting a TF100 test kit from TFTestKits.net. That is the best one out there these days. The Taylor K-2006 is also good.
 
Muriatic acid is used for several things. The most common is for cleaning concrete. At different Home Depots I've found muriatic acid in different places. Sometimes it is by the pool supplies, sometimes out in the covered outdoors area on it's own, sometimes inside in the paint department, and sometimes over by concrete supplies.
 
In Home Depot they tend to be careful to store it away from the chlorine products. So look for it an aisle or two away, maybe on the end of a lane. In boxes that hold 2 one gallon jugs. Also Lowes, Ace Hardware, and every pool store. Pool stores may have 4 one gallon jugs in a box.

Your tap water has high alkalinity. So while you need to lower that to something like 70 ppm, every time you add tap water that will go up. And the SWG tends to push pH up. So get used to adding acid.

Next, have you added any Stabilizer to the water?
 
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