Aerating to raise pH - Are the spa jets enough?

[thehowheels]

I'm nearing the 1-week point on my BBB adventure, after draining and refilling my pool. pH and TA were initially high (pH: 8.0, TA: 150). I brought pH down to 7.5 with some MA, which also brought the TA down to 140. Surprisingly, pH has been very stable. I've been checking it twice daily, and it's been rock solid at 7.5. I was expecting the pH to rise due to the 5 hours / day of spa spillover.

This morning pH finally went up a little to 7.8, so I added enough MA to drop it back down to 7.2. 5 hours later I checked all the levels again:

FC: 5
CC: 0
pH: 7.2
TA: 130
CH: 220
CYA: 40

I want to speed up the rate of pH increase, so I've decided to let the spa jets run during the pump cycle. Do you think this is going to be adequate to get the results I need, or should I consider building an aeration contraption to attach to a return?

 

[thehowheels]

I'm feeling a little absent minded ... I keep forgetting I have a booster pump!

More power!

 

[mas985]

It sounds like you have high TA fill water and being in SoCal with high evaporation and very little rain, you might just be wasting your time. Eventually, you may lower your TA but it will likely rise again because of the fill water so you might just be better off living with higher TA and just keep the PH on the lower end of the range. This is basically what I do and my TA settles around 120 ppm but I am continually adding acid to keep the PH down.

 

[thehowheels]

It sounds like you have high TA fill water and being in SoCal

Right, I just checked some tap water to verify.
pH: off the scale, over 8.2
TA: 130

Well, that's slightly discouraging. Never the less, I'm curious to see how quickly I can get the pH up with the spa jets and booster pump running.

 

[Richard320]

If I recall correctly, I drove pH up once about .6 in a couple hours with full spa, full booster, and air pump going.

 

[Melt In The Sun]

130 isn't high...you can definitely get that low and keep it low. I don't know what Mark's is, but mine comes out around 220 and eventually settles around 80.

 

[thehowheels]

Well, it's been about 2 hours, and my pH has gone from 7.2 to 7.5. Not too shabby!

 

[mas985]

130 isn't high...you can definitely get that low and keep it low. I don't know what Mark's is, but mine comes out around 220 and eventually settles around 80.

Right now my TA fill water is around 300 and I agree, 130 is not that bad and should be able to lower it much lower than I can.

 

[spidey07]

Well, it's been about 2 hours, and my pH has gone from 7.2 to 7.5. Not too shabby!

Your jets and that kind of aeration are better than anything else you could do.

Now I want more pics, nice looking pool.