Accidentally added pH Up instead of down.

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p.s. would the calcium raise the pH readings? If that's the case, I have no idea how I'll get the pH down. Ug

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Scuba_Steve: before I do more doses, are you sure it isn't the calcium level making the pH read so high? It's nearly triple what New Orleans says it's already "hard" water is reported to be. That's pretty scary.
 
Oh I just looked up this on the Pool Math Calculator.

If you enter in 10000 in to gallons at the top. Next set your TA in current TA. I just guessed 80 because you didn't specify what it actually is. Next set pH to 8.2 in current pH. Set your goal pH to 7.5.

Pool math says you need 88 oz by weight, or 58 oz by volume of dry acid. The 18 oz you added wouldn't have come close.
 
My recommended levels are:

with SWG
FC 3-5 (See chart)
pH 7.6-7.8
TA 60-80
CH 300-400
CYA 70-80

I'm still 100 over on the CH and 30 too low on the CYA, though that hasn't seemed to effect the FC, which is .5 over the recommended range. TA is 60 over the limit.

I guess this begs the question, is this pool even safe to swim in?
 
New Orleans water? Your location says MA, that's a long way to truck some water. :)

PH, 8.2 is the top of the test, it is probably higher than that. Keep adding what Poolmath says to bring it from 8.2 to 7.2 every 20-30 min until it actually drops. It would be better to use muriatic acid because it doesn't add other stuff. Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

TA, yes it is high. High TA will make your PH rise. Adding muriatic acid every time PH gets to 7.8 to drop it to 7.2 will slowly lower your TA. If you want to lower TA faster here is how, Pool School - Lower Total Alkalinity

Definitely add more CYA in a sock to get it up to 70-80

No, salt does not make the CH test read higher. There are people here who manage higher CH than that who can comment on that.
 
pooldv: I used to live in Salem, but moved to New Orleans. I think it auto-filled that out. I'm in the Treme right outside the French Quarter.

Scuba_steve mentioned that the pool calculator said to add 88oz of dry acid. I'm out of it anyway and have muriatic left though even that's probably not enough. I'm scared to add too much. Is 88oz wise to add at one time or should I do it over several weeks. I'm reading the article you posted and it seems to say lowering TA can take up to several weeks.
 
christianday said:
My recommended levels are:

with SWG
FC 3-5 (See chart)
pH 7.6-7.8
TA 60-80
CH 300-400
CYA 70-80

I'm still 100 over on the CH and 30 too low on the CYA, though that hasn't seemed to effect the FC, which is .5 over the recommended range. TA is 60 over the limit.

I guess this begs the question, is this pool even safe to swim in?
Click to expand...

It is almost safe to swim in. Here is what you need:
Chlorine above the min for your cya
Chlorine below shock level for your cya
PH between 7.2 and 7.8
Clear water
 
Scuba_Steve: I'm on Pool Calculator and when I put 8.2 in the pH with a target of 7.2, then a 140 TA with a target of 100, the calculator says to add 37oz of dry acid. However, anything I go below 100 in the target field does not change the 37oz of dry acid. Not sure how to get to the 58oz you got and you used 80 as a current right? I'm at 140.
 

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I would use your muriatic acid. Even if you dont have enough, start getting it down. You only need 40oz to target 7.2

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I posted a few posts ago. I accidentally had borates in the calculator. That changed the numbers drastically. Removing borates brought the numbers down much lower for the amount of dry acid you will need.
 
pooldv: what does this mean?

"Chlorine above the min for your cya
Chlorine below shock level for your cya"

I know what the CYA target should be (70 - 80) as well as the Chlorine target (3 -5) but I'm not sure what you meant by above min for cya.

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We've swum in this pool a ton with no obvious problems. I hope it's not that unsafe. :(

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Do I add this muriatic acid all at once or lower the TA slowly?
 
Add all 40oz of muriatic acid all at once. Do it slowly though with your pump running. It should take you like 1-2 minutes to pour in the acid because your pouring so slowly.

High pH will not pose a real swimming hazard. It just would possibly be tough on your eyes.
 
The pH and TA readings generally go up and down together. There are exceptions, you can raise the TA by adding baking soda, or lower it by repeatedly lowering pH (to around 7.2) then aerating to raise pH. What happens is the TA comes down with the pH, and goes back up with it but when raised with aeration not as fast or as far. So by repeating the process you can lower TA in relation to pH. With your pH as high as it is, it's no surprise the TA is also high. If you get your pH under control and keep it there the TA will come down some on its own. If you still need to lower it further, now you know how.
 
Yes do so.

The minimum FC is the minimum your pool should ever get to. For your CYA level this 3. Your target is what you ideally want to be at. For you this is 4. Your shock level is the highest you can safely swim at. It is also the minimum you should be at if you are doing a SLAM. For you this is 16.

Once you raise your CYA up, these numbers will all change btw.
 
chiefwej: that makes sense. I don't imagine I will ever be raising my pH at the rate this pool seems to elevate.

Scuba_Steve: I added 40oz of Muriatic Acid (with layers of fabric wrapped around my face so I wouldn't breathe it in. There was no wind and I could literally see the cloud. I also added 42oz of dry cyanuric acid and read that the solid can take up to a week to dissolve and also lowers the pH. I don't want to lower it too much.

I still need to read more on the total alkalinity vs. pH as it kinda confuses me.

My FC level is 5.5. Does this have a different value based on the CYA of 40? Currently, I have the pool filter on 12 hours per day and, where it was chlorinating 45% of that time (so about 5.4 hours of chlorination time, I changed it to 35% (4.2 hours of chlorination time) and it doesn't seem to have lowered it much. I like the filter running more often in the crazy heat here but I guess the chlorination can go down a little?

I really appreciate all the advice. This is a lot to learn for someone who has never owned a pool or had to deal with any of this.
 
Here's another thing I don't understand. How permanent is the effect of aeration on pH? We run our four swim jets all the time, often when we're not even swimming because we like the flow it gives to the water. I don't understand how it works. I mean, if the entire pool were filled with muriatic acid, would the swim jets eventually turn it to water? I'm kidding (sort of) about that, but seriously, I don't get how the aeration can actually counterbalance the chemicals like that but then I'm not very chemistry savvy.

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I found this thread on aeration. Helping a little. http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/13873-Aeration-does-what
 
Ok, I would not add any more acid. You may overshoot with the additional CYA addition. You had enough MA to lower you by 1.0, and enough CYA to lower 0.58.

Just leave it alone for right now, and see what happens. Test in 30 minutes or so. If it tests down to 7.2 or below, pull the sock of CYA out and use it later.

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Worst case scenario you lowered it all the way to about 6.6 which is not the end of the world.

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In the future though, do not do multiple things at once. Especially 2 different things that have an effect on pH. Do one, wait for it to stabilize, then retest and do the next.
 
Oh wait. Sock of CYA??? Was I not just supposed to add it???? The bottle had it so you could either add it to the skimmer or add it directly to the deep end so I just did that. Is this bad????

On a good note, the highest pH on the test was 8.2. For all we know, it was much higher to begin with.

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And even if it goes down to 6.6 pH, I doubt the swim jets will let it stay there long! LOL
 

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