Recent content by tikoh

I started to type a response that started with: "You're thinking like a pool guy...and we're not dealing with a pH above 7...and that H2CO3 will absolutely take that H+ and become H3CO3....everything in pool math is working under the assumption that the pH is greater than 7…" But it's...

The first statement is most certainly true. pH is a logarithmic scale. A solution of pH of 4 has a H+ concentration 10 times that of a solution at pH 5 and a solution of pH of 3 has an H+ solution 10 times that of the pH 4 solution. Adding acid supplies those H+ ions. The pH 5 solution has an H+...

What has your TA historically been at? At very low pH (around 6ish), carbonic acid will actually show up as alkalinity. As the name would suggest, this is an acid and gives you low pH while also showing up as high alkalinity. There was an article by chem geek from a long time ago that explained...

Like PoolStored said, I suspect the nitrogen and sulfur oxides reacted with the chlorine...but it was interesting. I'm pretty darn diligent about testing and I never dipped out of target. I'm curious to see what happens this round. Part of me wonders if what I was treating as algae was actually...

I know a bunch of pool owners in central New York had algae issues during the last round of smoke (myself included and my FC never dipped). I also saw a dip in pH.

I'm a recovering lab rat myself. I actually use a 2L nalgene bottle to measure. I try to test and add daily. I have a solar cover that I put on at night and remove most mornings. Doing the chlorine test adds about 2 minutes to that process so sometimes I even test twice and then add...

I’m sorry if I came off as aggressive, like I said above I don’t disagree that some CYA is a good idea. It’s gentler on skin and clothing as you say. I’m only pointing out that the drinking water in Australia (and the US) is allowed up to 5ppm and I assume that you’re all healthy.

A little less, clorox is funny because they mix more stuff in there and have less dichlor... @shedlock22 dichlor shock (and trichlor pucks) also lower your pH. The amount you added would have dropped your pH by as much as 1.5. It's best to switch to liquid chlorine (bleach).

You can...see here for options and tips Draining - Further Reading If you have a vinyl liner, make sure you don't take the water level too low on accident, or your liner could shift. Like Texas Splash said, best to wait until your pH is up at least a little bit before swimming. Chances are...

If you already have an acid feeder, then the only benefit might be that the CO2 wouldn’t affect your TA as much. Unless you have a preference for handling compressed gas cylinders vs acid. It would be something like this: CircuPool TOTALBalance pH Control (Acid-Free)-TBPH

How much FC is allowed in your drinking water without CYA? I bet it’s similar to a pool…

I don’t disagree. Unfortunately what tends to happen is that they allow CYA (sometimes up to 100 or 150) but still limit FC to 4 or 5, which is also dangerous. Just out of curiosity though, what do they do for indoor pools down under? Most indoor pools don’t run CYA, but you still need a couple...

Makes sense. We had it set to dose chlorine based on ORP, but New York requires (and it's a good idea anyway) to do the DPD test every two hours while the pool is open. ORP monitoring kept us in range 90% of the time.

I used to maintain a few outdoor municipal public pools in New York. We're not allowed to use any CYA, which I actually like better because we have a similar FC range allowed (1-4ppm). More than 20 CYA or so is risky with a 4ppm max, especially when that 4ppm is a hard max and you have to close...

Makes sense, right? So when you add bleach it dissociates into hydroxide (-OH), which is a strong base and would increase your pH. However, it also dissociates in to Hydrochlorous Acid (HOCl-). HOCl is the active part of chlorine that does the killing and oxidizing. It is a weak acid and would...