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You probably have some sort of biofilm or other growth in your pipes, but of course AquaFinesse will claim that this can't happen when using their product so go figure. If you were in the U.S. then I'd recommend you use Ahh-Some since that is the most effective product at removing biofilm and...

Bulk density can vary by product. Calcium chloride density is going to vary depending on the granular size of the product and also on whether it is anhydrous or dihydrate. Powder will be less dense than pellets. This MSDS for Dowflake Xtra says 51-61 pounds per cubic foot which is the same as...

Chlorine slowly breaks down metal sequestrants. When that happens, the metal that was bound to the sequestrant gets released back into the water and can potentially stain. This is why one must maintain a maintenance dose of metal sequestrant. If you run at a higher FC/CYA level then you'll...

If you reverse the equilibrium equation Matt showed: HCO3-- + H+ ---> CO2(g) + H2O Bicarbonate Ion + Hydrogen Ion ---> Carbon Dioxide Gas + Water you can see that the hydrogen does not leave the water but rather goes from being a separate ion to being part of a water molecule itself. You can...

At a TA of 120 ppm and assuming 80 ppm and 3500 ppm salt, the equilibrium pH where carbon dioxide outgassing would stop is around 8.35. As shown in this chart, there is more carbon dioxide outgassing due to over-carbonation of the water when the TA is higher or the pH lower. So yes, the pH...

I don't see any value to the UV system, especially since you also have an ozonator. Ozone will help to oxidize bather waste wile UV doesn't do as good a job with that -- it breaks apart some molecules but doesn't oxidize them as thoroughly. With ozone, you not only get ozone for some...

All Trichlor tabs will increase CYA as indicated. If you saw a difference between last year and this year, then perhaps you used more chlorine this year so increased CYA faster or had less dilution of water this year which have CYA rise faster (i.e. not get diluted down as quickly).

Is the anode the wire coil and is it just sitting on top of the pump strainer or is it going through the top of the strainer so that some metal is exposed to pool water? Anodes are most effective if they are buried in moist soil. If they are just loose in the air, they won't work as well...

Welcome to TFP! :wave: The ozone will create more bromine from the bromide bank but will also deplete some going to bromate (most goes to bromide to be used again). With your bromine floater, it should be able to replenish the bromide that got lost to bromate from the ozonator. So most spas...

The level of pH rise from carbon dioxide is limited by the carbonate alkalinity level (TA with CYA and borates adjustments). For a pool at 85ºF with 70 ppm TA and 80 ppm CYA and 3000 ppm salt, the pH rise would stop at around 8.0. In an SWCG pool, however, there can also be undissolved...

This is consistent with carbon dioxide outgassing slowing down at higher pH as shown in this chart where you can see that lower TA and higher pH is less over-carbonated. It actually should stop outgassing somewhat below 8.2, but the borates become stronger pH buffers at higher pH (see pH Buffer...

It's the aluminum flakes in Drano that combined with lye make it hot (and produces hydrogen gas as well) and that's intentional to provide more cleaning. I didn't see any aluminum in this filter degreaser product so I don't believe it would have increased in temperature significantly.

The chlorine will eventually drop down or you can use hydrogen peroxide to lower it faster if you need to. You posted the same question on another forum and it was answered there as well.

After your fresh refill you need to start off using Dichlor, not bleach, so that you build up some CYA. You cumulatively add around 33-44 ppm FC using Dichlor (usually takes about a week, depending on bather load) and then you switch to using bleach. About once a month, you use Dichlor for a...

The instructions sound like they intended for the product to go from your pump basket through the pump into the bottom of your sand filter and out the top in a backwash cycle. The Strip Kwik product is a combination of chemicals: sodium hydroxide -- this is lye and raises the pH at least in...

The directions for PoolMath should be changed to not use the comma in the example and explicitly say not to use commas in any of the numeric input fields. Either that or PoolMath itself needs to be changed to return an error message when a comma is input (or to allow commas, but that can get...

The Taylor standard for their dropper tips is 24 drops per milliliter so 5 ml is 120 drops. When you use up the reagent, save the bottle and you can test it with water in it to see if it has the right number of drops. Also, if you aren't getting well-formed drops, wipe the dropper tip with a...

You don't need to drain. If there isn't too much oil, you can use a Scum-Ball. If you have a lot of oil, you can use a PIG® Oil-Only Absorbent Mat Pad.

Trichlor also dissolves more quickly in hot water and in a small volume of water like a hot tub you can get your chlorine too high and pH too low pretty quickly. So you need to use a special feeder designed to be dialed down significantly. There are some like this for hot tubs that say they...

I'd keep up with Ahh-Some and superchlorination. There may have just been a lot of it. Be sure to run the water through all piping so that you expose mold wherever it is to both the Ahh-Some and superchlorination.

Well, that's the point. ORP sensors aren't following the Nernst equation in any rational way except that they somewhat follow HOCl concentration but with a scale that doesn't make sense (much larger mV per doubling than expected for 2 electron transfer; Chemtrol behaves as if it's a 0.8...

To get -0.7 CSI in PoolMath with pH 7.4, TA 60, CYA 70 and an assumed salt level of 3000, the temp has to be around 64ºF. Is that what you have been using? I've been assuming 0 ppm Borates. I think BuckeyeChris neglected to put in the 3000 ppm for salt and used a higher temperature in the...

SIMPLIFIED ANSWER The variation of ORP with pH has a lot to do with the change in pH in addition to the HOCl vs. OCl- concentration. The following shows ORP at various pH with 1 ppm FC and no CYA (using Chemtrol ORP) in the first section and 1 ppm HOCl in the second section and constant pH in...

Your acid demand will be lower not only at lower TA but also at higher pH. See this chart that shows the degree of over-carbonation in a pool at various TA and pH where you can see that at lower TA and higher pH there is less over-carbonation so there will be less carbon dioxide outgassing and...

Previous posts said that DE was added to the filter, but I think James is right that at high speed with a 1.5 HP pump it was blowing debris through the sand filter too much. The more recent clearing may be the combination of running at the slower speed combined with use of DE in the filter. It...

So the thing to do is to have an opaque preferably white or reflective cover you can put over the rolled-up solar cover so that it blocks the UV from sunlight and also does not get too hot. Both heat and UV are damaging to the plastic in bubble-type solar covers. On the water, it's much more...

The foam itself is more likely to be from soap/detergent like molecules but of course you could have other substances mixed in on the surface including plain oils. Oils on the surface can be removed by use of a scum ball that attracts/collects oil. Soap foam itself is most easily removed by...

Or if you want to lower the FC level faster you can add hydrogen peroxide as a dechlorinator. It takes the same volume of 3% hydrogen peroxide to dechlorinate the FC that would be added from the same volume of 6% bleach so you can use PoolMath to determine the equivalent 6% bleach volume for...

Saltwater chlorine generators are VERY common in Australia and as was suggested by Matt (JoyfulNoise) above, that may be a very reasonable option for ease of maintenance. Of course, there is up-front cost, but ongoing cost can be low. If you use any technique that doesn't maintain a...

Excess sodium bromide would not cause a problem unless there were some contaminants in it. As for the filter, so long as you had it in the Ahh-Some treated water, that should be OK. So that doesn't explain it. Good luck. The extra demand was a mystery and hopefully has gone away with this...