Best way to combat high water temps and drive PH thru the roof

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rmturner54

rmturner54

0
Jul 6, 2013
596
Waxahachie, Tx.
My question is this. What is everyone doing to combat high water temps (90-94F) and keep your PH in balance. I know that there is no simple or easy way. Otherwise everyone would do it. :D
Thru reading on this forum and learning from others the process that I know for my situation with a SWG which naturally raises PH is this. My thought process as follows-
Check PH first and lower as necessary to 7.2, then use my homemade fountain to aerate to help cool the water. Then monitor the PH and TA to determine how many hours of aeration I can get before PH gets to high (above 7.8).
Is there anything that I am missing or better solutions? Bathtub water is not very relaxing. Oh BTW my pool gets full sun from 10AM till 8PM. Right now the best swim time for us is after the sun goes down.
 
rmturner54 said:
My question is this. What is everyone doing to combat high water temps (90-94F) and keep your PH in balance. I know that there is no simple or easy way. Otherwise everyone would do it. :D
Thru reading on this forum and learning from others the process that I know for my situation with a SWG which naturally raises PH is this. My thought process as follows-
Check PH first and lower as necessary to 7.2, then use my homemade fountain to aerate to help cool the water. Then monitor the PH and TA to determine how many hours of aeration I can get before PH gets to high (above 7.8).
Is there anything that I am missing or better solutions? Bathtub water is not very relaxing. Oh BTW my pool gets full sun from 10AM till 8PM. Right now the best swim time for us is after the sun goes down.
Click to expand...

Depending on what your other water parameters (TA being the most important one for this exercise), driving your pH that low may be counterproductive. As you drive the pH that low, you will consume a lot of alkalinity and then the subsequent rise from 7.2-7.6 will be fast and 7.6 to 7.8 slower. You'd better off getting your TA and pH to stable point by lowering the TA to a level where the pH rise is minimal. Then the aeration you're considering will have less effect on the pH. It's tempting to believe that by going lower in pH then you get more "runway" for the pH to rise in. The problem is, pH rise is not linear. The pH rise from 7.0 to 7.5 happens at a faster rate than the pH rise from 7.6 to 8.0.

As well, excessive aeration (think very tiny droplets like a spray or mist) can cause calcium scaling if the CH is high enough. When you create tiny water droplets, the chemistry of the water changes quite a lot since the surface area to volume ratio of the water droplet is much larger. This is why here in Arizona where almost every outdoor restaurant patio has misters installed and they are completely caked up with calcium scale.

So, in short, you have a good idea about using a fountain to cool the water, but you may want to adjust your approach to the pH and TA. Post water test results and a better analysis can be performed.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
Depending on what your other water parameters (TA being the most important one for this exercise), driving your pH that low may be counterproductive. As you drive the pH that low, you will consume a lot of alkalinity and then the subsequent rise from 7.2-7.6 will be fast and 7.6 to 7.8 slower. You'd better off getting your TA and pH to stable point by lowering the TA to a level where the pH rise is minimal. Then the aeration you're considering will have less effect on the pH. It's tempting to believe that by going lower in pH then you get more "runway" for the pH to rise in. The problem is, pH rise is not linear. The pH rise from 7.0 to 7.5 happens at a faster rate than the pH rise from 7.6 to 8.0.

As well, excessive aeration (think very tiny droplets like a spray or mist) can cause calcium scaling if the CH is high enough. When you create tiny water droplets, the chemistry of the water changes quite a lot since the surface area to volume ratio of the water droplet is much larger. This is why here in Arizona where almost every outdoor restaurant patio has misters installed and they are completely caked up with calcium scale.

So, in short, you have a good idea about using a fountain to cool the water, but you may want to adjust your approach to the pH and TA. Post water test results and a better analysis can be performed.
Click to expand...

I started with a PH of 7.8 and TA of 110. I added enough MA(12oz) to bring PH down to 7.4 and TA to approx 100.
 
rmturner54 said:
I started with a PH of 7.8 and TA of 110. I added enough MA(12oz) to bring PH down to 7.4 and TA to approx 100.
Click to expand...

You still have lots of TA to play with. Try to get it down to 70ppm and then I think you'll really see your pH stabilize and hold at 7.6-7.7 for long periods of time. It will also allow you to run you water cooler for longer periods.


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