white flakes in pool

[jlockw]

white flakes and ever riseing ph

hi Kind of new to this but any idea what the white flakes could be.. Also how often should you have to add acid to lower ph? seems to always be around 7.8 Ive got it down to around 7.2 now with a ta reading of 100 cl reading @1.5 aerating now to bring ph up a little but it seems i'm adding acid weekly Is that normal?

 

[Guest]

Re: white flakes and ever riseing ph

White flakes are very possibly calcium. Do you have a SWG? Is your plaster new or old? What form of chlorine are you using? All these can have an effect on how fast your pH rises as does your TA. If you can give us some info on your pool and post a FULL set of test results we can help you better.

 

[jlockw]

Re: white flakes and ever riseing ph

Is a SWG a salt water generator? If it is I have a pentair IC 40 The plaster is about 2 years old and the only chlorine I use is what the generator produces. Ive cleaned the SWG a couple of times but still have the flakes.
15000ga irregular shape pool with spa
pantair intelliflo 4 variable sprrd pump
pentair ic 40 swg
pentair quad de filter
ta 100
ph 7.5
chlorine 2.0

 

[Guest]

Re: white flakes and ever riseing ph

SWG=salt water generator

Please post a full set of test results. Your CH, TA and CYA are very important here and the flakes are most likely calcium. You might also find this thread useful:
water-balance-tips-for-a-swg-t3663.html

Your TA of 100 is why you are having pH problems. It can also be your CYA level (or lack of) but you have not posted it.

 

[chem geek]

Re: white flakes and ever riseing ph

Reiterating what waterbear said that the Calcium Hardness (CH), Total Alkalinity (TA), and Cyanuric Acid (CYA) are all very important levels in addition to pH. Not only is your TA level higher than it should be for an saltwater chlorine generator (SWG) pool, but your CH level may also be high and that is also something you did not post. Please get a full set of test results. If you do not have a good test kit, please consider the TF100 or the Taylor K-2006. The TF100 has 36% more volume of reagents so is less expensive "per test".

Richard

 

[jlockw]

Thought I'd make a new post with pool info and updated water chemistry. Still trying to figure out white flakes (and I mean alot!) and ever rising ph Any ideas would be appreciated

15000ga irregular shape pool with spa
pantair intelliflo 4 variable speed pump
pentair ic 40 swg
pentair quad de filter

Just done @ Leslie's pools today

FAC 2
TAC 2
PH 7.9
TA 85
CH 400
CYA 30 ( I guess this should be 60-100 ? )
Phosphates 1.5
salt 3800

 

[jlockw]

pool question

Still trying to figure out white flakes (and I mean alot!) and ever rising ph Any ideas would be appreciated

15000ga irregular shape pool with spa
pantair intelliflo 4 variable speed pump
pentair ic 40 swg
pentair quad de filter

Just done @ Leslie's pools today

FAC 2
TAC 2
PH 7.9
TA 85
CH 400
CYA 30 ( I guess this should be 60-100 ? )
Phosphates 1.5
salt 3800

 

[Guest]

Re: pool question

calcium from high CH, too high a pH, slightly high TA and too low a CYA....see this thread to get your water balanced:
water-balance-tips-for-a-swg-t3663.html
Your Low CYA is a big part of the problem. Get your TA down ot around 70 PPM and bring up the TA then once you accomplish that keep the pH between 7.5-7.8 (when it hits 7.8 lower it to 7.5 and no lower)
See the Pool School article on the correct way to lower TA.
pool-school/lowering%20total%20alkalinity

Once you get all this done you might want to consider adding borates to your water.
so-you-want-to-add-borates-to-your-pool-why-and-how-t4921.html

Also, get yourself a good test kit and start testing your own water so you can get it balanced. Ether a Taylor K-2006 (NOT k-2005) or a TF100 from TFTestkits!
pool-school/pool_test_kit_comparison

You NEED a good testkit to accomplish this easily and properly.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Topics merged for consistency

 

[Lynn]

New to the forum and salt water pools. I have a very similar problem relative to this thread. Little background, 38k gal salt water pool. Owned for the last 7 months with no issues, gone to Leslie and let them do the analysis and did as proscribed. In the last few weeks two things happened and not sure if there is a correlation or not. The Jandy SWG started posting a general failure and we started to see white flakes. Cleaned the SWG per the Jandy website and that cleaned the elements up however the very next day same failure indicated. Both the Jandy rep and Leslie indicated that the problems were not related. So today replaced the Jandy SWG for the new model required re-plumbing of course. It seems to be working keeping my fingers crossed that it will continue. The original SWG was 4 years old and most folks I spoke with said that was a typical life span.

Now to the flakes all over the bottom of the pool and spa. Pool itself is very clear unless you stir up the flakes and then it looks like a snowglobe:

My current readings from Leslie are as follows:

FAC 2
TAC 2
Salt 3200
CH 200
CYA 40 (Leslie range indicates 30 -100 ppm as OK)
TA 160
pH 8
Acid 3
Copper 0
Iron 0
Phosphates 300 (Leslie range indicates Below 300 ppb as OK)

So they advised adding 1/2 gallon of Muriatic Acid which I have done due to the HIGH pH and TA. Also had me buy SCALETEC PLus for the calcium flakes. But this stuff seems to be for calcium stuck on the tile as the instructions on the bottle indicate to raise the water level to the top of the tile etc. have held off adding until I have done some more research and have heard opinions from the forum.

But on reading this thread, it would seem to me I should add more stabiliser (CYA). Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Also are there any Water testing equipment for the consumer that can feed into a PC for tracking purposes?

Thanks.

Lynn

 

[Guest]

Lynn,

Welcome to the forum, the white flakes are most likely from your SWG that self cleans to help reduce calcium buildup on your SWG plates. I had flakes until I recently decided to go back to liquid chlorine. If you have pool cleaner, you usually don't see them in the pool, but are very present in the spa. Your CYA level according to this board should be within in 60 - 80ppm. Your levels read pretty good, TA needs to come down, below 120ppm and PH needs to be around 7.4. Your first step is to go to Pool School in the upper right hand corner and your second step is to stay away from Leslie's. There is a fair amount of equipment that can analyze water and can be expensive, Your best bet is to buy your DPD-FAS kit and trust your own values.

Good luck and welcome!