How much acid do you have to add?

Jump to latest Follow Reply
A

Austintatious

0
Oct 13, 2014
81
DFW Texas
Hey everyone, new to the SWG world... I am about a week in so far. I have been having to add acid to keep my PH down. at this rate it looks like it is going to take about 1 gallon a month... is that typical?

Ill update my signature.... I am now running an IC40 and have borates in my water.
 
Austintatious said:
Hey everyone, new to the SWG world... I am about a week in so far. I have been having to add acid to keep my PH down. at this rate it looks like it is going to take about 1 gallon a month... is that typical?

Ill update my signature.... I am now running an IC40 and have borates in my water.
Click to expand...

That doesn't sound unreasonable for a plaster pool. Did you put the borates in? How stable has your pH and TA been?

sidenote: How have you been testing your FC without the FAS-DPD test? Your test listed doesn't test higher than 5, right? You can get just the missing FAS-DPD test at TFTestskits.net TFTestkits.net
 
OK, My PH last night was 7.6 ( I have been targeting 7.4) and my TA is 60.

I put the borates in... I have only been on the SWG a little over a week. So I will keep monitoring the levels. I have the cell on 100% witht the pump running 9 hours a night... My Chlorine levels have been around 5 in the AM and 3 in the PM.

One thing that may be contributing is the spillway on the spa. AFAICT the automatic valves on the EASYTOUCH always go 180 degrees when activated. I really need one of them to turn 90 degrees so that the spillway in the spa is not active... this is definitely adding more aeration which as I understand will raise PH.
 
You probably already know this but the valves are fairly easy to adjust you just have to take them apart to adjust the cams. Plenty of YouTube videos on how to. That being said in your situation it might be a good idea to add another manual valve after the powered valve so you can manually control the volume without having to adjust the cams each time you want a different effect.

Oh and for reference I am at around 50 oz per week in a fairly new pool
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
JamesW said:
You should be using almost no acid. SWGs should be ph neutral.

Keep the ph at 7.8, the CYA at 60 to 70 and don't raise the TA.
Click to expand...

It seems this is more often the case with vinyl pools, at least that's when I've seen it mentioned the most.

Regardless of my TA (as low as 50) with a pH of 7.8, the pH is always rising.

I know the theory is due to the hydrogen gas production within the cell creating aeration and ultimately outgassing but that doesn't explain why some pools are effected and others aren't.

Make up water probably has a little to do with pH and TA rise (especially those with very high TA fill water) but I know that it alone cannot account for all of it.
 
Austintatious said:
I put the borates in... I have only been on the SWG a little over a week. So I will keep monitoring the levels. I have the cell on 100% witht the pump running 9 hours a night... My Chlorine levels have been around 5 in the AM and 3 in the PM.

.
Click to expand...

Do you see something odd here?- that you're running your SWG that long at 100% and your FC is only 5??

As I mentioned a few posts ago, your test results don't go any higher, right? SO you really don't know how high your FC is and you're running the SWG much more than necessary. Which may be contributing to your labile pH.
 
JamesW said:
For a concrete pool with a 0.0 CSI, the ph should eventually level out. Maybe go 7.9 ph and 40 TA.
Click to expand...

I know that's pretty close to equilibrium and why that would work but it isn't possible in my pool. I'd use too much acid to keep the TA down and the pH would rise too slowly to balance out the CSI. By the time the pH made it to 7.8 the TA would be 60-70. I've tried on several occasions.
 
I'm most interested in this thread because I'm working on lowering my acid consumption, but FWIW regarding the sidenote, running an IC40 for 9 hours at 100% in a 25,000 gal pool provides 2.5 ppm per day, which seems reasonable. Agree it would be much better to have FAS-DPD testing to know where you're at.
 
bdavis466 said:
I know that's pretty close to equilibrium and why that would work but it isn't possible in my pool. I'd use too much acid to keep the TA down and the pH would rise too slowly to balance out the CSI. By the time the pH made it to 7.8 the TA would be 60-70. I've tried on several occasions.
Click to expand...

Brian,

Did you ever borate your water?
 
I am adding a full container (7 lbs) of dry acid every week or two. Working on lowering my TA to get in balance. TA started at 100, now 70. pH is much more stable now, but still rises. May have to go to 60 TA next.
 
MarkTX said:
I am adding a full container (7 lbs) of dry acid every week or two. Working on lowering my TA to get in balance. TA started at 100, now 70. pH is much more stable now, but still rises. May have to go to 60 TA next.
Click to expand...

Is there a reason you are using dry acid? Is muriatic acid not available?

- - - Updated - - -

JoyfulNoise said:
What's the pH/TA of your fill water?
Click to expand...

8.0/90

I don't really mind the acid usage. I only posted to show the OP that his was far from excessive.

My bigger issue is the buildup of chloride from so much acid mainly because my acid pump stops dosing when the salinity reaches 4200ppm
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply