Acid eating beauty....

[molardog]

Hey everyone....second season with the pool now and have had nothing but crystal clear water from day one since becoming a TFP follower....

Yet, I can't seem to get a handle on the pH. It wants to stay high all the time no matter how much acid I feed it. TA is right at 100 at the moment, but have always kept it in the 80-100 range. All other chemistry is normal range.

This is a 42k gallon swg gunite/quartzscapes finish built last spring. Am I doomed to feeding this thing a gallon of acid per day for the rest of my life?

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[OTPirate]

That's a lot of acid. What are you trying to keep your pH at? My pool loves to be at 7.6-7.8. So, I let her hang out about 7.6 and try not to force her to be 7.2. What is your water source?

 

[molardog]

We have county water. Really really nice water. Trying keep pH under 8 but not having much luck.

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[OTPirate]

You can try lowering your alkalinity Pool School - Lower Total Alkalinity it is a tad high. What are you testing pH with?

 

[CJadamec]

You may want to consider adding borates to your pool there is a good thread explanation about how they can help Here

Also the Borates why and how which is Here.

 

[Jimrahbe]

MD,

When you add MA are you shooting for 7.2 or 7.6? Most saltwater pools like their pH around 7.8...

Lowering your TA, using the link that OTPirate provided above, works well for me...

Jim R.

 

[molardog]

Thanks everyone. I will give the borates a try.

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[molardog]

You can try lowering your alkalinity Pool School - Lower Total Alkalinity it is a tad high. What are you testing pH with?

Testing with a pool master drop kit

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[duraleigh]

Lower your TA down to 60-70 before borates. See what that does. Then, if you still struggle with pH, try the borates.

You should get a good kit.....how old is yours?

 

[molardog]

Lower your TA down to 60-70 before borates. See what that does. Then, if you still struggle with pH, try the borates.

You should get a good kit.....how old is yours?

Added two gallons of acid this morning and pH is now at 7.6 and TA at 80....

Gonna add another gallon and see how that goes. The kit I have is less than 12 mos old.

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[WyattEarp]

My pool is about the same age. The acid demand slowed down a lot once I got TA to 60. Also as said above it seems to like to ride at 7.8 so I only knock it down to 7.6 when adding acid.

 

[molardog]

Good to hear. Maybe I won't need borates after all. Just don't want to put $8 worth of acid in it everyday. That will start to add up.

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[molardog]

$3000 a year for acid and I will probably just let it ride.

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[The dog]

My swg pool rides right around 7.8 like JR said above. I've been trying to reduce my TA from 140 to 70 by getting my ph to 7.2 and aerating. It's just not working for me. So I'm just moving on and living with it.


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[OTPirate]

Ok, I'm terrible at colors, because that looks like 7.6 to me. I like to use a pH meter in conjunction with the pH test.

 

[triptyx]

I read it as 7.6 as well OTPirate.

MolarDog - start by lowering your TA to around 50 as recommended above. Do that in conjunction with keeping the pool around 7.6-7.8 and I think you'll find your acid demand drops quite a bit.

 

[pooldv]

I read it as 7.6 as well OTPirate.

MolarDog - start by lowering your TA to around 50 as recommended above. Do that in conjunction with keeping the pool around 7.6-7.8 and I think you'll find your acid demand drops quite a bit.

+1 to lowering TA to 50 or 60.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Keep in mind your pool is also still kind of "new" and some will take a year or so to finish curing.

Don't try borates until after your TA/pH have been stable a while. If you do it too early they become harder to manage if you need to change something.

Maddie

(and I know you didn't ask but... you need a FAS-DPD tester. So you can test chlorine >5ppm)

 

[molardog]

Thanks everyone. Gonna go buy a pallet of acid from home Depot and conquer this TA....still reading 90 and pH has already crept back up to 8.2 as of this evening.

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[molardog]

And btw, I have Taylor test kits for every other parameter....salt, calcium hardness, fas-dpd.

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