From clear to cloudy water after attempting to raise TA with baking soda

[smaderazo]

Hello all,

First off..this site is awesome and i'm glad to be a member.

This is my first post so here goes....

I just recently filled my pool about 4 weeks ago. My pool has a darker River Rok plaster(blue opal) and after 2 weeks, I started to notice some inconsistency in the color with some scattered patches of white appearing. My PB sent the plaster guys back and they did an "acid wash" to even out the color. This process took about 2 days (they turned off my pool equipment and had some sort of pump floating in the middle of my pool running 24-7). After it was completed, they turned on the fill line and started up the pump. The plaster guy told me to run the fill for another hour or so to dilute the acidity of whatever they used to even out the color. The plaster guy said it should be swim-ready in 2 days. Well 2 days later, using the test kit that the PB gave me with the pool, pH and TA was waaayy low; With this test kit, the alkalinity reagent starts out blue, then with a second reagent, you add drops one at a time until water turns yellow/white....the number of drops x 10 = ppm TA. My test water didn't even start blue with the first reagent! Knowing that really low pH can ruin pool equipment, I immediately decided to do something about raising the TA. I assumed a TA of 0 and using Pool Math and a target TA of 80, i calculated I needed about 23 pounds of baking soda. So in a span of about 5 hours I slowly added pre-dissolved baking soda(one 5-gallon bucket at a time) to my pool. Just to be on the safe side I only added about 13 pounds and retested TA to see if it changed. Well it did change and my TA is at roughly 25 ppm, but now my water is cloudy and can't even see my pool vacuum make its rounds.

I ordered the TF-100 so until i receive it, i'm unable to furnish a full set of test results, but I wanted some initial feedback from the pros here as to what could potentially be causing the problem.

 

[smaderazo]

One other thing I failed to mention was that after adding the baking soda, i shocked my pool since my chlorine residual was below 0.3.

 

[mknauss]

You need to raise your pH. To raise both pH and TA - use soda ash, AKA ARM & HAMMER® Super Washing Soda Detergent Booster.

To raise just pH, use borax, AKA 20 Mule Team® Borax Natural Laundry Booster.

You should also use lots of aeration, that will raise pH. Do not over shoot. Only use small bits of the above, with aeration, and get your pH above 7.2 and TA above 50.

 

[pookiesunshine]

....You should also use lots of aeration, that will raise pH. ...

will the aeration also tend to reduce the TA? since he has already added some soda, would it not be better to just use borax since it tends to raise pH more than TA whereas soda raises both?

 

[mknauss]

Aeration does not reduce TA. Acid reduces the TA. Aeration raises pH.

 

[pookiesunshine]

thanks for clarifying!

 

[smaderazo]

So the addition of baking soda to raise TA without separately addressing the low pH causes cloudiness in the water? Just got back from the store with some ARM & HAMMER® Super Washing Soda Detergent Booster. I'll add in small doses and let you know how it goes. Any time frame you can give me as far as how fast this can clear up?

 

[Richard320]

So the addition of baking soda to raise TA without separately addressing the low pH causes cloudiness in the water? Just got back from the store with some ARM & HAMMER® Super Washing Soda Detergent Booster. I'll add in small doses and let you know how it goes. Any time frame you can give me as far as how fast this can clear up?

Your cloudiness could be

• The beginnings of an algae bloom from too many days with insufficient chlorine
• Microscopic CO₂ bubbles from the baking soda reaction with the acidic water. The "fizz" when you mix baking soda and vinegar, just on a giant scale with weaker acid.
• Calcium cloudiness from the rapid rise in pH. When they acid washed the pool, they dissolved a lot of the plaster into solution. And now it could be precipitating out.

If the pH is still way low, use washing soda/soda ash/pH increaser to get it up. They're all the same chemical. They'll raise pH and TA at the same time. And keep the FC levels up as well. Be aware that FC above 10 can mess with the pH test results.

Once you get a proper set of test results, we can diagbose better

 

[smaderazo]

If the issue doesn't clear up by the time my testing kit comes in, i'll provide a set of test results.

Thanks