- Jan 14, 2010
- 15
Hello All,
I'm John, from Southern California. I had a salt-water pool built last year, finished and filled mid October. It's dark gray plaster, free form shape, rock coping, jumping/sitting boulders at the edge of deep end, attached/raised jacuzzi with spillway. All Pentair Equipment, multi-speed main pump, seperate jacuzzi pump, heater, 60 gallon filter, chlorinator, auto-fill, multi-color LED lights, easy touch 8 panel with remote and a Hayward Ultra Vac sweep. It's about 16,000 gallons, approx 15x35 and 6 feet deep at deep end and big shallow end. My builder was awesome and we love the pool and use the spa 4-5 times a week. Only used the pool once or twice, waiting for warmer weather.
So, here is my problem and what brought me to this site. My pool needs acid almost daily. Not so much for pH which is running consistently high, but for alakalinty which is really high. I have to add at least 1 pound of dry acid daily to stay in this range. My local pool store has been helping but they basically say that salt pools do require a lot of acid. I haved tried liquid acid (lots of it and some results), dry acid (almost has no effect)but I have the best luck with a product called Easy Acid which comes in 1 pound bags. I have noticed a bit of scaling which I'm told is because of the high alkalinty.
My current numbers are:
Salt 3250 (very steady)
Chlorine 2.0 (Very Steady) with generator set at 15%
pH 7.8 and up (off the scale if I don't add acid daily)
alkalinity 220-250 (much higher if I don't add acid every day)
The pool shop checked my CA which was good and in range but I don't remember that number.
Equipment runs daily 8 hours.
The filter was cleaned shortly after start-up and again a week ago and looked normal. It's had stabilizer added, I've been told thats just the way it is with salt pools, that new pools have a high acid demand that lessen with time, I have bad luck and other less helpful advice.
I searched the forums and posts here and have found that I am not the only one to experience this but am not totally sure what the long term cure or maintainance should be. I don't want to damage the pool in the mean time. Is there any other way to lower the alkalinty and keep it in check?
The pool stays very clean, landscaping is not in yet so no trees, pollen, dirt, water runoff etc.
So, hello and HELP! Any ideas?
Thanks all,
John
I'm John, from Southern California. I had a salt-water pool built last year, finished and filled mid October. It's dark gray plaster, free form shape, rock coping, jumping/sitting boulders at the edge of deep end, attached/raised jacuzzi with spillway. All Pentair Equipment, multi-speed main pump, seperate jacuzzi pump, heater, 60 gallon filter, chlorinator, auto-fill, multi-color LED lights, easy touch 8 panel with remote and a Hayward Ultra Vac sweep. It's about 16,000 gallons, approx 15x35 and 6 feet deep at deep end and big shallow end. My builder was awesome and we love the pool and use the spa 4-5 times a week. Only used the pool once or twice, waiting for warmer weather.
So, here is my problem and what brought me to this site. My pool needs acid almost daily. Not so much for pH which is running consistently high, but for alakalinty which is really high. I have to add at least 1 pound of dry acid daily to stay in this range. My local pool store has been helping but they basically say that salt pools do require a lot of acid. I haved tried liquid acid (lots of it and some results), dry acid (almost has no effect)but I have the best luck with a product called Easy Acid which comes in 1 pound bags. I have noticed a bit of scaling which I'm told is because of the high alkalinty.
My current numbers are:
Salt 3250 (very steady)
Chlorine 2.0 (Very Steady) with generator set at 15%
pH 7.8 and up (off the scale if I don't add acid daily)
alkalinity 220-250 (much higher if I don't add acid every day)
The pool shop checked my CA which was good and in range but I don't remember that number.
Equipment runs daily 8 hours.
The filter was cleaned shortly after start-up and again a week ago and looked normal. It's had stabilizer added, I've been told thats just the way it is with salt pools, that new pools have a high acid demand that lessen with time, I have bad luck and other less helpful advice.
I searched the forums and posts here and have found that I am not the only one to experience this but am not totally sure what the long term cure or maintainance should be. I don't want to damage the pool in the mean time. Is there any other way to lower the alkalinty and keep it in check?
The pool stays very clean, landscaping is not in yet so no trees, pollen, dirt, water runoff etc.
So, hello and HELP! Any ideas?
Thanks all,
John