Help Balancing pH Rise in Vegas Hard Water Pool

[VegasPoolRat]

FC/CC: 3.0 pH: 8.2 TA: 80 CH:800-900 CYA:60 Borates: 50, using the TFT Kit and Lamotte test strips

Disclaimer: This post might be a bit premature, as I just added the Borates (using Mule Team and the method from this site) about 30 hours ago. I haven't adjusted the pH since I think it told me not too.

I am here seeking the pool monks' advice on how to minimize pH rise and manage CH in my hard water pool. This post was prompted by reading a couple of off-hand comments about lowering TA to 50 to balance a higher CH and prevent pH rise.

1. First, my CH is currently at 800-900. The water going in the pool is about 300ppm in overall hardness, which based on the pool school page, I would guess to be about 200ppm CH in the replacement water. I can test this if its an issue.

2. My water's pH wants to live at 8.2 and will do everything in its power to get back to that number in day or less. Preventing aeration, and so far borates, don't seem to have slowed it down a bit. This is not a new phenomena, I totally replaced the water late last summer to use the BBB method.

Any advice on how to proceed would be greatly appreciate.

Thanks so much,

VegasPoolRat

 

[JasonLion]

I would go ahead and start lowering the PH right now, otherwise you run the risk of calcium scaling. The PH tends to go up for a while after adding borates, because the acid mixes in completely, but the borax takes a while to fully dissolve. If it was too low, you wouldn't want to raise it just yet, but since it is too high, go ahead and lower it.

Now that you have borates in the water, let the TA come down to around 40-50. That should dramatically improve things, though it may not stop the PH increase completely.

The ozone system is presumably causing some aeration.

 

[VegasPoolRat]

The ozone system is presumably causing some aeration.

Well that's a forehead slapper. Thanks, and lowering TA now.

NewVegasRat