Put this in the BBB forum because of the nature of my question - please move if it belongs in a better location
OK, so I do my full test tonight (as I do every Sunday), and find that my pH is getting a little high (I have a hard time reading the color chart, but it is definitely at the high end). Before I get to my question, here are my results;
FC = 3
CC = .25
TC = 3.25
TA = 120
CH = 230
pH = 8.2
CYA = 34
Temp ~89
The water is crystal-clear and beautiful
We are in a huge drought here in southern Tennessee, so I have been adding municipal water via a fountain quite often (which might be causing my pH to rise).
So, I refer to the calculator to see the amount of acid to add and it made me think of something....
One of the areas I dabble in is the printing industry, and printing inks and chemicals are affected greatly by pH. Water-based printing inks typically run in the 8.5 - 9.4 pH range, so the chemical used to clean the tooling needs to be higher to be effective. I remember one guy in the business (this has been a few years ago, but it stuck in my mind) said that the chemical used was so high in pH that it was unsafe to dispose of until the pH was lowered. The method used for lowering the pH to the safe range?
Orange juice from the break area (~1% acid pH of ~3.5)
Adding a liter or so of minute maid OJ brought the cleaner into the safe range, and it could be disposed of in a non-hazardous manner.
So, to my question.....
Would Orange Juice be an effective (BBB-type) "chemical" that could be used to control pH?
*Bonus question: will pH of 8.2 cause any harm to swimmers (should I shut the pool down until I lower the pH)?
**Bonus question 2: As a new lover of the BBB method (never going back to the pool store..... ever), I hadn't thought if bleach could be affecting the pH. After Googling 'what is the pH of bleach', I see that it had a pH of ~12.6. Does this impact the pH level at all?
Thanks -
Tony
OK, so I do my full test tonight (as I do every Sunday), and find that my pH is getting a little high (I have a hard time reading the color chart, but it is definitely at the high end). Before I get to my question, here are my results;
FC = 3
CC = .25
TC = 3.25
TA = 120
CH = 230
pH = 8.2
CYA = 34
Temp ~89
The water is crystal-clear and beautiful
We are in a huge drought here in southern Tennessee, so I have been adding municipal water via a fountain quite often (which might be causing my pH to rise).
So, I refer to the calculator to see the amount of acid to add and it made me think of something....
One of the areas I dabble in is the printing industry, and printing inks and chemicals are affected greatly by pH. Water-based printing inks typically run in the 8.5 - 9.4 pH range, so the chemical used to clean the tooling needs to be higher to be effective. I remember one guy in the business (this has been a few years ago, but it stuck in my mind) said that the chemical used was so high in pH that it was unsafe to dispose of until the pH was lowered. The method used for lowering the pH to the safe range?
Orange juice from the break area (~1% acid pH of ~3.5)
Adding a liter or so of minute maid OJ brought the cleaner into the safe range, and it could be disposed of in a non-hazardous manner.
So, to my question.....
Would Orange Juice be an effective (BBB-type) "chemical" that could be used to control pH?
*Bonus question: will pH of 8.2 cause any harm to swimmers (should I shut the pool down until I lower the pH)?
**Bonus question 2: As a new lover of the BBB method (never going back to the pool store..... ever), I hadn't thought if bleach could be affecting the pH. After Googling 'what is the pH of bleach', I see that it had a pH of ~12.6. Does this impact the pH level at all?
Thanks -
Tony