- Sep 6, 2012
- 5
I have done a great deal of searching and reading, and I'm really left with just a few questions here, let me describe the situation:
20k gal
pebbletec finish
SWCG
Jandy LXi heater
FC 3
CYA 70
TA 70
CH 250
Salt 3200
The pH will rise from whatever I bring it down to with muriatic (usually 7.3-7.3) up to prob 8.5 or so within a few days.
The temp stays in the mid 80s during the summer, and gets down as low as 50s over the winter.
I have two bubblers on a tanning shelf and a spillover from my spa, so as you can imagine I fight pH rise from aeration a good bit, and I play the vicious cycle game with adding bicarb to keep the TA up, as recommended by my equipment manuals.
I have seen people on this forum discuss keeping alkalinity lower to fight pH rise due to co2 offgassing, but unless I kick the CH up a good bit, that's going to leave me with aggressive water, no? Won't that eat out my heat exchanger?
If I were to raise the CH (possibly shooting for the TA*CH=25000 rule?) wouldn't I just be increasing my scaling issues?
I get plenty of scale on the stones under the spillway, and from what I can tell, this scale is from evaporation and consists of more than just calcium. Which explains why a reasonable amount of muriatic acid and elbow grease are NOT an easy nor effective way of removing this ugly buildup.
Any ideas? Is it safe to run low TA with my equip? If I raise CH to compensate, won't I increase my scaling issue? Anyone have a good way of getting rid of that scale that I couldn't find with a search?
By the way, thanks to all of you, this site is excellent. I've been around pools for a long time and I've learned a lot from reading on TFP since I found it a month ago.
20k gal
pebbletec finish
SWCG
Jandy LXi heater
FC 3
CYA 70
TA 70
CH 250
Salt 3200
The pH will rise from whatever I bring it down to with muriatic (usually 7.3-7.3) up to prob 8.5 or so within a few days.
The temp stays in the mid 80s during the summer, and gets down as low as 50s over the winter.
I have two bubblers on a tanning shelf and a spillover from my spa, so as you can imagine I fight pH rise from aeration a good bit, and I play the vicious cycle game with adding bicarb to keep the TA up, as recommended by my equipment manuals.
I have seen people on this forum discuss keeping alkalinity lower to fight pH rise due to co2 offgassing, but unless I kick the CH up a good bit, that's going to leave me with aggressive water, no? Won't that eat out my heat exchanger?
If I were to raise the CH (possibly shooting for the TA*CH=25000 rule?) wouldn't I just be increasing my scaling issues?
I get plenty of scale on the stones under the spillway, and from what I can tell, this scale is from evaporation and consists of more than just calcium. Which explains why a reasonable amount of muriatic acid and elbow grease are NOT an easy nor effective way of removing this ugly buildup.
Any ideas? Is it safe to run low TA with my equip? If I raise CH to compensate, won't I increase my scaling issue? Anyone have a good way of getting rid of that scale that I couldn't find with a search?
By the way, thanks to all of you, this site is excellent. I've been around pools for a long time and I've learned a lot from reading on TFP since I found it a month ago.