Aeration not working.

[digidoggie18]

I had a few questions for you guys. I read that aeration will help bring up PH if Using MA to drop it in regards to controlling alkalinity. So... I used a fireplace brick, cleaned it heavily, and tied an air chuck to it and ran the compressor to try to aerate the water to bring PH up. I've tried this several times to no avail. I ran it for 4 hours last time with no real results and tried the brick way after reading on here and ran it for an hour with no results. Because of this we started adding borax to bring it back up. Now we are bordering between 30 and 50 ppm according to the taylor strips but I'm hesitant at believing that due to the issues we had with other strips. These also came with the TF-100 kit we purchased. We are trying to drop alkalinity as we were up at the 375 mark, we are down to 168 now. TBH though, the borates have an amazing feel when in the water At this point I am running out ideas for aeration to be an effective tool. I am running the air chuck at about 50 psi for the compressor to keep up with it. Do you guys have even the slightest recommendation of what I may be doing wrong ?

 

[mknauss]

Manage pH. Test TA when you need to add acid. TA is not a significant chemistry value for your pool.

Do not add borax to raise your pH. With a high TA, it will rise naturally.

 

[zea3]

When you are running the air compressor is it churning the surface of the water or are you shooting air down into the pool? Are you currently having problems maintaining a stable pH level?

 

[digidoggie18]

When you are running the air compressor is it churning the surface of the water or are you shooting air down into the pool? Are you currently having problems maintaining a stable pH level?

PH level is amazingly stable, usually we sit at about 7.4 and rarely do I need to add anything to correct it. I put a brick carefully at the bottom of the pool with it.. its blowing air and water up in a circle about 2-4" above the surface. I tried a sprinkler pointed at the surface but it literally did nothing before our pool hit the top of its fill limit. I ran it for maybe 3 hours. Usually I try to aerate when I'm down to about 7.0-7.2 to be able to not add any other products as I have been told to stay away from that.

Manage pH. Test TA when you need to add acid. TA is not a significant chemistry value for your pool.

Do not add borax to raise your pH. With a high TA, it will rise naturally.

I guess I kind of don't understand the reason behind this. If it isn't a big deal then why set an ideal recommended range? can you elaborate more please, definitely willing to learn why in this case ( is it because of the natural rise?). In the pool math calculator it says recommended 60-90 and I've heard that high alkalinity can cause scaling as well and burning eyes/ skin. Everything for us is balanced currently but the kids have been complaining of their eyes burning till I started dropping the alkalinity. our values were... 4.5FC/.2-.5ish CC (I say this because it doesn't seem to take a full drop to make the water clear in the test tube i.e. very slightly pink water which was a massive improvement when I slammed!). PH 7.6 ( lots of rain and flash flooding this week too. We hover between 7.4 and 7.5 depending on the temp (75-80 degrees.) CH 350, TA 240, CYA 52 ( I am in the process of bringing this up to ideal levels, salt is at 3370 ( I usually maintain it there), Borate 30ppm, Temp 75. Dropping the alkalinity has also made our water even more clear as I am sure the borates are helping with that too. Pushing to the recommended levels in the calculator is making our water extremely clear! We were clear before but with ripples in wind, etc... it gets hard to see the bottom. With doing what I have been doing waves no longer cause that blockage of clarity.

 

[mknauss]

TA effects CSI. CSI can imply scaling, but with a vinyl pool it is less problematic. Monitor your SWCG for scale flakes at polarity reversal. If you see that, then the pH or TA needs to go lower.

Very hard to grasp a water body that will have that much carbonate alkalinity and not result in a pH rise.

 

[digidoggie18]

TA effects CSI. CSI can imply scaling, but with a vinyl pool it is less problematic. Monitor your SWCG for scale flakes at polarity reversal. If you see that, then the pH or TA needs to go lower.

Very hard to grasp a water body that will have that much carbonate alkalinity and not result in a pH rise.

Ok, that makes absolute sense to me then. So far we don't see flaking on the cells so I will just leave it then. Your advice previously has never steered me wrong so I will just go with that. I appreciate your time!!