The other is likely to be mostly water and some salt and a small amount of lye so it should be the right stuff. Clorox actually has a somewhat different list than you show -- see this link. It's mostly water, sodium hypochlorite, and sodium chloride. The amount of sodium carbonate may be from TA in the water they used while sodium chlorate quantities are small since they are a breakdown product. Sodium hydroxide is lye and will be added to both bleach and chlorinating liquid to raise the pH for greater stability of product. The sodium polyacrylate is unique to Clorox and is a very small amount added that doesn't do any harm.
High alkalinity, conditioner.
- Thread starter DesertPete
- Start date
Thanks for the info. Here are most recent full numbers. At bottom is my action plan. Could you review/comment?
8-12-15 @ 6AM:
Temp: 85
Ph: 7.8
FC: 6.5
CC: 0
TC: 6.5
CH: 350
TA: 80
CYA: 50
Test Ph FC am & pm, and adjust as needed.
Ph is pretty stable with 4oz M.Acid daily, is this OK or?
FC was highly variable, but increased CYA seems to be helping it hold. It now needs 6 cup PM, or 4 cup PM and 2 cup AM. With our high temps, 360 days sunshine does this sound reasonable?
8-12-15 @ 6AM:
Temp: 85
Ph: 7.8
FC: 6.5
CC: 0
TC: 6.5
CH: 350
TA: 80
CYA: 50
Test Ph FC am & pm, and adjust as needed.
Ph is pretty stable with 4oz M.Acid daily, is this OK or?
FC was highly variable, but increased CYA seems to be helping it hold. It now needs 6 cup PM, or 4 cup PM and 2 cup AM. With our high temps, 360 days sunshine does this sound reasonable?
As for your regular additions of acid to maintain the pH, that's really up to you. If you use the procedure to lower the TA (Richard posted about this earlier in this thread) you are just accelerating what you are doing now so it won't save on acid, just on time. In other words, you can just keep adding acid and the TA should drop over time unless you've got a lot of evaporation and refill especially if the fill water is high in TA. Given what you wrote initially, it does sound like your fill water is high in TA and being in the desert with hot dry air I suspect your evaporation rate is high. So bottom line with the new water you keep adding with TA in it you pretty much HAVE to add acid regularly -- no way around it.
If your pH is stable with the acid addition you indicate, then see what happens to the TA level over time. If there were no evaporation and refill, then 4 ounces of full-strength Muriatic Acid (31.45% Hydrochloric Acid) in 15,000 gallons would lower the TA by 1 ppm per day or around 7 ppm per week. If you notice your TA being more stable than that, then you're at a sweet spot where carbon dioxide outgassing and your acid addition are balancing the TA increase from evaporation and refill. If you find your TA rising, then you may need to target a lower pH level and greater acid addition to have the TA be more stable (or the TA will rise to find a higher stability point, but that eventually could lead to scaling if the combination of pH, TA, CH are getting too high).
As for your chlorine usage, 6 cups of 10% chlorinating liquid in 15,000 gallons would be 2.5 ppm FC which is a pretty reasonable chlorine demand especially for your area, but I think the partial shade from your umbrellas helps a lot with that. As for your CYA level, that's up to you. A higher level with proportionally higher FC will use less chlorine, but increases your risk if you need to SLAM because it would take a lot more chlorine for such a SLAM. You are probably good where you are at, but it's up to you.
If your pH is stable with the acid addition you indicate, then see what happens to the TA level over time. If there were no evaporation and refill, then 4 ounces of full-strength Muriatic Acid (31.45% Hydrochloric Acid) in 15,000 gallons would lower the TA by 1 ppm per day or around 7 ppm per week. If you notice your TA being more stable than that, then you're at a sweet spot where carbon dioxide outgassing and your acid addition are balancing the TA increase from evaporation and refill. If you find your TA rising, then you may need to target a lower pH level and greater acid addition to have the TA be more stable (or the TA will rise to find a higher stability point, but that eventually could lead to scaling if the combination of pH, TA, CH are getting too high).
As for your chlorine usage, 6 cups of 10% chlorinating liquid in 15,000 gallons would be 2.5 ppm FC which is a pretty reasonable chlorine demand especially for your area, but I think the partial shade from your umbrellas helps a lot with that. As for your CYA level, that's up to you. A higher level with proportionally higher FC will use less chlorine, but increases your risk if you need to SLAM because it would take a lot more chlorine for such a SLAM. You are probably good where you are at, but it's up to you.