I’ve had an issue with high alkalinity. I’ve had a few posts about it.
A little history, I keep my pool covered all the time. A few years ago, I found my alkalinity at about 180 and ph 7.5. I asked how to lower alkalinity only and found that it’s tied to ph and I can lower it with Muriatic acid but that would also lower the ph. So, I used liquid acid and lowered ph to 6.8 and alkalinity to 150. Then I would run all my fountains 24/7 and turn the returns up to splash the water which, in theory raises ph only. This only works until ph reaches about 7.2, then I would have to lower again with acid and start over with this cycle until it was in balance.
I tried this method for a month without any success. At suggestions here I just gave up stopped worrying about the alkalinity outlier.
Fast forward to this year. Back in May, my pool cover ripped and ordered a new one. With covid and Texas it took 7 weeks to get but with a nineteen-year-old system, more stuff needed replacing like the dog shifters and reels. Which also took time to get.
During this time, I had no cover for three months. I had to add water about 2+” every 4 days due to evaporation. I turned up my SWG from 25% to 80%, The intelliph from 7% to 30%. Had to keep an eye on salt and cya and added as needed. I tested every 2-3 days and had it dialed it. What I noticed was my alkalinity had dropped to 80-90 which was much better.
Now that it’s covered again, I’m in the process of lowering the SWG & intelliph back to pervious levels, slowly, based on testing. And I’m seeing my alkalinity inching up again, today 130.
So, it seems keeping my pool covered raises alkalinity. I can’t find any posts or info on the web about the correlation. Any expert on chemistry has any insight?
A little history, I keep my pool covered all the time. A few years ago, I found my alkalinity at about 180 and ph 7.5. I asked how to lower alkalinity only and found that it’s tied to ph and I can lower it with Muriatic acid but that would also lower the ph. So, I used liquid acid and lowered ph to 6.8 and alkalinity to 150. Then I would run all my fountains 24/7 and turn the returns up to splash the water which, in theory raises ph only. This only works until ph reaches about 7.2, then I would have to lower again with acid and start over with this cycle until it was in balance.
I tried this method for a month without any success. At suggestions here I just gave up stopped worrying about the alkalinity outlier.
Fast forward to this year. Back in May, my pool cover ripped and ordered a new one. With covid and Texas it took 7 weeks to get but with a nineteen-year-old system, more stuff needed replacing like the dog shifters and reels. Which also took time to get.
During this time, I had no cover for three months. I had to add water about 2+” every 4 days due to evaporation. I turned up my SWG from 25% to 80%, The intelliph from 7% to 30%. Had to keep an eye on salt and cya and added as needed. I tested every 2-3 days and had it dialed it. What I noticed was my alkalinity had dropped to 80-90 which was much better.
Now that it’s covered again, I’m in the process of lowering the SWG & intelliph back to pervious levels, slowly, based on testing. And I’m seeing my alkalinity inching up again, today 130.
So, it seems keeping my pool covered raises alkalinity. I can’t find any posts or info on the web about the correlation. Any expert on chemistry has any insight?
