Hi friends,
I started managing my own pool chemicals recently after firing a very poor pool service company who didn’t seem to be doing a good job. My pool specs:
-2017 built 20k gallon gunite and pebble
-chlorine and UV sanitizer
-also includes a spa where part of pool design returns some water there and then from spa is a spillover into main pool
After taking over chemicals myself, I initially noticed that I had a very high PH problem (use 1-2gallon or Muriatic acid every week) to maintain it within range. Alkalinity is about 100. According to a Leslie’s water test the only thing way off the charts is TDS 4700 (which I know I need to eventually fix)
I do not have any water features on, but my pool design does return some of the pool water into a spa which causes aeration, and then from spa spills over into the pool (causing more aeration on the drop). I understand aeration does increase PH. I have since reduced my VS pool pump speeds which reduced the aggressiveness of the aeration caused by the spa’s pool return and spillover drop, and it helped (maybe it’s 1 gallon acid or so a week now)
But I understand this is still an abnormally excessive use of acid.
This brings me to my questions/scenario:
I just had a very reputable and different local pool service company (I.e. also expensive) come out to provide an estimate to convert my system to salt. I asked advice about the PH problem and the pool guy told me my pool design with the spillover shouldn’t cause that significant of a PH issue, referencing other similar pools his company manages that don’t take as much acid as mine. He said it could be me using liquid chlorine which has high PH and can cause it.
Question:
1) He recommended using liquid chlorine to only bring chlorine to acceptable levels and acid to reduce PH within range, then once balanced, just use chlorine tablets to maintain chlorine since tablets have low PH impact. Is this true and will it help my seemingly runaway high PH problem significantly?
2) side note: he also mentioned if I install a salt system which the original reason for the service call— the downside for salt is often we are fighting higher PH as well (I forget the specific reasons why). Is this true and will it exacerbate my issue? He said there are some fancy options I can install with the salt system like a detector that has a chemical tub inside that needs to be refilled regularly that can inject acid if it detects too high PH. My friends with salt systems don’t seem to have PH issues like mine, and adding some type of PH injection system to me adds complexity and cost I may not want.
Would love all your thoughts to a newbie. Thanks so much, this forum is fantastic, I’ve learned a ton!
I started managing my own pool chemicals recently after firing a very poor pool service company who didn’t seem to be doing a good job. My pool specs:
-2017 built 20k gallon gunite and pebble
-chlorine and UV sanitizer
-also includes a spa where part of pool design returns some water there and then from spa is a spillover into main pool
After taking over chemicals myself, I initially noticed that I had a very high PH problem (use 1-2gallon or Muriatic acid every week) to maintain it within range. Alkalinity is about 100. According to a Leslie’s water test the only thing way off the charts is TDS 4700 (which I know I need to eventually fix)
I do not have any water features on, but my pool design does return some of the pool water into a spa which causes aeration, and then from spa spills over into the pool (causing more aeration on the drop). I understand aeration does increase PH. I have since reduced my VS pool pump speeds which reduced the aggressiveness of the aeration caused by the spa’s pool return and spillover drop, and it helped (maybe it’s 1 gallon acid or so a week now)
But I understand this is still an abnormally excessive use of acid.
This brings me to my questions/scenario:
I just had a very reputable and different local pool service company (I.e. also expensive) come out to provide an estimate to convert my system to salt. I asked advice about the PH problem and the pool guy told me my pool design with the spillover shouldn’t cause that significant of a PH issue, referencing other similar pools his company manages that don’t take as much acid as mine. He said it could be me using liquid chlorine which has high PH and can cause it.
Question:
1) He recommended using liquid chlorine to only bring chlorine to acceptable levels and acid to reduce PH within range, then once balanced, just use chlorine tablets to maintain chlorine since tablets have low PH impact. Is this true and will it help my seemingly runaway high PH problem significantly?
2) side note: he also mentioned if I install a salt system which the original reason for the service call— the downside for salt is often we are fighting higher PH as well (I forget the specific reasons why). Is this true and will it exacerbate my issue? He said there are some fancy options I can install with the salt system like a detector that has a chemical tub inside that needs to be refilled regularly that can inject acid if it detects too high PH. My friends with salt systems don’t seem to have PH issues like mine, and adding some type of PH injection system to me adds complexity and cost I may not want.
Would love all your thoughts to a newbie. Thanks so much, this forum is fantastic, I’ve learned a ton!