Low Alk & PH

[GotZoom76]

Hi everyone,

I have an Intex AGP, 18X9X52 (4600 gallons) and it has been up for about one week, filter and SWG running for about a total of 5 hours which I just got running yesterday. I tested the water today (using test strips until my kit comes) and everything looked good except for the Alk (0 ppm) and PH (6.0 or lower). I will re-test with the new kit, but assuming it reads the same should I give the filtration/SWG some time before adding baking soda and borax?

I wasn't quite sure how soon I would get accurate readings on those considering the filter and SWG have only been running for a short amount of time.

Also, by my calculations I would need to add approx. 8 pounds of baking soda to bring the ALK in line, test again and if reading is good, test PH and add borax if needed.

Am I correct in thinking the PH will raise with the ALK? If I needed to adjust PH from where it is now my calculation says I would need to add 99 pounds of borax. Crazy...

My copper was 0 and FC .5-1 (hard to tell).

I hope I have provided enough info for you.

Any clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[JamesW]

What was the source of the water?

 

[Richard320]

The good news is you won't damage the plaster with the low pH since you have a vinyl pool. As long as the pump had been on half an hour or so, your sample was mixed enough.

If the test kit confirms low pH and low TA, start by raising TA to about 50. Give the baking soda half an hour or so (You can speed it up by brushing to get some cross-currents going. Like adding cream to coffee, just on a giant scale) and retest pH and TA. Then go after the pH adjustment. You need some TA to sort of dampen the pH swings; if you had 10 TA and you tried to raise pH 1.5, even an extra spoonful could send the pH off the top of the scale.

 

[GotZoom76]

Re: Low Alk & PH

James- I hope I understand what you are asking .. I used city water out of the spigot on the side of our home.

- - - Updated - - -

Sounds great! I will start with that. Thanks!

The good news is you won't damage the plaster with the low pH since you have a vinyl pool. As long as the pump had been on half an hour or so, your sample was mixed enough.

If the test kit confirms low pH and low TA, start by raising TA to about 50. Give the baking soda half an hour or so (You can speed it up by brushing to get some cross-currents going. Like adding cream to coffee, just on a giant scale) and retest pH and TA. Then go after the pH adjustment. You need some TA to sort of dampen the pH swings; if you had 10 TA and you tried to raise pH 1.5, even an extra spoonful could send the pH off the top of the scale.

 

[JamesW]

City water won't have 0 TA ( Total Alkalinity). You can add some bicarb but assume that the TA is at least 30. Wait for your kit before making big changes.

Get some liquid chlorine to raise the fc some.

All city water providers have to publish a water quality report. You should be able to look up yours online.