New Pool Owner - Constantly High PH

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sumy08

Active member
Jul 7, 2021
34
Australia
Pool Size
33000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
Hello Fellow Members,

I have followed up TFP from last couple of weeks but this is my 1st post, so excuse my minimal knowledge to pool maintenance but I am learning slowly.

Now the problem I am having is that my PH constantly reads close to 8 even if I calculate acid and add it everyday it keeps rising or at that higher level. Now I know that new pool will consume more acid but I believe it's asking too much acid.

In addition, I am using clear choice kit as that's the only good one available in Australia, my results are as follows:

FC = 3.5
CC = 0.5
PH = 7.8 or close to 8 mostly
TA = 125
CH = 225
CYA = 45

The pool was started 2 weeks ago, pump only and I do manual chlorine additional everyday. No chemicals added except HCL and CYA once.

Is it my low CH level that is not letting my PH settle?

The water other looks great and pool is clear.

I look forward to expert inputs.

Thanks
 
This is not unusual for a new plaster pool. Mine took a gallon plus a week of muriatic acid the first 2 seasons. I still need over 1/2 a gallon every week 5 seasons later. Stock up. I buy 10 gallons at the beginning of each season.
 
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BTW your CH is fine. You could work on lowering your TA a bit that'll reduce acid usage a little but realistically you're just pre loading acid.
 
Yes, see the information in here ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry to adjust TA. I found that the normal acid addition to drop pH down to 7.4 then let it rise did reduce TA over time. I think all of us have this issue to varying degrees with new plaster pools. I ended up reducing TA to just over 50 and ran that way for years. The effect of aeration will always cause pH to gradually increase very gradually in most cases unless you have a lot of aeration such as large fountains and other water features. In my case with a spillover from the spa that ran about 6 hrs per day I was able to reduce acid additions to a couple times per week. Eventually I went to borates and raised the pH target to about 7.7 and then acid addition reduced dramatically again. At this point it was only needed every week to 10 days. I would try to reduce TA first and give your pool at least a year for the plaster to fully cure before you go to borates. Nothing against borates in fact some experts believe they actually help reduce deposit formation in swg cells but I like simple if possible. By the way my swg did go 3 years without deposits when I sold the house.

I hope this helps.

Chris
 
By the way, welcome to TFP! Also, remember the CYA test is a logarithmic result so we always round up to the next unit of 10. Your CYA should be reported as 50.
 
Yes setsailsoon, I will remember that for CYA.
Thanks for your recommendations, I will lower the PH to 7.2 so that my TA is lowered as well and then I will run my water feature to aerate.

Any guesses how long should we have to aerate to raise it back to say 7.6?
 
sumy08 said:
Yes setsailsoon, I will remember that for CYA.
Thanks for your recommendations, I will lower the PH to 7.2 so that my TA is lowered as well and then I will run my water feature to aerate.

Any guesses how long should we have to aerate to raise it back to say 7.6?
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Why force it to rise to 7.6? Just let it do it on its own. If your CSI is ok with pH at 7.8 if also leave it there and just knock it back down once it gets to 8 or above. The TA will eventually come down and the pH will stabilize a bit more once it does.
 
Bperry said:
Why force it to rise to 7.6? Just let it do it on its own. If your CSI is ok with pH at 7.8 if also leave it there and just knock it back down once it gets to 8 or above. The TA will eventually come down and the pH will stabilize a bit more once it does.
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His TA is a bit high. The advice for that is to lower pH with acid and aerate to increase. pH increases but TA remains lower. Rinse and repeat until TA is at desired level. This will help to stabilize pH. I did it this year as well it took me 2 weeks to drop around 30-40 running my water features every day and keeping my pH around 7.2 to the extent possible.
 
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PoolGate said:
His TA is a bit high. The advice for that is to lower pH with acid and aerate to increase. pH increases but TA remains lower. Rinse and repeat until TA is at desired level. This will help to stabilize pH. I did it this year as well it took me 2 weeks to drop around 30-40 running my water features every day and keeping my pH around 7.2 to the extent possible.
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I just mean that if his pH is rising fast already aerating seems like extra effort. He’s trying to lower the TA so the pH won’t rise so fast.
 

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sumy08 said:
Yes setsailsoon, I will remember that for CYA.
Thanks for your recommendations, I will lower the PH to 7.2 so that my TA is lowered as well and then I will run my water feature to aerate.

Any guesses how long should we have to aerate to raise it back to say 7.6?
Click to expand...
The time it takes to raise pH back up depends on specifics of your pool and amount of aeration. My only aeration was from the surface area of the pool and spa spillover but normally in a few days to start with. The desired TA drop can take quite a few cycles. My experience was very similar to @PoolGate only my TA was a little lower to start. As I recall it was in the 120 to 130 range.

Chris
 
Thanks all, in regards to TA I am trying to reduce gradually. Is that the right approach or should I put in more acid to have immediate effect on TA?
 
sumy08 said:
Thanks all, in regards to TA I am trying to reduce gradually. Is that the right approach or should I put in more acid to have immediate effect on TA?
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You can just take as it comes TA of 125 is not "Bad." A good rule of thumb is to always have your pH start with a "7" to avoid trouble. Reduce pH to 7.2 (to be safe), let it rise naturally to 7.8 or 8, and add acid to reduce to 7.2. Don't dump a bunch of MA in and crash your pH.

If you want to get more aggressive, I reduced TA over a period of days. pH outgasses CO2 at the highest rates between 7.0 and 7.4. If you have a way to aerate, reduce your pH to 7. Aerate to 7.4, reduce again to 7.0 and aerate. I can reduce TA by 10ppm in 12 hours with a 30K gallon pool and the aerator I built on a sump pump. This aerator --> I copied this aerator...
 
wireform said:
Not sure what your FC is now but you posted earlier 3.5 with CYA 50. Target for you now is 6-8 and what you have will invite trouble.
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Thanks, I am using manual chlorine which I input everyday as the SWG is not started yet. I measure everyday before I put liquid chlorine in which is between 3.5-4.5 most evenings, I then put that in pool math and set 6 as target FC. So whatever value pool math gives me that's the amount of liquid chlorine I put in. I would assume that's meeting the target FC everyday isn't it?
 
aussieta said:
dont overthink your ta
keep your ph in range
the side effect of adding acid to lower your ph , it will also slowly lower your ta
be like the tortoise, not like the hare
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Thanks mate, I will try and follow that.
Actually read all your threads before I started and that gave me a good understanding of things. So appreciate what you guys are doing here!
 
Concerning FC/CYA relationship:
Try not to fall below target of 6, especially until you learn your pool better.

Consider anything between 4 and 6 as the yellow zone, potential issues.

Consider anything below 4 as red zone, open invitation for an algae visit.

If you run FC towards the lower end: Any unexpected sun, swimmer load, dust etc can drop you below minimum into red zone.

Don’t ask how I know…😩😩
 
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Hello All,

Not sure if I ask in same thread but I have another question regarding adding salt to pool. My pool will be 4 weeks old soon and I need to add salt, until now I am adding liquid chlorine daily to maintain it. So the questions are:

1. When should I stop adding chlorine, is it a day before adding salt?
2. The existing chlorine levels, would they have any impact on adding salt?
3. If FAS DPD for FC give a value when I add salt, does that matter and how should it be taken into consideration when adding salt?

Hope these questions make sense
 

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