PH Constant Rising (Always adding Acid)

[Michael813]

My pool is now about 60 days old. It has a Stonescapes Mini Pebble Finish. Every my PH rises to about 8.3 and I knock it down with about 16 oz of Muriatic Acid. Sometimes I have to do this once in the morning and once again in the evening. My other levels are doing great. My CYA is now somewhere between 70-80. My FC is 5. TA is 70. CH is 375. Salt is 3000. I have a spillover spa that is runnning with the pump 24 hours a day. Pump speed is 1750 rpm. My SWG is an Jandy Aquapure 1400. This is the one level that I constantly am battling. Is this just due to the new plaster and I should expect this for the first year or does something need to be addressed to fix this? Thank you for any help. This forum has been such a great resource.

 

[mknauss]

I have a spillover spa that is runnning with the pump 24 hours a day.

Much of the pH rise is due to that.

You can use Spillover function in your iAqualink and reduce the Spillover time to a couple times a day for 20-30 minutes.

 

[Michael813]

I asked the pool builder about that (one of the technicians) and he said if I do that the water in the spa won’t get circulated all the time. Does that sound right?

 

[mknauss]

The water in the spa does need to be circulated. But not 24 hours per day. 20-30 minutes twice a day should be more than enough. You schedule the Spillover to run to be sure it is circulated and kept chlorinated.

 

[pmoney2311]

Yeah, I just had my pool renovated last summer and the pH creep for the first few months was real.

Just making sure: Do you have a drain in your spa or just the spillover from the returns to circulate water there?

 

[Michael813]

Yeah, I just had my pool renovated last summer and the pH creep for the first few months was real.

Just making sure: Do you have a drain in your spa or just the spillover from the returns to circulate water there?

There are two on the bottom and one on the side. I’m not completely sure which one is doing what though.

 

[mknauss]

There are two on the bottom and one on the side. I’m not completely sure which one is doing what though.

Likely you have a booster (spa) pump along with your normal pool pump.
You do not use the Spa drains when running Spillover. Those only come into play when you are in Spa mode.

 

[Michael813]

Likely you have a booster (spa) pump along with your normal pool pump.
You do not use the Spa drains when running Spillover. Those only come into play when you are in Spa mode.

Yes that’s right. I’ll order myself a JVA so I can automate the spillover valve. I manually turned it off so tomorrow morning I can see if there was a difference in the ph rise. Thanks for everyone’s help.

 

[pmoney2311]

Likely you have a booster (spa) pump along with your normal pool pump.
You do not use the Spa drains when running Spillover. Those only come into play when you are in Spa mode.

At least with my spa that spills over, I can open the valve for the drains a crack and do the same for the returns in the spa and that puts them in equilibrium and allows for good circulation with no spillover. This is of course without the booster pump running.

 

[mknauss]

Yes that’s right. I’ll order myself a JVA so I can automate the spillover valve. I manually turned it off so tomorrow morning I can see if there was a difference in the ph rise. Thanks for everyone’s help.

Might show us a picture. If you have a line that has a valve and check valve, that is separate from your spa line, you would close that valve, then use your automation to actuate the valve between the spa and pool lines.

 

[Michael813]

is there any way to configure it without having to purchase a jva. Here is a picture of my valves. It has two spa returns (one is manual and the other is automated). The automated one is activated when the spa mode is activated which simultaneously turns on the spa main drain and turns off the pool main drain and returns.

 

[mknauss]

The Jandy valve on the right side (no actuator). Turn that valve to shut off the Spa Return. Then in your automation (see Jandy Aqualink RS - Further Reading) you set up a schedule to run Spillover. Start with 30 minutes twice a day. Test the FC of the Spa water right before the Spillover starts every once in a while to confirm the FC is staying above minimum.

 

[Michael813]

The Jandy valve on the right side (no actuator). Turn that valve to shut off the Spa Return. Then in your automation (see Jandy Aqualink RS - Further Reading) you set up a schedule to run Spillover. Start with 30 minutes twice a day. Test the FC of the Spa water right before the Spillover starts every once in a while to confirm the FC is staying above minimum.

Great. I’ll do that. Thanks.

 

[Michael813]

The Jandy valve on the right side (no actuator). Turn that valve to shut off the Spa Return. Then in your automation (see Jandy Aqualink RS - Further Reading) you set up a schedule to run Spillover. Start with 30 minutes twice a day. Test the FC of the Spa water right before the Spillover starts every once in a while to confirm the FC is staying above minimum.

That worked really well. Thanks for the help. The only issue Im having is I have to hit the button twice to get it to turn on. The first press shows it toggled on but then nothing happens. If I push it a second time it toggles off on the app and then quickly back on and the JVA moves and the spillover starts. The app looks like the spillover is being treated as a light with selectable color as it has the right arrow next to it. I reassigned the spa light (which used to be on Aux 3) to Aux 1 and using the PDA set the Jandy Lights to that Aux. I must be missing something though. Any ideas?

 

[mknauss]

Let's see if @ajw22 or @PoolGate can provide some guidance.

 

[PoolGate]

Yeah this is common. Back out of the app first to the initial screen, swipe down to refresh the screen, then go back in and it will work the first time. Make a habit of backing totally out of the app using the back buttons when you are done using it.

 

[Michael813]

Yeah this is common. Back out of the app first to the initial screen, swipe down to refresh the screen, then go back in and it will work the first time. Make a habit of backing totally out of the app using the back buttons when you are done using it.

I tried that but it still did the same thing (even put it in service mode and then power cycled the panel). If I control it from the PDA or the web interface instead of the app interface it works on the first shot. Strange. But then again it looks like I have an RS8 Front Panel as it has S1 and S2 for DIP switches and also the Extra JVA Sockets and Relay Sockets but my board on the back side of it says its a PDA. I guess I'll just use the app but load the web interface if I want to manually turn on the spill over (otherwise it will just go off the schedule I set).

 

[Michael813]

I turned the dip for three off and then went in and turned off the check mark for it being a light. Put the dip switch back on and now it’s all good.