PH Drifting Up Quickly - Need some thoughts.

[SATPoolGuy73]

Hey All,

First off I realize this is not a new topic and I really have read a bunch of posts on it. But I'm struggling and I just want some ideas or maybe for people just to say "That's just the way it is"

I have a 15,000 in-gound, plaster pool. For the longest time all of my chemicals stayed very consistent. I made the rookie mistake of using too much stabilizer and over time my CYA went too high. So I ended up draining 2/3 of the pool and moving away from tabs to liquid chlorine.

It only took me a few days to get all my levels back to where they need to be.

But...

The one thing that seems to be really different is that I cannot keep my PH stable. The pool looks great and I have no real other issues but it just drifts up. The problem is that it drifts up quickly. It will go from 7.5 to 7.9 or 8.0 in as little as 4 days regardless of swimming or not.

Here are my current readings from a ColorQ tester (And new drops)

FC 5.2 (Due to CYA level)
TC 5.2 (Due to CYA level)
TA 82
PH 7.5
CH 330
CYA 48

So all of this looks good. And the pool looks great. But within a week the PH will be 7.9 or even 8 (Swimming or no swimming)

I do have a waterfall and it comes on twice a day with the polaris.

I am going crazy having to add Acid to bring the PH down and then AK up to bring the TA back up.

Any ideas? The pool is 3 years old. And outside of adding this new water about 4 months ago, nothing has changed.

Is it normal for me to have to bring the PH down once a week? I can live with Liquid Chlorine once a week or every 4 days but the PH issues is just bugging me.

Thanks

 

[Jimrahbe]

73,

That is just how it is!!!

Tablets have acid in them, that helps keep the pH down.. Liquid Chlorine... does not..

You are just making more work for yourself... Just let the pH drift up to 8.0 and then knock it back to 7.7... Quit screwing with your TA.. As long as it is above 50 don't worry about it.

I am thinking about getting an automated acid dosing pump. So I have been running an experiment where I manually add 5 oz of MA each day at the same time. Doing this keeps my pH right at 7.8 or 7.9.. The experiment was to see what effect this would have on my TA and I have found, that for my pool anyway, the TA is pretty stable also. I was afraid that adding acid each day would continually drive my TA lower, but that has not happened.. I've run the tests for a little over a month.

I "want" an acid machine, but I have found adding a little acid each day is not really an issue for me, so I don't "need" an acid machine...

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[SATPoolGuy73]

Thanks. I can live with adding acid every week. I am just bothered as to why it is creeping up. From everything I read PH should not really drift up that way if everything else is good. This implies something is off (Maybe not)

I have also looked at automated delivery of Chlorine and Acid. Seems to be a mixed bag of how people feel about it and the delivery options.

Thanks

 

[Jimrahbe]

73,

pH increasing is pretty normal for most pool owners that use Liquid Chlorine or have a SWCG..

Jim R.

 

[SATPoolGuy73]

Thanks. Maybe that is simply my issue. I used to use tabs and had no drift. Maybe I can find a happy balance of Tabs and Liquid to reduce drift but keep CYA down.

 

[Texas Splash]

For what it's worth, I've been having to add acid about every 2-3 days with a TA of 60~ish. Been that kind of season.

 

[duraleigh]

From everything I read PH should not really drift up that way if everything else is good. This implies something is of

I hope you haven't read that on TFP. As others have said, your situation is normal. Running your TA down around 50-60 may slow the rise but you will still use the same amount of acid.

 

[SATPoolGuy73]

Thanks. Maybe I didn't read it exactly that way. I have read so much in the past two weeks and I probably came up with stuff in my head that was not 100% true. I assumed based on what I read that there is always a reason PH rises and if you can control those reasons then it should be more stable.

But it seems that the control is still an "Action" I need to take and if that is Acid, or lower TA or Tabs over Chlorine.

Do you think if I feed in tabs at a slow pace as well as using liquid chlorine that it might also help with the rise? I suppose in the end the big change is that Im not using Tabs and using liquid and while that keeps my CYA level it also will cause PH to rise and therefore increase the need of Acid.

I just hate for my CYA to keep rising but I think that if I can feed it in slowly.

I just need to pick (More acid lower CYA) (More Tabs higher CYA) I suppose the better of the two is more acid.


Thanks

 

[SATPoolGuy73]

Part of my other issue is that I use the PHin remote monitor. It measure PH and Sanitizer using ORP. The range on the PHin for PH is 7.2 to 7.7. If higher than 7.7 it alerts me. The other problem is that 7.7 on the PHin is actually more like 7.5 or 7.6 which of course is fine. Im sure there is a + - variance on the PHin. So to have it NOT alert me I need to keep the PH closer to 7.4.

I realize the simple answer to this is (Dont use the PHin) but I'm a tech geek so I like it.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[beautifulpool]

Hey All,

First off I realize this is not a new topic and I really have read a bunch of posts on it. But I'm struggling and I just want some ideas or maybe for people just to say "That's just the way it is"

I have a 15,000 in-gound, plaster pool. For the longest time all of my chemicals stayed very consistent. I made the rookie mistake of using too much stabilizer and over time my CYA went too high. So I ended up draining 2/3 of the pool and moving away from tabs to liquid chlorine.

It only took me a few days to get all my levels back to where they need to be.

But...

The one thing that seems to be really different is that I cannot keep my PH stable. The pool looks great and I have no real other issues but it just drifts up. The problem is that it drifts up quickly. It will go from 7.5 to 7.9 or 8.0 in as little as 4 days regardless of swimming or not.

Here are my current readings from a ColorQ tester (And new drops)

FC 5.2 (Due to CYA level)
TC 5.2 (Due to CYA level)
TA 82
PH 7.5
CH 330
CYA 48

So all of this looks good. And the pool looks great. But within a week the PH will be 7.9 or even 8 (Swimming or no swimming)

I do have a waterfall and it comes on twice a day with the polaris.

I am going crazy having to add Acid to bring the PH down and then AK up to bring the TA back up.

Any ideas? The pool is 3 years old. And outside of adding this new water about 4 months ago, nothing has changed.

Is it normal for me to have to bring the PH down once a week? I can live with Liquid Chlorine once a week or every 4 days but the PH issues is just bugging me.

Thanks

If you’re told “something must be off “ it doesn’t necessarily mean, that “something must be off!” Much well intended advice won’t necessarily apply identically to all pools, - with many factors in play, like....water fill source, surrounding pool environment pool equipment/materials.
....etc....our wonderful Privilege of pool ownership includes adding chlorine to sanitize and (for many) acid to balance pH. Folks telling you something “must be wrong” if your pH is rising, may be trying to compare their pool environment to yours which may or may Not, be analogous. pH rises too from waterfall (outgassing)...plus, if your previous chlorine was more acidic (LC is higher in pH than Tri- chlor, LC is higher in pH than Di-chlor, LC Is higher in pH than calcium Hypo) (I still prefer LC over the other 3. Once I get my calcium where I like it) For adding muriatic acid, I like to add acid in smaller amounts every other day, rather than more acid All at once.
Don’t know if that helps at all ... blessings

 

[RMcGirr83]

Please tell me you aren't taking advice from a Facebook group. Ran into one of those and they were telling everyone that has algae issues to use phos free stuff.