Hello. I am on vacation trying to balance my parents' infinity pool in Morocco. Visually, the pool seems fine: it is clear. However, the pH is registering very low. It is in the mid-80s at the moment and it hasn't rained since April. They've been adding about 150g of trichlor every night, which might explain the pH lowering a bit each day. Since last night, we switched to 12% bleach. Another thing my dad mentioned is that they recently added 1.2kgs of sodium bisulphate, thinking it was only a few hundred grams because he used a measuring cup instead of using a scale. He said the pH was really high.
The best thing we have at the moment to measure are Lamotte test strips. He also has some pH/Chlorine test kit with phenol red. Both the kit and the strips indicate the pH to be very low, lower than the 6.2 displayed on the test strip bottle, and the alkalinity is low as well, somewhere between 0 and 40. I know the strips work because the tap water is showing a high pH and alkalinity, and no chlorine.
In the past 2-3 days, we've added 4 kgs of Astral Pool pH+ with sodium carbonate listed as the ingredient, but it doesn't look like the pH budged. The alkalinity might have gone up a tiny bit. We could not find Borax in any supermarket. We added 3kgs 2 days ago, and another 1kg yesterday. We dissolved 500g at a time in a bucket of pool water and poured it slowly over one of the returns in the deep end. The next morning, we noticed some is left at the bottom of the pool, because when we vacuum the pool, we can see a cloud coming out of the returns. There are 4 returns all on the bottom of the pool. I noticed the pressure coming out of each of the 4 the returns is very low compared to my pool in the US with 2 returns on the wall in the shallow end.
My dad says the catch basin in the garage is about 4000 liters, and the pool is 117,000 liters. He says the water in the catch basin evaporates so much that they refill the basin with tap water every other day. This seems like it would be messing with the chemistry, no? Is this a common thing to do with infinity pools? For example, he says they've been using Trichlor for the past 24 years, and the pool is open year round. According to Pool Math, the amount they add every day during the summer should raise CYA by 0.7 every time, so after 120 days, it should be around 80, but the pool strips are showing 0. I think it's because they are adding fill water so often that the CYA doesn't have a chance to remain in the pool. My dad says we can't buy CYA here. I didn't see any at 2 different stores we went to, although they are not pool stores, more like the equivalent of Lowe's.
I suggested that for the moment, we stop the water from going to the catch basin, and just have it go down the main drain and return to the pool.
Thoughts?
The best thing we have at the moment to measure are Lamotte test strips. He also has some pH/Chlorine test kit with phenol red. Both the kit and the strips indicate the pH to be very low, lower than the 6.2 displayed on the test strip bottle, and the alkalinity is low as well, somewhere between 0 and 40. I know the strips work because the tap water is showing a high pH and alkalinity, and no chlorine.
In the past 2-3 days, we've added 4 kgs of Astral Pool pH+ with sodium carbonate listed as the ingredient, but it doesn't look like the pH budged. The alkalinity might have gone up a tiny bit. We could not find Borax in any supermarket. We added 3kgs 2 days ago, and another 1kg yesterday. We dissolved 500g at a time in a bucket of pool water and poured it slowly over one of the returns in the deep end. The next morning, we noticed some is left at the bottom of the pool, because when we vacuum the pool, we can see a cloud coming out of the returns. There are 4 returns all on the bottom of the pool. I noticed the pressure coming out of each of the 4 the returns is very low compared to my pool in the US with 2 returns on the wall in the shallow end.
My dad says the catch basin in the garage is about 4000 liters, and the pool is 117,000 liters. He says the water in the catch basin evaporates so much that they refill the basin with tap water every other day. This seems like it would be messing with the chemistry, no? Is this a common thing to do with infinity pools? For example, he says they've been using Trichlor for the past 24 years, and the pool is open year round. According to Pool Math, the amount they add every day during the summer should raise CYA by 0.7 every time, so after 120 days, it should be around 80, but the pool strips are showing 0. I think it's because they are adding fill water so often that the CYA doesn't have a chance to remain in the pool. My dad says we can't buy CYA here. I didn't see any at 2 different stores we went to, although they are not pool stores, more like the equivalent of Lowe's.
I suggested that for the moment, we stop the water from going to the catch basin, and just have it go down the main drain and return to the pool.
Thoughts?
