Pool is a over a month old. Ph was at 8 and our pool is only 5100 gallons and my husband added 3 cups of acid. I know he shouldn't add that much at once and he messed up and in the future we wont do that much at one time again. Anyway he added about 24 oz yesterday to our small pool and the ph hasn't budged. I had water tested at pool store and we also had high phosphates which we added phosfree for that and high chlorine, our swg was just installed less than a week ago. Where do we go from here? Add more acid?
Ph won't go down
- Thread starter Rachelmarie
- Start date
Rachel,
Well... you say you have high chlorine, but you did not say how high.. If over 10 ppm, then you can't really test the pH..
Plus, 24 oz of full strength MA will drop your pH by 1.1.. it would be almost impossible to miss that, unless your testing if off..
Either you want to follow our advice, which requires a good test kit, or you want to follow your pool stores advice, which just requires you to buy questionable chemicals like Phosfree... You really can't do both, as our methods do not agree.. We try to help you maintain your pool,and the pool store just wants to try and get into your wallet...
This time a year, in a small pool, I doubt you have to run your SWCG for more than an hour or two at the most to make more chlorine than you need... How long are you running your pump?
Do you have any water features? Complete your signature, so we know more about your pool and equipment.
We can't really help much unless you can post a full set of test number...
FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA..
Salt
Well... you say you have high chlorine, but you did not say how high.. If over 10 ppm, then you can't really test the pH..
Plus, 24 oz of full strength MA will drop your pH by 1.1.. it would be almost impossible to miss that, unless your testing if off..
Either you want to follow our advice, which requires a good test kit, or you want to follow your pool stores advice, which just requires you to buy questionable chemicals like Phosfree... You really can't do both, as our methods do not agree.. We try to help you maintain your pool,and the pool store just wants to try and get into your wallet...
This time a year, in a small pool, I doubt you have to run your SWCG for more than an hour or two at the most to make more chlorine than you need... How long are you running your pump?
Do you have any water features? Complete your signature, so we know more about your pool and equipment.
We can't really help much unless you can post a full set of test number...
FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA..
Salt
RachelMarie- how did you take care of your last pool?? Have you read *our* methods and noticed how different they are from following a pool store's advice?
You need to take the time to read Pool School here at the top of the page. Having your own quality test kit is the basic backbone of our method and it seems you don't have that.
Maddie
- - - Updated - - -
I see that your new pool has water features.... if you've read TFP and our pool school you might have seen that water features and spill overs will raise pool pH if used continuously. Also as Jim said above, if your FC is over 10ppm the pH tester your pool store used is not accurate.
Let your FC drop below 10 and get your own test kit- TFTestkits.net will set you up. Or Amazon. Get the TF-100 as its a best buy.
Maddie
You need to take the time to read Pool School here at the top of the page. Having your own quality test kit is the basic backbone of our method and it seems you don't have that.
Maddie
- - - Updated - - -
I see that your new pool has water features.... if you've read TFP and our pool school you might have seen that water features and spill overs will raise pool pH if used continuously. Also as Jim said above, if your FC is over 10ppm the pH tester your pool store used is not accurate.
Let your FC drop below 10 and get your own test kit- TFTestkits.net will set you up. Or Amazon. Get the TF-100 as its a best buy.
Maddie
Thank you both for your replies!
Do I need to be worried my ph is too low since we added 24 oz of acid to a 5100 gallon pool? I am concerned I am not getting an accurate reading since chlorine is high and worried about low ph causing damage. Would a chlorine level of 10 cause ph test to be unreliable or does it need to be over 10 to do that?
I do have a spill over spa, two deck jets and a sunshelf bubbler. We had one sheer descent in our old pool but did not run it all the time. I did not know they could raise ph so thank you for that info.
With our old pool we just used a test kit we purchased from the pool store and we were able to keep in under control and had the pool for 10 years. But this is a new pool with more water features and a spa so I know its not going to be exactly the same.
The pool builder set our pump to run 12 hours a day and the pool is now over a month old, are we safe to lower the time now? Our old pool we ran it for about 6 hours in the winter.
FAC-10
ph-8
TA-120
CH-260
CYA-70
salt-3000
Pho-500
I did not see an abbreviation for CC on my list of numbers. What is that?
I will go ahead an check out pool school and look into a better test kit.
Do I need to be worried my ph is too low since we added 24 oz of acid to a 5100 gallon pool? I am concerned I am not getting an accurate reading since chlorine is high and worried about low ph causing damage. Would a chlorine level of 10 cause ph test to be unreliable or does it need to be over 10 to do that?
I do have a spill over spa, two deck jets and a sunshelf bubbler. We had one sheer descent in our old pool but did not run it all the time. I did not know they could raise ph so thank you for that info.
With our old pool we just used a test kit we purchased from the pool store and we were able to keep in under control and had the pool for 10 years. But this is a new pool with more water features and a spa so I know its not going to be exactly the same.
The pool builder set our pump to run 12 hours a day and the pool is now over a month old, are we safe to lower the time now? Our old pool we ran it for about 6 hours in the winter.
FAC-10
ph-8
TA-120
CH-260
CYA-70
salt-3000
Pho-500
I did not see an abbreviation for CC on my list of numbers. What is that?
I will go ahead an check out pool school and look into a better test kit.
Rachel,
In the 10 years with your old pool, did your pool ever turn green or real cloudy? If so, what did you do?
A lot of pool store tests top out at an FC of 10, so it could be much higher... The kits that Maddie listed top out at 50ppm...
Since this is a new gunite pool, the pH will increase a lot the first 6 months to a year.. With a SWCG, I suggest that you let it sit at about 7.8 and only reduce it when it gets up to 8 ppm.
Low pH is a bad thing, but I suspect with a new pool and a lot of aeration, the pH will be back up in just a few days. It takes a long time for pH to cause any real damage.
I see no reason that you can't reduce your pump run time.. I would sure turn off the SWCG until the FC drops to 5 or 6 ppm.
Thanks,
Jim R.
- - - Updated - - -
CC is Combined Chlorine and is for the lack of a better term the "bad" chlorine. It is a measure of how safe the water is.. A high CC level indicates that something is growing in your water.
In the 10 years with your old pool, did your pool ever turn green or real cloudy? If so, what did you do?
A lot of pool store tests top out at an FC of 10, so it could be much higher...
The kits that Maddie listed top out at 50ppm...Since this is a new gunite pool, the pH will increase a lot the first 6 months to a year.. With a SWCG, I suggest that you let it sit at about 7.8 and only reduce it when it gets up to 8 ppm.
Low pH is a bad thing, but I suspect with a new pool and a lot of aeration, the pH will be back up in just a few days. It takes a long time for pH to cause any real damage.
I see no reason that you can't reduce your pump run time.. I would sure turn off the SWCG until the FC drops to 5 or 6 ppm.
Thanks,
Jim R.
- - - Updated - - -
CC is Combined Chlorine and is for the lack of a better term the "bad" chlorine. It is a measure of how safe the water is.. A high CC level indicates that something is growing in your water.
- Jul 21, 2013
- 54,343
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Why is your FC at 10? With CYA of 70 your FC target should be 5 using a SWG. See [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA]
Please Read This BEFORE You Post and put details about your pool in your signature. It helps us give you specific advice.
You need to let your FC drift down below 10. It will not do that if your SWG % run time is too high. What model SWG do you have and what is the % run time set to?
Best is for you to turn off your SWG for a day or two. Your pool will lose 1-2PPM of CL per day this time of year. When your CL is down to 6 then turn your SWG back on.
You can run your pump less time. SWG % run time and pump run time affect how much CL the SWG adds. So you can reduce your SWG % run time or reduce your pump run time to lower your FC. See Setting the Percentage in Pool School - Salt Water Chlorine Generators
For an explanation of CC see Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
Please Read This BEFORE You Post and put details about your pool in your signature. It helps us give you specific advice.
You need to let your FC drift down below 10. It will not do that if your SWG % run time is too high. What model SWG do you have and what is the % run time set to?
Best is for you to turn off your SWG for a day or two. Your pool will lose 1-2PPM of CL per day this time of year. When your CL is down to 6 then turn your SWG back on.
You can run your pump less time. SWG % run time and pump run time affect how much CL the SWG adds. So you can reduce your SWG % run time or reduce your pump run time to lower your FC. See Setting the Percentage in Pool School - Salt Water Chlorine Generators
For an explanation of CC see Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
We were using chlorine tablets for the first 4 weeks then the guy who installs the SWG came by last week and put in the salt and went over how to manage the SWG with us. He told us to test chlorine every 3 days and adjust the percentage as needed until we find what percent is working to keep it at a normal level. Right now it is set to 50% and we are going to lower it to 40% and turn down the amount of time the pool pump runs. I will take your advice and shut off the SWG for a couple days then retest.
Yes my old pool did get some algae here and there. It only happened a handful of times and it was when our swg was on the fritz and was only working off and on because there was a sensor issue that needed to be fixed. My husband handles the pool chemicals but has been crazy busy with work lately so I am trying to help out now gathering info. But when there was algae in the past he bought something from the pool store to kill it, I honestly do not know what it was.
Yes my old pool did get some algae here and there. It only happened a handful of times and it was when our swg was on the fritz and was only working off and on because there was a sensor issue that needed to be fixed. My husband handles the pool chemicals but has been crazy busy with work lately so I am trying to help out now gathering info. But when there was algae in the past he bought something from the pool store to kill it, I honestly do not know what it was.
be careful adjusting swg
most pools lose 2-3 ppm fc or 30% which ever is higher each day
this a very rough guide depending on cya and climate
with adjusting chlorinator wait 2-3 days between changes
you dont want to overshoot and go too low and have problems
as mentioned you need a quality test kit
pool store just isnt good enough
as you found they advised adjusting ph when fc was at 10
this risks damaging your pool if you constantly lower ph below 7
one off shouldnt hurt but you dont want it to happen too often
as you dont know what your ph level really is
leave it alone for now and concentrate on lowering your fc level
i like a little safety margin so keep my fc around 7 with cya of 70
if you know the model of swg you have we can calculate the theoretical chlorine production
most pools lose 2-3 ppm fc or 30% which ever is higher each day
this a very rough guide depending on cya and climate
with adjusting chlorinator wait 2-3 days between changes
you dont want to overshoot and go too low and have problems
as mentioned you need a quality test kit
pool store just isnt good enough
as you found they advised adjusting ph when fc was at 10
this risks damaging your pool if you constantly lower ph below 7
one off shouldnt hurt but you dont want it to happen too often
as you dont know what your ph level really is
leave it alone for now and concentrate on lowering your fc level
i like a little safety margin so keep my fc around 7 with cya of 70
if you know the model of swg you have we can calculate the theoretical chlorine production
- Jul 21, 2013
- 54,343
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
In FL in the winter CL loss should be in the 1-2PPM/day range. Short days of sunshine with a low sun angle.
We first turned down the chlorine from 50% to 25% and lowered the pump run time from 12 to 8 hours. Chlorine was still super high so I turned it down to 0% and a couple days later still really high and ph is still showing really high which now I cannot tell if it is from the chlorine being high or if it actually is. Is there anything else we can do to lower the chlorine faster so we can get an accurate reading on our ph? It has been on the colder side here with lows in the 40s and 50s at night so the pool temp is around 70 degrees. Also we get ZERO sunlight on our pool in the winter so I am sure that is helping the chlorine to not go anywhere.
how high is super high
you can do a 5ml test where each drop equals 1 if you suspect 20 or more
but the accuracy is poor
you can do a 5ml test where each drop equals 1 if you suspect 20 or more
but the accuracy is poor
Took a sample to pool store today and its showing a level of 20 now for the chlorine. I set swg at 0 two days ago and it just wont go down. Pool store couldn't even give me a ph reading because it was so high. He gave me something that will hopefully get the chlorine to go down. I will retest in a couple days.
- Jun 22, 2014
- 48,399
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
RM, I'm going to reiterate something Jim noted back in post #2 …..
Anything happening right now is guesswork. Believe me, the folks on this forum love to help fellow pool owners, but they need to have reliable test results to help guide you. Those test kits (TF-100 or Taylor K-2006C) are at the foundation of TFP methods. Please give that some consideration as you move forward it your pool management. We want you to succeed. Good luck!
Every time you go to the pool store for their free testing, you run the risk of receiving not only a false test result, but also being sold something you don't need - like a snake oil to reduce the chlorine level. In fact, we still don't know your true CYA which drives how high the FC should be, so we have no idea what your chlorine level should be.
Anything happening right now is guesswork. Believe me, the folks on this forum love to help fellow pool owners, but they need to have reliable test results to help guide you. Those test kits (TF-100 or Taylor K-2006C) are at the foundation of TFP methods. Please give that some consideration as you move forward it your pool management. We want you to succeed. Good luck!
if you had bought a quality test kit when you remodeled
you wouldnt be in this position
sorry to nag
but it saves so much in the long run
you wouldnt be in this position
sorry to nag
but it saves so much in the long run