Strange combination

[PoolGate]

10 hours isn't enough time to do anything. How are you aerating? Can you post a pic? I have 2 water falls and run them both 24x7 when I am lowering my T/A and it takes a week to go maybe 10 points. You will not see anything at all in 10 hours.

 

[mknauss]

There is no reason to add borax. Your pH is fine.

 

[PoolStored]

Despite aerating water for over 10 hours now, the pH is still 7.2
I'm now adding Borox.

mknauss said with a pool cover, the pH is not allowed to rise. Can I uncover half the pool and pH can rise? I had half the cover on during the aeration - would that be the cause for pH not rising?

Also I'm now adding Borox - will the pH not rise with the cover on even after adding lbs of Borox? I need to keep the cover on to reduce evaporation - it is windy here and I lose a lot of water if I don't keep the cover on.

I'm assuming that you are preparing for SLAM. There is no need to raise pH to 7.4 for slam. That is not a magical number.

Start the slam with pH of 7.2 is perfectly fine.

How are you "Aerating?" The trick with Aeration is LOTS and LOTS of VERY TINY BUBBLES. Not sure how you are "aerating." I can raise my pH about .4 in 12 hours with this rig attached to a sump pump.

Aerator.jpg

• PoolStored
• Sep 11, 2022
• 2

 

[JJ_Tex]

Newt - Take a deep breath and lets tackle your issues one by one in order of priority:

1. You are relying on pool store testing and pool service. They will give you conflicting and confusing results and we have seen it way too many times where they get a pool owner in a panic and worrying about all the wrong things.
Solution - Get your own test kit ASAP and stop listening to pool stores, pool people, uncles, etc.

2. Since you said you have algae, read up on the SLAM process and tackle that. That relies on lots of chlorine which is the only thing that will kill algae.

3. Stop worrying about TA, aeration, and borates for now. Those have zero impact on algae and water clarity and can be addressed later.

4. Once your SLAM is complete, likely a week or more, post up another set of results using your own test kit. Then we can help you fine tune the lesser metrics in your pool.