Hi all! New pool owner that had to do a drain/refill thanks to the previous owners triclor habit. Water chemistry in our area is extremely high calcium and TA levels. I will talk about calcium in a separate post, but have a question about TA and potassium.
I have been using muriatic acid (19 gallons and counting!) to lower ph and TA, then aerating the pool to raise the ph without impacting the TA. At first the process went quickly, with a ph rise from 7.0 to 7.5 in one day. But now that we are in summer I am refilling lost water from the water softener to avoid increasing calcium. My water softener uses potassium to replace the calcium. I have noticed since adding the softened water the ph rises much more slowly, max of .1 per day.
Does potassium act like borates, and slow the ph rise? I cannot think of any other reason the ph rise is now so slow. I am not comparing ph on days that I have added water. The readings on my softened fill water are:
ph 7.0
FC 0
CH 100
TA 400
When I add water it is just a few inches once a week, and the pool averages about 5 feet deep. Any insight would be appreciated.
I have been using muriatic acid (19 gallons and counting!) to lower ph and TA, then aerating the pool to raise the ph without impacting the TA. At first the process went quickly, with a ph rise from 7.0 to 7.5 in one day. But now that we are in summer I am refilling lost water from the water softener to avoid increasing calcium. My water softener uses potassium to replace the calcium. I have noticed since adding the softened water the ph rises much more slowly, max of .1 per day.
Does potassium act like borates, and slow the ph rise? I cannot think of any other reason the ph rise is now so slow. I am not comparing ph on days that I have added water. The readings on my softened fill water are:
ph 7.0
FC 0
CH 100
TA 400
When I add water it is just a few inches once a week, and the pool averages about 5 feet deep. Any insight would be appreciated.