Tired of throwing gallons of MA! Any other alternative?

[BullishBear]

My SWG pool has a spillover spa. My pH & TA levels are >8.0 and 80 as of today (it was 7.5 and 70 four days back), I have been constantly mixing 1 to 1.5 liters of MA every week and a mid week top up if TA reaches 100 I.e. higher than the acceptable maximum. I need to hit and MAINTAIN 7.6 pH and 70 TA but using SWG and importantly the spillover spa creates lots of aeration thereby increasing the pH? Is my understanding correct? But why TA too raises gradually? Is there a cheaper alternative or any other creative structural solution to reduce the effect of spillover spa?

Note: My pump was losing prime last few weeks, as it takes 7-9 mins to get the water flowing/moving. Increased the water level, it improved but still took 5-6 mins. Changed the O-ring of pump lid and primed the pump today. I don’t see any air bubbles in the pump basket. Need to see tomorrow whether the problem is fixed. Can this also cause aeration in the system and thereby increase pH/TA? The filter pressure dropped from 24 psi to 21 psi (my benchmark after backwashing) after replacing the Oring and priming the pump. Is this pressure reduction indication of suction side air leak fix?

 

[ajw22]

What automation do you have?

You have an autofill?

What is the pH & TA of your fill water?

What test kit do you have?

How much is your waterfall run?

Stop running the spillover spa when it is not necessary. Use SPILLOVER mode in your automation to schedule the spillover.

Post a complete set of test results from your test kit.

 

[mgtfp]

the spillover spa creates lots of aeration thereby increasing the pH? Is my understanding correct? But why TA too raises gradually?

You're right there, aeration increases pH. And does so the faster the higher TA is. But aeration doesn't raise TA. The main culprit for TA rise is topping up evaporation losses with fill water that's high in TA. Hence Allen's question about your fill water.

 

[Bperry]

My SWG pool has a spillover spa. My pH & TA levels are >8.0 and 80 as of today (it was 7.5 and 70 four days back), I have been constantly mixing 1 to 1.5 liters of MA every week and a mid week top up if TA reaches 100 I.e. higher than the acceptable maximum. I need to hit and MAINTAIN 7.6 pH and 70 TA but using SWG and importantly the spillover spa creates lots of aeration thereby increasing the pH? Is my understanding correct? But why TA too raises gradually? Is there a cheaper alternative or any other creative structural solution to reduce the effect of spillover spa?

Note: My pump was losing prime last few weeks, as it takes 7-9 mins to get the water flowing/moving. Increased the water level, it improved but still took 5-6 mins. Changed the O-ring of pump lid and primed the pump today. I don’t see any air bubbles in the pump basket. Need to see tomorrow whether the problem is fixed. Can this also cause aeration in the system and thereby increase pH/TA? The filter pressure dropped from 24 psi to 21 psi (my benchmark after backwashing) after replacing the Oring and priming the pump. Is this pressure reduction indication of suction side air leak fix?

Try running the pH at 7.6-7.9 and let the TA do what it wants to.

 

[71ailmar]

I will say that my pH used to run high (I do have high pH fill water, at 8.0) and I felt I was always adding acid, enough to make it a nuisance. My TA has recently come down to 50 and while it might be "out of range" per the method, it actually has caused my pH rise to slow down substantially. I've figured out that for my pool, a TA of 50 is what helps keep the pH in better balance. I still need to add MA, probably once a week in the height of summer here, but it's way better than multiple times a week. Just something to think about.

 

[fanis.merk]

My fillwater has 300 TA. Evaporation, kids splashing water brings in new water automatically. Moreover I have significant aeration due to pool design. It is a constant battle to stabilize the pH. I always bring the TA of the pool to 50 when I open the pool by manually adding MA in the first week. After that my automatic acid dispenser with a pH probe takes care of the rest. If I don’t do the manual startup automation consumes the acid tank very fast and also complains about high TA and shuts itself down for safety after a while. I would never go back to manual acid dosing as it is so much work when you have high TA fill water. Now it is smooth sailing all season and my acid tank lasts for a month.