Low pH, Hardness, Alk, where do I start?

Chrissy and all,

I am 1st time poster. I read your post about the low ph. I have had the same problem for 2 years. I have been dumping baking soda with no movement on the scale. Went get the Borax Mule 20 and put 12 boxes over 3 days. ph is at 7.4. Thanks to all.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. BayouMac

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChrissyInOregon

6/13 readings:

Alk 80
pH 7.8
Chlorine 1ppm

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It has been cool here, so no one has been in the pool. We had some rain this weekend. The pool temp was down to 66, but today was up to 71. I put 4 round, approx 6ft solar cover circles on the pool on Friday (because I'm cheap and they were $3.41 each instead of $50+ for a 16ft cover). They're down to $3 now:

Intex Round Solar Pool Cover

I tested my water early evening and the pH has dropped to around 7.6, and the Alk has dropped to 70ppm. Is this from the rain, and the little bit of hose water I put in this afternoon? Should I add more borax? Baking soda? What numbers would you shoot for, and how much should I obsess about this?

The SWCG has been running 1hr/day and the chlorine is at 3ppm today.
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Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChrissyInOregon

... pH has dropped to around 7.6, and the Alk has dropped to 70ppm. Is this from the rain, and the little bit of hose water I put in this afternoon? Should I add more borax? Baking soda? What numbers would you shoot for, and how much should I obsess about this?

The SWCG has been running 1hr/day and the chlorine is at 3ppm today.

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pH between 7.0 and 8.0 is fine - no need to adjust. If the pH keeps falling to 7.0 then you may want to add some baking soda to raise TA as well as some Borax to raise pH.

Shoot for pH between 7.0 and 8.0 and don't obsess about it.

3ppm is as low as you want to let FC go - especially with a small volume of water. It might be a good idea to add CYA and increase FC target to keep a reserve of chlorine in the water.