High ph

[Tiffanyheggemann]

I have a 14 ft by 38 in summer escapes pool. My young kids swim regularly in it. I add 2 one-inch chlorine pucks a day in the filter along with 1/4 of a 3 inch "arm and hammer, clear balance" puck. The chlorine level is 3, Br is 6, and the ph is a high 8.2. How do I lower the ph? I'm assuming the cloudiness is due to high ph too. If not how do I reduce cloudiness of pool?

[Watermom]

Hi, Tiffany, and welcome to the Pool Forum.

First off, you don't have a bromine pool, so you can ignore that reading on your tester. We really need to know some additonal testing results that your tester doesn't show like alk, calcium hardness and CYA. The kit we really recommend is called the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C which you can get through the test kit page in my signature below. It is only available online though. Can you check to see if your Walmart carries the HTH 6-Way kit (not test strips). It can test for those things I mentioned.

You use muriatic acid to reduce pH. However since this is a small volume pool, we usually suggest using some 'ph down' which is dry acid. (If you decide to use muriatic acid, please read the link below about using it safely.)
What are the ingredients in the chlorine pucks? Why are you using the Arm and Hammer clear balance puck?

Also, please fill in the following pool chart with your pool's information.

Pool Chart Entry Form
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[waterbear]

I add 2 one-inch chlorine pucks a day in the filter along with 1/4 of a 3 inch "arm and hammer, clear balance" puck. The chlorine level is 3, Br is 6, and the ph is a high 8.2. How do I lower the ph?

The Arm and Hammer pucks are just baking soda so you are adding baking soda (aka total alkalinity increaser) daily, which is not a recommended procedure by anyone except Arm and Hammer since it boosts their sales of a very expensive baking soda tablet! Your TA is probably very high and high TA will tend to cause pH to rise to aournd 8.2 or 8.3 so your high pH is no surprise.
THIS is why water testing with a good test kit is necessary! You need to find out your total alkalinity and post it. You also need to add acid to drop the pH and you will probably find that it rises back very quickly. Read the link in Watermon's signature about test kits. It will be the best investment you can make in pool care and will save a lot of money and problems in the long haul!
Get your water tested (but not with strips) and report back what the TA is and we can take it from there.

[Watermom]

Evan, apparently the puck is not only baking soda but also has a clarifier in it. (See post #4 in this thread: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...-Clear-Balance ) Either way, as you pointed out --- she doesn't need them.

[waterbear]

Evan, apparently the puck is not only baking soda but also has a clarifier in it. (See post #4 in this thread: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...-Clear-Balance ) Either way, as you pointed out --- she doesn't need them.

Yeah, I know that. It's still over 86% baking soda and the rest is clarifier and other ingredients (read filler) so my guess is a small amount of sodium polyacylate or other clarifier and the rest are binders and the reason for the clarifier is most likely to keep the binders from clouding the water. For all practical purposes it's just a tab of baking soda and the primary effect of using it would be to cause the TA and pH to go up.