pH near 8 and possibly rising

[gorji]

Hello:

I've switched to the BBB method described in this forum. I've stopped using any chlorine tablets (trichlor) thru the feeder for 2 weeks now and have seen my pH drift up to near 8.

Cl 4
Total Cl 4
pH 8
Alkalinity 160
CYA 60
Calcium ~ 180

Should I be concerned that the pH is drifting up in the past 3 weeks since d/c the tablets? Before doing the BBB, I used to have to add pH up weekly to keep the pH between 7.2 and 7.8

Pool is 8800 gallons Fiberglass
Age of Pool is 1 year

I realize that pools have their own personality. I never thought that I may have to add acid to my pool.

Thank you

[PoolDoc]

You were adding acid before, in the form of tri-chlor(o-isocyanuric acid). When you stopped, you needed to replace it. There's nothing unusual about that.

[gorji]

Ok understood.
So its either acid or trichlor tabs keeping the CYA level in the back of mind and in check?
Thanks

[PoolDoc]

I think so -- I'm not completely sure I take your meaning.

But all forms of chlorine have side effects:

• Bleach has the fewest, and only adds chlorine & salt.
• Dichlor adds chlorine, stabilizer, and lowers the pH.
• Trichlor adds chlorine, some stabilizer, and lowers the pH quite a bit.
• Calcium hypochlorite adds chlorine, alkalinity, calcium, and raises the pH some.
• Salt water chlorine generation adds chlorine and raises the pH some.

These side effects may be good, bad, or indifferent.

For example, if you fill a pool with high pH / high TA water, dichlor's effects are ALL good: you shock the pool to get levels up, and the CYA also goes up, and the pH also goes done! But, if you use dichlor in a California pool with water that tends to be acid and is already high in CYA . . . then the side-effects are all bad.

So, for dichlor, trichlor, & cal hypo . . . we can't answer the question, "Is this good for my pool?" without knowing quite a lot about your pool. And, since one of the critical bits of info is CYA level -- at which 'guess-strips' are particularly bad -- we constantly end up whining about, "Please get a good test kit!"

We usually recommend bleach in unknown situations precisely because we often don't know enough about the pool to match side-effects and needs. (We also recommend it because it's almost always unavailable in un-gooped-up form!)

[gorji]

Thanks for the replies.

[PoolDoc]

Note re-edit of my earlier reply above. -ben