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Thread: How to raise PH without effecting TA? Newbie needs help

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    Default How to raise PH without effecting TA? Newbie needs help

    Total Hardness:500
    Total Chlorine:0
    Free Chlorine:0
    PH:6.8
    TA: 180
    Cyanuric Acid: 150

    I have an underground concrete pool with 4000gallons. I have been trying to lower the TA over the last 3 weeks with muriatic acid and have been successful however when I try to raise the ph using ph plus/borax the TA increases as well. My chlorine levels disappear very quickly despite adding chlorine daily. I cant seem to get my levels balanced. How do I raise my ph without raising the alkalinity?? Please help!

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    Default Re: How to raise PH without effecting TA? Newbie needs help

    Aerate, possibly by adjusting a pool return to 'riffle' the surface. This page explains:
    http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/lowe...p-by-step.html

    However, your hardness is awfully high, and your stabilizer is way, way too high for an indoor pool. If the pool is truly indoors, and not exposed to light and has little bather load . . . then your high chlorine use is quite possibly a result of heavy biofilm infestation somewhere in the pipes, filter, or pool. With a stabilizer > 150 ppm, it's going to take extraordinarily high levels of chlorine to clean up.

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    Default Re: How to raise PH without effecting TA? Newbie needs help

    My pool is an outdoor pool with has little bather load. It is in full sun for most of the day and the temperature is around 28c most of the year. The pool store got me to this situation be giving me wrong advice! Not surprising from what I have been reading online. There are lots of fruit trees in the yard and I am frequently cleaning the filter and vacuuming. Is aerateing the only way to raise the ph? Thanks for your help!

    Quote Originally Posted by PoolDoc View Post
    Aerate, possibly by adjusting a pool return to 'riffle' the surface. This page explains:
    http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/lowe...p-by-step.html

    However, your hardness is awfully high, and your stabilizer is way, way too high for an indoor pool. If the pool is truly indoors, and not exposed to light and has little bather load . . . then your high chlorine use is quite possibly a result of heavy biofilm infestation somewhere in the pipes, filter, or pool. With a stabilizer > 150 ppm, it's going to take extraordinarily high levels of chlorine to clean up.

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    Default Re: How to raise PH without effecting TA? Newbie needs help

    Aerating is not the only way to raise your pH, but it IS the only practical way to raise your pH without increasing your alkalinity, especially when you have a TA of 180.

    By the way, how are you testing? It's very, very unusual for anyone who's not a user of this site, or one of the other BBB sites, to be able test accurately at those levels (TA=150; TH=500) and it's even rarer to be able to test CYA=150. If your test results are NOT accurate . . . then all bets are off.

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    Default Re: How to raise PH without effecting TA? Newbie needs help

    I am using test strips from the pool store called Aquacheck 7. I added Muriatic Acid over 2 weeks (2 gallons) and got TA down to 80 and the Cyanuric acid was around 100. I then added 4lbs of Borax...no change...then I added 1 cup PH plus..no change..and then I add 4lbs of Borax again and the ph went from 6.2-6.8. The TA of course went back up again. I got the pool guys to come out to help me but they told me things were fine with my levels (which I know is not true). The pool stores only sell the test strips here in Barbados so I have to rely on them. The strips are about 50usd for 100 strips. Sooo pretty much my best bet is to aerate! Should I add more muriatic acid to lower TA..then aerate?

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    Default Re: How to raise PH without effecting TA? Newbie needs help

    Can you order a Taylor K2006 from Amazon? (I'm guessing not, because of the whole TSA/post-911 air shipment of liquids problems)

    The AquaChek CYA reading are quite unreliable, and your other readings are likely to very, very approximate.

    In the absence of accurate test results, I'd recommend raising the pH to just below 7.0 . . . and then leaving it there. If you keep it there, long term, the carbonate alkalinity portion of your TA (total alkalinity) will drop.

    Do NOT operate the pool long term with the pH near or below 6.5! You WILL do damage if you do so.

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