HELPppppppppppp

[chem geek]

Chemical folks, please correct me if I'm giving wrong advice here!

If you have an Intex pool, whose life expectancy isn't more than a few years, I would not worry at all about high PH or ALK. You might have to use a little more chlorine, but that's about it. Low PH is a problem, obviously, but high PH as far as I know only poses a risk of scaling, which shouldn't be an issue with a disposable pool.

Lori,

Yes you are correct, especially about the ALK (TA). However, high pH has other issues in addition to increasing the risk for scaling (you may notice cloudiness first). These issues include the following:

1) Greater likelihood of precipitating metals in the water. This can be avoided with a sequestering agent, if there are any metals in the water at all.

2) Greater likelihood for irritation of the eyes. Both high and low pH can irritate the eyes.

3) Lower effectiveness of chlorine, though this isn't as extreme in the presence of CYA. With a CYA of 50, TA of 120, FC of 10, going from a pH of 7.5 to a pH of 8.4 reduces chlorine effectiveness by about 20% so you would use Ben's chart with increased FC levels accordingly.

raptureready1953,

With your 8.4 pH, 250 CH, 120 TA, 50-100 CYA, your pool is quite a bit out of chemical balance with a relatively strong tendency to scale (the LSI or CSI is over 0.9). Normally, we tell people not to worry about the saturation index because you generally have a lot of leeway with it, but I've seen reports on this forum that cloudiness occurs at around 0.75 or 1.0 so this may very well be the source of your cloudiness. Since the high pH has other problems (see above), I would suggest you lower the pH to get closer to 7.5 by adding the appropriate amount of Muriatic Acid. [EDIT] Note the post from Simmons99 below since high Chlorine can cause a false high pH reading (I wish I remembered that the first time!). [END-EDIT]

It may be very true that you are still clearing out algae, but you might as well deal with your pH while your filter is collecting your algae.

Richard