PH Questions

[chem geek]

Though the aeration from your waterfall and the bubbles from the SWG are contributing to the pH rise, the higher TA of 130 ppm is making things that much worse in terms of the rate of pH rise. Read HOWTO: Lowering Your Alkalinity and see if you can get your TA down to 80 ppm. As for the saturation index, the tool you are using is resulting in an index that is slightly too low. The Pool Calculator I linked to earlier has a slightly more accurate index calculation (not a huge deal, however -- you don't have to be precisely at zero).

If you end up at 80 ppm for TA and find that reasonable, then you could somewhat raise the CH level to compensate or you could target 7.7 as your pH. Again, not a huge deal here -- 0.1 or 0.2 (+/-) on the index isn't a problem.

[Charlie]

I was finally able to get my pH down to 7.2 last night when I checked it. It was 6 hours after adding 1/2 gallon, so it went from 7.6 to 7.2 with 1/2 gallon of acid added.
I'm going to check it when I get home from work today, and more than likely, I will be adding acid to keep it at 7.2 (according to those instructions in the link posted by Richard).

How long (estimating) will it take to get the TA down to the 80 range with this method? Just trying to get a ball park number only. Thanks,
Charlie

[CarlD]

It really depends....if pH is rising from aeration, then the more you aerate, the faster it rises, and the faster you can add acid to bring down pH and TA together.

But if the pH is rising from something else and the TA is going up with it, it will take far longer. The thing to do is check TA each time you bring the pH down to 7.2 and you'll see how long it takes.

[Charlie]

Just checked it at 5:30pm my time, and the pH is now 7.4 and the TA is 110. From these numbers, it looks like it will take me ~2 weeks ± a day or to in order to hit my target of 70.

[chem geek]

Try pointing all of your returns upward. You could also be a little more aggressive with the acid getting closer to 7.0 without overshooting (kind of the color between 7.0 and 7.2). It is a slow process, but I don't think it will take quite as long as you think.

[Charlie]

Just an update:
pH: 7.2
TA: 80
CYA: 50 (was 40 yesterday)

I added stabilizer yesterday, but I probably need to let it go for a few more days before I can an accurate number?

Just a little bit more to get to a TA of 70.

[aylad]

If you added it through a sock hung in front of a return, then I would give it at least 2-3 more days before you get the accurate level.

Janet

[Charlie]

With my levels getting closer to the recommended amount, I've created a spreadsheet to document the tests. Here is what I have, and let me know if these values are okay or not. I hope I'm close:

I've pasted the values in a Word Document for easier viewing:
http://mysite.verizon.net/res6ncxf/TEST.doc