Alkalinity?

[Watermom]

You can just add a little Borax to the skimmer while the pump is running. It will raise ph without affecting alk. Just a little - ph at 7.4-7.6 is good.

[jenmenke]

Just to clarify:
If you raise pH with soda ash or borax TA will rise--more with ash than borax. So you aerate to raise pH.

CarlD said that borax WILL raise TA. Is it just a little? I'm battling high alkalinity in my fill water all the time (300++) so I'm paranoid about adding anything that will increase TA once I get it into range. But PH of 7.2 seems a little low. But if aeration stops increasing Ph at 7.2, then I have to use something else, right?
Jennie

[Watermom]

Borax will not raise your alk much at all. That is why it is much preferred over soda ash. If you want to try and continue aerating to see if the ph will come up on its own, that is fine. Then, if it doesn't, you can always add a little Borax. (And, actually having a ph of 7.2 doesn't hurt a thing. Just keep an eye on it that it doesn't drop too low.)

[CarlD]

Jennie,
I guess I wasn't clear. Total Alkalinity is linked to pH and generally moves with it. If your pH goes down, T/A goes down. If your pH goes up, T/A goes up no matter HOW you raise it.

Except: Aerating when pH is 7.2 or lower is the only way we can "break" that link and get pH to up without T/A going up as well.

We can also raise T/A without raising pH (much)--by adding baking soda.

So using Borax to raise pH causes the normal linked rise in T/A.

But if you use Soda Ash it's like adding BOTH Borax AND Baking Soda and it causes T/A to rise a lot more than Borax.

Still, as WaterMom says, you can usually use Borax without worry. However, if you are still in the process of lowering T/A, and pH is 7.2 or lower, you can use aerating to raise pH as our normal procedure.

CAVEAT: If your pH is below 6.9 you'll want to raise ASAP with Borax, especially in a vinyl pool.

[jenmenke]

Thanks a ton you guys. I think I am really close. My Alk is 120. Ph 7.2. I think I need one more gallon of acid. The last one I added didn't seem to do much. I plan to bring alk down to 100 based on Ben's sticky (http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=191) and the fact that my fill water is HIGHLY alkaline.

So you are saying once I get Alk down, that it's ok to leave Ph at 7.2? I've aearated for two days straight with fountains at Alk 120 and ph at 7.2. I don't think Ph will rise anymore with just aeration. At least not with my fountain set-up. so I'll lower one more time, get Alk at 100, aerate to bring ph back to 7.2 and leave it alone.

Is there any compelling reason to bring my Ph up to 7.4-7.6 from 7.2? Honestly, it just never ever moves from 7.2 for long. so I'm not too worried about it being lower that 6.9 with my liner. In fact, even when adding a gallon of acid at a time it never went below 7.0. Maaaaybe it was 6.9 for a couple hours, but that was it.

Thanks again!
Jennie

[Watermom]

Sometimes pools have a mind of their own of what ph levels they want to be. 7.2 will be fine.

[savdoc2]

I added a whole box of borax Wed & Thurs. Tonight the numbers look good:

TC = 3
pH = 7.2
Alk = 140
Temp = 58

So the alk is holding steady and pH is safe. Other than a lot of tree seeds in the pool it looks good. We'll clean the seeds up this weekend.

Should I try to get the alk down a little lower?
What is a good level to keep the Cl?

[Watermom]

I see in your first post that you say your cya is 40. If that is still the case, a cl level between 3-6 is your target. Alk is fine at 140. Leave it alone. At this point, I think you're good to go. Time to enjoy your pool! Glad we could help.

[savdoc2]

Thank you so much for all your help. I learned a lot.

[Watermom]

You are very welcome!