sewerrat Posted March 17, 2010 Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 Started on Sat with fresh fill after decontamination. Current readings are TA=120 CH=130 PH=8.0 FC=5.0 CC=0.5 Since I last added Dichlor about 20 hours ago, I guess I've been adding too much after each soak(I soak every night), so I will slow that down a little. My current count says I've added 21ppm of Dichlor . . .targeting 34 before I switch to bleach. My plan is to lower PH to 7.5 which will put my CSI at .02, but the PH is at the bottom of the spectrum. Does this sound like a good balance? I then plan to add 50ppm of Boric Acid (Roach killer ) to stabilize PH. Good plan?? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chem geek Posted March 18, 2010 Report Share Posted March 18, 2010 Before you add the borates, I'd keep adding acid to keep the pH lower and this will also lower the TA over time. You want to get your TA lower since that is the true source of rising pH in your water. If you don't want to add acid all the time, then you can more rapidly lower the TA using the TA lowering procedure that is described in Nitro's post. You essentially add acid to lower the pH to 7.0, then aerate which raises the pH, then add acid to lower pH and TA and repeat until the TA is low (even as low as 50 ppm if the pH seems to rise quickly with aeration). At that point, just aerate to raise the pH near 7.5, add the borates, and you're done. I think any TA of 80 ppm or higher is going to be too high for you -- for most people, switching to bleach, they need to get their TA lower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewerrat Posted March 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2010 Before you add the borates, I'd keep adding acid to keep the pH lower and this will also lower the TA over time. You want to get your TA lower since that is the true source of rising pH in your water. If you don't want to add acid all the time, then you can more rapidly lower the TA using the TA lowering procedure that is described in Nitro's post. You essentially add acid to lower the pH to 7.0, then aerate which raises the pH, then add acid to lower pH and TA and repeat until the TA is low (even as low as 50 ppm if the pH seems to rise quickly with aeration). At that point, just aerate to raise the pH near 7.5, add the borates, and you're done. I think any TA of 80 ppm or higher is going to be too high for you -- for most people, switching to bleach, they need to get their TA lower. Will "PH Decreaser" (sodium bisulfate) lower TA? I got a bunch of this stuff and figured it would be better than running out and buying acid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chem geek Posted March 18, 2010 Report Share Posted March 18, 2010 Yes, dry acid (sodium bisulfate) will lower both pH and TA. Roughly speaking, 5 teaspoons of dry acid in 350 gallons will lower the TA by around 10 ppm. You wouldn't use more than that at a time since that would lower the pH from 7.5 to 7.1 when the TA starts out around 100 ppm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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