davem Posted October 6, 2005 Report Share Posted October 6, 2005 Pool has been installed about 6 weeks now and I have a salt system. I was told the alkalinity would be high the first year while the plaster cures. I started adding muratic acid in gallon bottles as instructed by my builder. Recenly I've been taking my water to have it tested at the local pool supply and everything looks good except the Alkalinity and PH. Saturday the Alkalinity tested at 160 ppm, Tuesday at 130 ppm and Thursday at 190 ppm. PH always shows 8.2 I was given "Easy Acid" by the Pool Supply and told to add two bags on Saturday, it looked high on Sunday so I added another bag, Tuesday I was told to add another and Thursday to add two more. That makes 6 bags of "Easy Acid" in 6 days! 1 bag is supposed to equal a gallon of Muratic Acid. Is this normal? Cyanuric Acid has tested in the range of 75 to 85 ppm which appears to be good. Water is very clear. Can I expect to keep adding acid at this rate or is there something else I need to look at? Maybe I should just switch back to the bottled Muratic Acid from Home Depot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted October 7, 2005 Report Share Posted October 7, 2005 Pool has been installed about 6 weeks now and I have a salt system. I was told the alkalinity would be high the first year while the plaster cures. I started adding muratic acid in gallon bottles as instructed by my builder. Recenly I've been taking my water to have it tested at the local pool supply and everything looks good except the Alkalinity and PH. Saturday the Alkalinity tested at 160 ppm, Tuesday at 130 ppm and Thursday at 190 ppm. PH always shows 8.2 I was given "Easy Acid" by the Pool Supply and told to add two bags on Saturday, it looked high on Sunday so I added another bag, Tuesday I was told to add another and Thursday to add two more. That makes 6 bags of "Easy Acid" in 6 days! 1 bag is supposed to equal a gallon of Muratic Acid. Is this normal? Cyanuric Acid has tested in the range of 75 to 85 ppm which appears to be good. Water is very clear. Can I expect to keep adding acid at this rate or is there something else I need to look at? Maybe I should just switch back to the bottled Muratic Acid from Home Depot. I am in about the same position as you although my PH is lower. I would continue to add muriatic acid. During the initial cure, I added Muratic nearly every day to keep it arround 7.2. If you want to lower the Alkalinity you need to keep the PH below 7.2 until the alk drops. This will take some time. Check out this forum for description on the process: http://www.poolforum.com/pf/dcboard.php?az...g_id=1111&page= Don't waste your money on Easy Acid. Muriatic is much more cost effective. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hummer953 Posted October 13, 2005 Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 Pool has been installed about 6 weeks now and I have a salt system. I was told the alkalinity would be high the first year while the plaster cures. I started adding muratic acid in gallon bottles as instructed by my builder. Recenly I've been taking my water to have it tested at the local pool supply and everything looks good except the Alkalinity and PH. Saturday the Alkalinity tested at 160 ppm, Tuesday at 130 ppm and Thursday at 190 ppm. PH always shows 8.2 I was given "Easy Acid" by the Pool Supply and told to add two bags on Saturday, it looked high on Sunday so I added another bag, Tuesday I was told to add another and Thursday to add two more. That makes 6 bags of "Easy Acid" in 6 days! 1 bag is supposed to equal a gallon of Muratic Acid. Is this normal? Cyanuric Acid has tested in the range of 75 to 85 ppm which appears to be good. Water is very clear. Can I expect to keep adding acid at this rate or is there something else I need to look at? Maybe I should just switch back to the bottled Muratic Acid from Home Depot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hummer953 Posted October 13, 2005 Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 I have the same problem with my new pool with the ph riding up in the 8.2 range and my contractor advised me to keep adding muratic acid. I add 1 gallon every other day to keep the ph in proper range, but the calcium level is in the 530-580 range. I've been told adding this volume of acid will ruin the pipes and equipment. I have already had to drain the pool and acid wash because of the calciun hydroxide reacting with the CO2 in the water to form plaster dust. The pool builder doesn't know how to keep the ph in check and lower the calcium. Any experts out there with some suggestions. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryS Posted October 15, 2005 Report Share Posted October 15, 2005 I am having the same problem. My pool has been open for 14 weeks, since Memorial Day. My PH goes up -.2 per day. I was adding dry acid all summer, every 2 to 3 days. I went through over 100 lbs. I am now using the liquid from Home Depot. My pool company won't close my pool until my PH is stable so that I do not develop calcium deposits over the winter. The weather is getting colder(I am in the Northeast) and the leaves are falling fast. Is there anything I can do the speed the process along? I turned off my SWG and am using chlorine tablets since I read the SWG can increase PH. No luck yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davem Posted October 26, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2005 Mark provided a link to an article on lowering PH and Alkalinity. I followed the instructions and was finally able to lower both to normal levels. This is what I did. I picked up a box (4 bottles) of Muratic Acid from the pool supply. I started on Monday and added about 1/2 to 3/4 of a gallon of acid to the deep end. Now I do have a return jet in my top step which the builder called a Sun Shelf or basically an extra large step. It's pretty close to the top of the water so it creates a lot of bubbles which helps aerate as described in the article. After adding the acid I took my brush on the pole and would plunge it in and out of the water. This created a lot of bubbles and would stir up the water pretty well. I mainly focused on the deep end where I placed the acid but I tried to move around a little. I would do this for around 5 to maybe 10 minutes or until my arms got tired. Of course my pump was running at the time and I would let it run for a few hours after to circulate the water. I repeated the above process every day Monday through Friday and I used no more than 3 gallons of acid. Think it was like 2 1/2 gallons actually. I had the water tested on Saturday and my PH was at 7.5 and Alkalinity was at 120 ppm which was awesome because my PH had not been below 8.2 since the pool was installed! I continued doing the above but now every 2 to 3 days. Had it tested again and my PH was 7.2! Now as far as acid goes I was told I would have to add it pretty regularly while the plaster cured. 6 months to a year???? I have not heard anything about acid damaging the pipes or equipment. I wouldn't think it could damage the pipes since you only add a small amount of acid to several thousand gallons of water. My builder said he would actually add acid while he was in the pool! Don't think I'll be trying that. Anyway, I just wanted to replay to say thanks to Mark and let others know of my success. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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