Blue Horizons Total Alkalinity Reducer 5 Litre

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Failing that, simply using the pool more and making a splash will be enough to get the pH moving in the right direction. The Bottom Line Note: You can also use a pool volume calculator to do the sums for you, but you’ll still need to input your pool measurements. 3. Measure Out Your Acid Total alkalinity works hard to stabilize your pH level, but there isn’t anything in the water doing the same for your total alkalinity.

You replastered your pool. New plaster releases calcium hydroxide for up to a month. This substance has a pH level of 12, naturally pushing your pH up when absorbed by the water. Aside from that, the cyanuric acid in stabilized forms of chlorine (including most tablets or granular chlorine) also contributes alkaline substances to the water, and these will inflate your total alkalinity reading. When total alkalinity is high, you need an acid to eat away at your pH buffer, thereby lowering your total alkalinity. That’s why adjusting your alkalinity before adjusting your pH is so important: it can help bring your pH into range. Your total alkalinity should be between 100 and 150 parts per million (ppm). If you find that your total alkalinity is too low, but you have a pH higher than 6.8, use an alkalinity increaser. If your total alkalinity is too high, using a pH decreaser or pH reducer like sodium bisulfate will bring down both your alkalinity and pH. High pH may cause swimmers to have itchy, red eyes. They may experience skin irritation, as well. So while many people think that high chlorine levels cause eye and skin irritation, it’s really high pH. Erodes Swimsuits and Swimmer Gear

This math is just to explain the pH scale itself and illustrate what logarithmic means. Water (H 2O) splits Pool water requires proper balance to remain safe for the swimmers. Therefore, when the alkalinity level is too high, there will be problems. Common issues that result from high alkalinity include irritation to skin irritations, burning eyes and premature degradation of swimsuits.

The problem with trying to adjust one of these values is that pH and alkalinity are very closely related. This is true to such an extent that lowering one will always eventually lower the other. Third, the pH of bottled drinking water ranges far more than a swimming pool. Common brands range from 5.5 pH to over 9.5 pH. That's a 10,000x difference in acidity! And yet we can hardly taste the difference. Both are refreshing and able to be consumed. Are we really to believe that a swimming pool, kept WAY within that pH range has enough pH difference to irritate bathers skin and eyes? We don't buy it.Knowing how important pH is to your pool chemistry, it’s unsurprising what happens when it comes out of balance. Your total alkalinity should be between 100 and 150 parts per million (ppm). And your pH should be between 7.4 and 7.6. Anything much higher or lower will disrupt your water chemistry, affect your pool’s ability to sanitize, and can damage your pool equipment in the long run. How Do Alkalinity and pH Affect Each Other? It’s not uncommon for either your alkalinity or pH to remain unbalanced after adding pH decreaser or muriatic acid. You could have added enough muriatic acid to bring the pH into range, but your alkalinity is still too high. Or you’ve added enough acid to bring down your total alkalinity to the proper level, but now you have low pH. When the pH is too high, your pool’s chlorine won’t be able to clean the water as effectively. You’ll need to use more chlorine to get the same effect as before, which can affect the rest of your pool’s chemical balance. Without chlorine working effectively to kill microbes, you could end up with an algae bloom. And you may also end up with calcium buildup, which can lead to cloudy water and damaged pool equipment. Irritates Eyes and Skin It’s best to use a liquid drop testing kit for the most accurate readings, however, many pool owners manage to get by on the slightly less accurate (but more convenient) pool testing strips. Ultimately, either strips or drops will work. 2. Add Muriatic Acid to Lower pH and Alkalinity

Adding any kind of acid to your water will eat through your pH buffer, which reduces your total alkalinity. Many types of chlorine are acidic, as is muriatic acid and sodium bisulfate (dry acid). If your total alkalinity is too low, there’s not enough of this helpful buffering chemical in the water to help stabilize your pH. When your total alkalinity is too high, the elevated alkalinity may cause your pH level to rise. And that can reduce the effectiveness of the chlorine in your water. Muriatic acid typically comes with instructions on how to measure it out, but some pool owners find it easier to use an online calculator for more precise measurement. Finally, don’t overlook your water source. If you filled your swimming pool with high-alkalinity water, it won’t take much else to push your total alkalinity reading over the edge. Why High Alkalinity is Bad NewsThe only way to do this without also raising alkalinity is to use a process called “aeration” — which basically just means exposing more of your water to the surrounding air by forcefully disrupting the surface of the water. Test strips provide the easiest and most cost-effective way of testing the alkalinity levels. Although each type comes with specific directions for testing alkalinity, the process typically involves submerging the test strips in the pool water for a few seconds and allowing them to rest as the reagents react with the water. It makes pH harder to adjust. High pH causes high alkalinity ( they’re closely related), and since alkalinity is a pH buffer, this ultimately makes it harder to adjust your pH level.