Sodium bisulfate and sodium chloride ionizer

Problems relating to pH and total alkalinity.
Increase ph, increase TA. Reduce pH, reduce TA.
pH chemistry advice and techniques for the pool.
mimi966

Sodium bisulfate and sodium chloride ionizer

Postby mimi966 » Thu 26 Jul, 2012 00:19

Hi,
I'm lowering the pH using sodium bisulfate. Since I'm using a salt chlorination system, and the salt is sodium chloride, I was wondering if adding sodium from the dry acid might push the free chlorine to its salt state. This because I understood that the salt ionizer is creating free chlorine from the sodium chloride salt and that the free chlorine is afterwards reacting again with sodium to create the salt back. So basic equilibrium chemistry tells me that if I add sodium, I will push the equilibrium to the salt state and have less free chlorine. This is supported by the observation that there IS less free chlorine in the pool although the ionizer is working 24 hrs, but this can be due to the hot summer here (water temp is 33-34C just from the sun). The pool has 30,000 liters.
Thanks!


chem geek
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Sodium bisulfate and sodium chloride ionizer

Postby chem geek » Thu 26 Jul, 2012 02:49

The sodium does not participate in the chlorine reaction at all. It's a salt so when you add sodium chloride to the water it dissociates into sodium ions and chloride ions. When the saltwater chlorine generator makes chlorine, it converts chloride into chlorine. When the chlorine gets used/consumed, it gets converted back to chloride. Sodium has nothing to do with this. See this post for chemical details.

The sodium bisulfate is irrelevant except for adjusting pH, BUT it does increase sulfates which eventually can be a problem for your chlorine generator as well as for plaster surfaces and for soft stone coping and hardscapes. Muriatic Acid won't increase sulfates and only increases chloride.
mimi966

Sodium bisulfate and sodium chloride ionizer

Postby mimi966 » Thu 26 Jul, 2012 12:25

Thanks a lot! I needed this info.

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