Cloudy water after adding PH increaser...

Problems relating to pH and total alkalinity.
Increase ph, increase TA. Reduce pH, reduce TA.
pH chemistry advice and techniques for the pool.
lisa412
I'm new here
I'm new here
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat 13 Jun, 2009 13:16
My Pool: Fiberglass, 16 X 33, inground

Cloudy water after adding PH increaser...

Postby lisa412 » Tue 23 Jun, 2009 17:20

Hi,
My local pool place tested my water and said the PH was still too low and told me to add 4 lbs. of Bioguard balance pak 200 (ph increaser). She said it could make the water a little cloudy. I added slightly less than they recommended and now I can't see the bottom of the pool at all. I called the pool store and they told me it should burn off and clear up in a few hours but I'm concerned. Is this common?
Help!
Thanks!!!


Chris
I'm new here
I'm new here
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu 11 Jun, 2009 22:28

Cloudy water after adding PH increaser...

Postby Chris » Thu 13 Aug, 2009 18:37

I just had the same problem happen to my pool. How did you resolve the issue??
chem geek
Pool Industry Leader
Pool Industry Leader
Posts: 2381
Joined: Thu 21 Jun, 2007 21:27
Location: San Rafael, California

Cloudy water after adding PH increaser...

Postby chem geek » Fri 14 Aug, 2009 10:02

pH Up is sodium carbonate which will increase both pH AND Total Alkalinity (TA). If your water is close to being saturated with calcium carbonate already, then adding this product can not only cloud the water, but it will remain cloudy for some time. How long depends on how saturated the water was/is with calcium carbonate. If you want to raise the pH without raising the TA as much, then use 20 Mule Team Borax instead. If you want to raise the pH without raising the TA at all, then aerate the water.

Use The Pool Calculator to calculate the saturation index as well as chemical dosages.

If the cloudiness does not dissipate with circulation over a day or two, then you can reduce it by lowering the pH somewhat, but if your pH is already where you want it or is still low, then you may need to lower the TA instead. To lower the TA, you follow the procedure described in this post. Of course, the combination of using pH Up with the lowering TA procedure is the same thing as you just aerating the water in the first place to raise the pH without raising the TA so in the future do that instead of using pH Up (or use 20 Mule Team Borax instead). Your Calcium Hardness (CH) may also be high in which case that can only be lowered by dilution of water if your fill water isn't as high in CH.

If your pH is usually low, then this is probably from your continued use of Trichlor products. You should realize that such continued use not only requires extra chemicals to be added to compensate for the Trichlor acidity, but that for every 10 ppm Free Chlorine (FC) added by Trichlor, it also increases Cyanuric Acid (CYA, aka stabilizer or conditioner) by 6 ppm so this can build up quickly making chlorine less effective and more likely for your pool to develop algae.

Return to “pH & Total Alkalinity”

Who is online at the Pool Help Forum

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests