Big mistake in trying to raise pH... please help!

[aylad]

It'll be interesting to see the result of your metals test--if you do have a high metal content you can use sequestrant.....take a look at Marie's (mbar) posts in the metals forum--she's the resident expert and has given lots of good information when it comes to dealing with metals. Is your fill source from the municipal water supply, or is it from a well?

I believe soda ash also raises TA along with pH, which may be why you're not getting as much rise in pH as you expect, but I really think your pH was much, much lower than you originally thought, which explains the huge amount of Borax being used to get it back up to normal ranges.

Janet

[waterbear]

I already said that you had copper in your water.
Question is, where did it come from? Have you been using algaecide?

[JWB]

I already said that you had copper in your water.
Question is, where did it come from? Have you been using algaecide?

No algaecide. The only tri-chlor I’ve used was in the two bags of powdered shock (40%), but that was six days ago when I was dealing with algae.

Actually, you said “it could be” copper so I wanted to get a second opinion. Sorry if it looked like I didn’t read your post. They basically backed up what you said but because I didn’t have a large enough sample, they couldn’t determine exactly what metals are present. I’ll find out later this morning.

Let’s assume I have an abundance of copper in the water. With the pool’s current state (FC 5+, pH 7.0, TA 90), can I treat the pool with a metal sequesterant, or do I have to get the pool chemistry in order? Also, any chance the oxidized metals are keeping my pH from rising past 7.0 despite 14 lbs. of soda ash?

Thanks

[CarlD]

Soda Ash=pH Up!=Washing Soda (Arm&Hammer)

This raises T/A as well as pH. T/A of 90 is nothing to worry about.

[JWB]

It'll be interesting to see the result of your metals test--if you do have a high metal content you can use sequestrant.....take a look at Marie's (mbar) posts in the metals forum--she's the resident expert and has given lots of good information when it comes to dealing with metals. Is your fill source from the municipal water supply, or is it from a well?

Janet

Thanks Janet I'll check that out. My water comes from a municipal source. From what I understand now, as this kind of water evaporates, the metals are left behind. That probably explains why the water has always had a strange metallic taste since we inherited this pool. I hope I haven't endangered my family by not taking action to correct it. Having never had a pool before, I thought it was normal.