We have an in-ground pool of around 5000 gallons and since we have owned the property, the water has been stubbornly acidic. A phenol red test is always yellow so I tried some litmus paper and it claims a pH of about 3. We do use the pool and it is not too bad but skin feels a little sore sometimes.
I got some test strips and they also report that the alkalinity is basically 0. I know that reading the strips is quite subjective but I put a test strip in some diluted bicarb and it showed a vivid colour for alkalinity, so they do work but there is no colour change at all in the pool water.
We use all-in-one tablets for the pool chemicals and I have read that they have a pH of 3 which explains why the water is so acidic.
The tablets we currently use are these (sorry, it's in Portuguese): https://www.leroymerlin.pt/produtos...efeitos-para-piscina-4-kg-axton-86761794.html
We don't know what we are supposed to do to get the pH up to the normal range, and the alkalinity up to help keep it there. I have tried to add soda ash last summer and bicarb this summer and neither of them make any change to the pH or alkalinity. We are afraid to just keep throwing in different chemicals to try to resolve this and make the water more pleasant.
I have read that pH should naturally raise anyway, but that doesn't seem to happen. I have angled the filter return jets up to disturb the surface a bit and maybe release CO from the water but it didn't help. The pool has a hard cover that we only open when we use it, so maybe the CO dissolves into the water again.
What else can we try?
I got some test strips and they also report that the alkalinity is basically 0. I know that reading the strips is quite subjective but I put a test strip in some diluted bicarb and it showed a vivid colour for alkalinity, so they do work but there is no colour change at all in the pool water.
We use all-in-one tablets for the pool chemicals and I have read that they have a pH of 3 which explains why the water is so acidic.
The tablets we currently use are these (sorry, it's in Portuguese): https://www.leroymerlin.pt/produtos...efeitos-para-piscina-4-kg-axton-86761794.html
We don't know what we are supposed to do to get the pH up to the normal range, and the alkalinity up to help keep it there. I have tried to add soda ash last summer and bicarb this summer and neither of them make any change to the pH or alkalinity. We are afraid to just keep throwing in different chemicals to try to resolve this and make the water more pleasant.
I have read that pH should naturally raise anyway, but that doesn't seem to happen. I have angled the filter return jets up to disturb the surface a bit and maybe release CO from the water but it didn't help. The pool has a hard cover that we only open when we use it, so maybe the CO dissolves into the water again.
What else can we try?