There is so much confusion over how to maintain pH and today we are going to make it crystal clear! The secret to maintaining your pH is actually your alkalinity.
The best definition of alkalinity is the measure of a water’s ability to resist change in pH. The reason that it is so important is because it will be easier to maintain your pH, help protect surfaces against corrosion, staining and scaling formation.
The first thing you want to do is balance your Alkalinity (TA) to the proper level. We recommend coming in for a water test or you can use your dip strips at home. Having alkalinity too low can cause vinyl to wrinkle, plaster to etch, surfaces can corrode, or staining may appear. Having alkalinity to high can cause higher pH and will increase scale formation, which in turn could cause cloudy water.
The reasons alkalinity changes over time is because the buffering acids in the alkalinity deplete over time with sun exposure and bather usage. This is the reason we must top up our alkalinity over the summer.
The definition of pH is potential Hydrogen which is the measure of acidity or basicity of a solution. After we adjust the TA, we will wait a week and see where the pH settles. After a week, you will want to either use your pH Plus or pH Minus to further adjust your pH if need be. It is very important to note, that pH takes a week to settle in its place. So whenever you are adjusting you want to wait a week before you continue another dose.
SO.. Just to recap the first thing we want to adjust is alkalinity and get it to the right level, then we want to adjust the pH level.
So to answer our original question who is in charge? ALKALINITY! 🙂 Whoop Whoop! The crowd goes WILD!
Tech Tip: Blance pak have numbers on them so you know what order to add them!
Balance Pak 100 – total alkalinity first because he’s the BOSS
Balance Pak 200 – balance pH second so that Balance Pak 100 has done its magic!
Balance Pak 300 – add this third!
