Ph Help

[jwithing]

Hello, i'm a new spa owner (2 months) and have found so much useful information in this forum and am so thankful, but now I am stumped.

I just abandoned the clearwater blue system as I determined it was not a sufficient sanitation system for my frequent high bather loads (parties). I switched to bromine and decontaminated the spa prior to the switch. I check the levels everyday with the taylor kit and double check ph with a digital reader. I adjust ph to 7.4 to 7.6 everynight with 95% sodium bisulfate and in the afternoon the next day, the levels are back to 8.1 to 8.2. I've tried reducing TA from 100 to 60, which hasn't helped. I've also reduced filtration from twice a day for two hours to once for two hours thinking it may be too much aeration, but that didnt help either.

Water info:

315 gallon water average

Temp: 101

TA: 60

Calcium: 250

Bromine: 5.25

TDS: 134

Ozonator on during filtration/heating and low pump.

I am on two weeks on the fill and have added defender, sea klear, and enzymes each week based on recommended dosages. The water looks great, but I am just concerned with keeping the saturation index in line. My calcium was 100 after initial fill and I accidentally added too much as the recommended dosage levels were incorrect. Should I just refill some of the water to lower calcium to a decent range on the saturation index when ph is around 8? Thanks in advance for any assistance!

[chem geek]

You could use 50 ppm Borates (most easily added using boric acid) to reduce the rate of pH rise. Or you can do as you say and dilute the water to lower the CH to reduce the change of calcium carbonate scaling from high pH.

[jwithing]

You could use 50 ppm Borates (most easily added using boric acid) to reduce the rate of pH rise. Or you can do as you say and dilute the water to lower the CH to reduce the change of calcium carbonate scaling from high pH.

Thanks Chem geek! I've probably read 20+ hours of posts and missed borates. I have a ton of borax but no muriatic acid, so I went ahead and ordered some proteam supreme plus and some borate test strips. If that doesn't work, I'll just drain a fifth of the tub and refill, that should put me back around 200 CH.

[skylerfox]

It seems as if a lot of people have trouble with unstable ph and that boric acid is the magic bullet. Are there any types of water care routines that boric acid is NOT compatible with?

From reading posts, it appears that using Borax works to stabalize ph, however will raise it at the same time. Is there a formula so that if one used Borax, to figure out the amount of acid to add at the same time to offset the ph rise? Or is it always better to get and use boric acid (the real deal). Besides ordering online, might there be any type of local or Big Box, or specialty store that I could walk in and buy boric acid locally? If I order online, is there a recommended brand or place to buy? It seems as most are targeted towards insect control.

[skylerfox]

Looks like I found the answer sifting through all the red tape. I went ahead and ordered the Taylor K-2006 test kit as well as the boric acid as suggested from Duda Diesel. Despite having an ozonator, I'm gonna go ahead and give the dichlor/bleach method a go. This method seems to be the Gospel on here. Unfortunately, I've got one of those high power 24/7 ozonators that came stock with my Hotspring Spa. I'll have to see how fast is sucks my chlorine. Hopefully since it's a large 500 gallon spa, it won't be too bad. It seems like the others here that have tried the dichlor/bleach method, and that have ozonators are still ok with the program despite the extra work. I guess worst case scenario, I can always disconnect it. I'm not convinced that having an ozonator is all it's cracked up to be since they eat up the chemicals so fast.