Ph 8+, Ta 60

[Haywire]

Should I lower the pH with acid to 7.6 and not worry about the TA, assuming that it will settle where it wants to be? Reminder.. I'm on the Baqua. Borates at 50ppm. I just added weekly shock, sanitizer and waterline control this morning not too long ago. Should I wait till tomorrow and do another test?

thanks,

Ian

[Vegastubbin]

You will need ur ch to determine ur balance. An a Taylor kit for sure. I run 250 calcium hardness, 60-60.5 ta and at my temps 100-103 I'm at 7.6 ph 35 cya on the dichlor/ bleach method. Balanced water is a measure of all these readings.

[Vegastubbin]

I would switch to the dichlor/ bleach method. Get a good spa flush product and start over it's more maintenance but very easy and consistent. and with the borates even better

[waterbear]

If the pH is high you need to lower it. Period. I would adjust the TA up a bit first to around 80-90 ppm and then lower the pH since adjusting TA (adding baking soda) will usually cause pH to rise. This way you only have to adjust it downward once. Also, as a rule of thumb, wait a day after making chemical adjustments to test to allow time for everything to 'settle in".

[Haywire]

If the pH is high you need to lower it. Period. I would adjust the TA up a bit first to around 80-90 ppm and then lower the pH since adjusting TA (adding baking soda) will usually cause pH to rise. This way you only have to adjust it downward once. Also, as a rule of thumb, wait a day after making chemical adjustments to test to allow time for everything to 'settle in".

I have some "pH increaser" which is sodium carbonate. Is that better or worse than the sodium bicarbonate for my uses?

You will need ur ch to determine ur balance. An a Taylor kit for sure. I run 250 calcium hardness, 60-60.5 ta and at my temps 100-103 I'm at 7.6 ph 35 cya on the dichlor/ bleach method. Balanced water is a measure of all these readings.

My CH is 170-180 per my taylor kit. We keep the water at 100. I'll be switching to the CYA then bleach method when I run out of the current chem supply I have.

thanks,

Ian

[chem geek]

pH Increaser (sodium carbonate) will increase the pH more than baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Just add a little baking soda, let it mix in the spa for 10 minutes with the pump running, retest your pH, then add acid to lower the pH.

[Haywire]

Ok, will do. Thanks.

Ian

[Haywire]

It worked out fine, I bought some baking soda and the water is now at 7.6 and 60. I also bought some calcium carbonate and adjusted the CH to 225 as I read here that harder water generally foams less. It's a bit hard to test the CH because the change from purple to blue is subtle. I know the test says "red" to blue, but my water generally starts on the purple side of red.

thanks,

Ian

[waterbear]

The initial color in the CH test is more of a pink or magenta. It goes through a purple intermediate before turning a definite blue. I would suggest using a 10 ml sample, adding 10 drops of the calcium buffer, and then 3 drops of indicator. Then when you titrate each drop is equivalent to 25 ppm CH and the color change will be more distinct. You will lose some accuracy but it will help you learn when the endpoint is reached. You want to keep adding drops until one more drop produces no more color change and then you don't count that last drop.

Also, generally having a CH above 130150 is sufficient to prevent foaming (but biguanide spas will foam more because the organic load in the water is higher because of the way biguanide works.)

[Haywire]

Thanks, I'll try that next time.

Ian