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Taylor ph test fades away


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I’ve been running softened water in my hot tub without much trouble using bromine. Today I did a fresh fill but went with about 75% straight well water and the rest softened water. Thought it might help with some cloudiness I see with a flashlight beam into the water at night. Anyway in the past my good ALK level seems to be around 40. I brought the water back to that level. Today I was using a digital ph tester to check and aireate the ph and Taylor test for the ALK. Now my ALK shows 40 using the Taylor test. Should be ok. Thought I’d verify my PH using the Taylor test. The Taylor test shows it 7.5. But within seconds right before my eyes it fades out to 7.0. I don’t get what’s going on. Calcium is at 190. Is well water jacking up my test? It’s been reliable until now. Hope this makes sense. When the well water was tested a while back, I was told the metals weren’t abnormally high but can’t remember the exact numbers. Any ideas would help. Thanks!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Without a FULL set of test results it's impossible to know what might be going on. Also most inexpensive (under a few hundred dollar) digital pH meters are not that accurate and all pH meters do require calibration against standard solutions on a regular basis (before each use is best but at least monthly. They also have a lifespan and the electrode (or the entire meter if the electrode is not replaceable) should be changed out yearly. Some also require that the electrode be stored wet in a special solution. The pH test in the Taylor is a better choice unless you have a laboratory grade pH meter, keep it calibrated, and replace the electrode (or meter) yearly. IF you r pH is that unstable I would recommend bringing up the TA to 50 ppm and see if that helps stabilize it. Do this in 10 ppm increases, giving a week or two between each increase until the pH becomes stable. Also instead of maintaining the pH at 7.5 keep it at around 7.7 and consider adding 50 ppm borate to the water.

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Thanks for the advise. The softened water seems to be pretty manageable. I think I was lacking a good dose of shock before. The well water was really acting weird using the Taylor K2005 tests. It was like the solution was thickening or separating while mixing for the alkinlinity test. I was beating it down from 180. I agree the cheap digital ph testers aren’t something to rely on so for confirmation I use the Taylor test. If I decide to try well water again and have issues, I’ll get all the numbers out for you. There’s a lot of good information out here from you guys. Thanks again for your thoughts!

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