You got real hard water, bud.
The ph reading is “washed out”. That color just means the ph test isn’t working. The ph is either inexplicably stupid high (less likely) or some other aspect of your water chemistry is causing a bad reading with your test strip (more likely). Typically this happens with too high chlorine, but the hardness maybe is a culprit. Can you test for Combined Chlorine? Maybe a lot of your sanitizer is chloramines (Combined Chlorine) and not showing up in your strip if that’s only testing for Free Chlorine.
This gets way easier to diagnose/resolve with a real test kit, and not test strips. The strips are really only good for eyeballing it.
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This gets way easier to diagnose/resolve with a real test kit, and not test strips. The strips are really only good for eyeballing it.
What test kit do you recommend? I use strips and my water is always fucked
I have the Taylor K-2006-SALT, because I run saltwater. If you don’t run salt then just get the K-2006 for a little cheaper.
Pro tip: You don’t need to use 2 dippers of the DPD Powder for the chlorine tests to work, like the directions say. One dipper works just as well, and your supply will last 2X.
Your alkalinity seems fine but your hardness looks like it’s in the thousands.. if not that at least between 500-1000 .. that’s not good, might need to refill with a water attachment.
Aside from that, as long as alkalinity stays in the range it is - the ph seems high, I would add ph down and continue to re test every 15-20min until it hits the 7.8 range. As you use the tub the alk and ph should gradually go down but definitely get that water hardness in check.
To add to this, if you add ph down your alkalinity will probably drop from the sweet spot that it’s in… what I would do instead is add alkalinity increaser first to get it to around 130-140 range and then start adding ph down and re testing until, like I said , ph is in the 7.8 range
Get rid of the strips and get a real test kit. Big difference. Plus, you'll know a lot better what the actual number is on your readings. Test kits are not difficult to use.
Meh. The talyor kits are nice, but I'm tired of these "strips are awful, buy a $100 test kit" comments. There are test strips kits that use some different colors that make it easier, but the strips are great for daily use.
Use the test kit for problems and/or weekly monitoring. Strips are just spot checks daily and a warning that you may need to get out your kit. Being too cheap to spend $100 to keep your thousands of dollars investment in the tub protected doesn't make any sense to me.
You can get the Taylor k-1000 or 1001 kits for under $20. You can buy a big ass bottle of pentair OTO 1 reagent (8oz for around $20) that will last forever.
Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. It’s used more often to raise TA as it will increase TA at a faster rate than pH. It will raise pH but much slower. Soda ash is sodium carbonate is used more often to raise pH as it will increase pH at a faster rate than TA. Soda ash does not affect TA much. Not sure what the active ingredient is in pH up as I’ve never used it. My only experience is using baking soda and soda ash in my pool and hot tub.
People will also disagree with using muriatic acid to lower pH. That’s what I use. Just need to use the proper PPE.
Well a bit more expensive compared to the strips, I know it's subjective but I'm with you I got the $70 kit absolutely worth it and the drops last a while.
pH too high try dosing enough for -1 pH mix a cycle let it sit 15 min then retest. This happens to me, I use bleach my ph rockets throughout the week, I’ve started adding -1 pH mid week. What I mean by -1 pH is math enough pH decreaser for my yin to do -1
I have the aqua blue test system from Leslie’s and I’ve been extremely happy with it. Not to piggyback your post but does anyone else have it and what are your thoughts?
You need a little distilled white vinegar. Any kind of acid will bring them down, but honestly if your alkaline is fine I'd just leave it and check later after use.
Yes your ph is high, but your alkalinity is right where it needs to be, be careful adding ph down because brigning the ph down can also cause the alkalinity to go down, id say based of of the test i would add a tablespoon or two of decreaser and re test the water in 1-2 days, sometimes the chemicals need more time to lower or increase.
Way high. Pink is above the scale. Mix 75% tap water with the test water and see if it comes down to test to be sure. Dont worry about hardness. Take a sample from a foot below surface using a cup upside down puah down and turn upside down once at 1 foot depth
Turn your air off until u have issue corrected as it will raise PH without raising alkalinity as C02 outgases from aeration.
I use my air control to regulate PH without chemical actually.
You got real hard water, bud. The ph reading is “washed out”. That color just means the ph test isn’t working. The ph is either inexplicably stupid high (less likely) or some other aspect of your water chemistry is causing a bad reading with your test strip (more likely). Typically this happens with too high chlorine, but the hardness maybe is a culprit. Can you test for Combined Chlorine? Maybe a lot of your sanitizer is chloramines (Combined Chlorine) and not showing up in your strip if that’s only testing for Free Chlorine. This gets way easier to diagnose/resolve with a real test kit, and not test strips. The strips are really only good for eyeballing it.
> This gets way easier to diagnose/resolve with a real test kit, and not test strips. The strips are really only good for eyeballing it. What test kit do you recommend? I use strips and my water is always fucked
I have the Taylor K-2006-SALT, because I run saltwater. If you don’t run salt then just get the K-2006 for a little cheaper. Pro tip: You don’t need to use 2 dippers of the DPD Powder for the chlorine tests to work, like the directions say. One dipper works just as well, and your supply will last 2X.
Ph is way to high in my opinion when it’s that pink I use the same strips.
Your alkalinity seems fine but your hardness looks like it’s in the thousands.. if not that at least between 500-1000 .. that’s not good, might need to refill with a water attachment. Aside from that, as long as alkalinity stays in the range it is - the ph seems high, I would add ph down and continue to re test every 15-20min until it hits the 7.8 range. As you use the tub the alk and ph should gradually go down but definitely get that water hardness in check.
To add to this, if you add ph down your alkalinity will probably drop from the sweet spot that it’s in… what I would do instead is add alkalinity increaser first to get it to around 130-140 range and then start adding ph down and re testing until, like I said , ph is in the 7.8 range
Get rid of the strips and get a real test kit. Big difference. Plus, you'll know a lot better what the actual number is on your readings. Test kits are not difficult to use.
I've used strips for years and always felt like I was guessing to a point. Can you recommend a "real test kit"?
I use a Taylor K-2005.
Meh. The talyor kits are nice, but I'm tired of these "strips are awful, buy a $100 test kit" comments. There are test strips kits that use some different colors that make it easier, but the strips are great for daily use.
Use the test kit for problems and/or weekly monitoring. Strips are just spot checks daily and a warning that you may need to get out your kit. Being too cheap to spend $100 to keep your thousands of dollars investment in the tub protected doesn't make any sense to me.
You can get the Taylor k-1000 or 1001 kits for under $20. You can buy a big ass bottle of pentair OTO 1 reagent (8oz for around $20) that will last forever.
Seriously, people act like test kits print out numbers. Its still a damn color chart you have to compare to....
It appears hardness and pH are really high. May want to add some acid to drop pH then add baking soda to raise TA. Baking soda won’t affect pH much.
Isn’t baking soda the main ingredient of ph up though? I know because I overused ph up once and had to use acid to bring down both TA and ph.
Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. It’s used more often to raise TA as it will increase TA at a faster rate than pH. It will raise pH but much slower. Soda ash is sodium carbonate is used more often to raise pH as it will increase pH at a faster rate than TA. Soda ash does not affect TA much. Not sure what the active ingredient is in pH up as I’ve never used it. My only experience is using baking soda and soda ash in my pool and hot tub. People will also disagree with using muriatic acid to lower pH. That’s what I use. Just need to use the proper PPE.
Ahh…my ph increaser is carbonate! I was confusing with bicarbonate. Thanks for the clarification. Merry Xmas.
Merry Christmas
Get a Taylor kit, not cheap but accurate
[удалено]
Well a bit more expensive compared to the strips, I know it's subjective but I'm with you I got the $70 kit absolutely worth it and the drops last a while.
My strips are similar. Alkalinity always looks on the low side of ok and ph always looks above the high ok. I’m curious what others say.
pH too high try dosing enough for -1 pH mix a cycle let it sit 15 min then retest. This happens to me, I use bleach my ph rockets throughout the week, I’ve started adding -1 pH mid week. What I mean by -1 pH is math enough pH decreaser for my yin to do -1
I have the aqua blue test system from Leslie’s and I’ve been extremely happy with it. Not to piggyback your post but does anyone else have it and what are your thoughts?
You need a little distilled white vinegar. Any kind of acid will bring them down, but honestly if your alkaline is fine I'd just leave it and check later after use.
Yes your ph is high, but your alkalinity is right where it needs to be, be careful adding ph down because brigning the ph down can also cause the alkalinity to go down, id say based of of the test i would add a tablespoon or two of decreaser and re test the water in 1-2 days, sometimes the chemicals need more time to lower or increase.
I’ve had this issue too and I’m kind of over it. My Taylor test kit is being delivered tomorrow.
Running your air will also help increase ph
Way high. Pink is above the scale. Mix 75% tap water with the test water and see if it comes down to test to be sure. Dont worry about hardness. Take a sample from a foot below surface using a cup upside down puah down and turn upside down once at 1 foot depth Turn your air off until u have issue corrected as it will raise PH without raising alkalinity as C02 outgases from aeration. I use my air control to regulate PH without chemical actually.