Balancing the Water

[Topline Mike]

First, I balanced the water using muriatic acid.  I wrote down what I added in every step, and I believe I ended up adding around 26oz. of the acid.  After I knew my water was right it there, that's when I added the boric acid, which was about a week after my first fill. 

I don't have the answer to your last question.  The boric acid is also supposed to "soften" the water and make it more sparkly.  Personally, I did not notice a significant change in the waters feel. 

I am using bromine.  My pH was going down ever so slightly every day.  The bromine tabs in the floater I use are net acidic, which was causing the pH drop.  My lowest was a TA of 40, and pH of 7.5.  So I dropped about .2 to .3 in pH over a two week period.  The solution was easy, though.  Because of the high usage of our tub, I had to top off the water level every two weeks.  Adding new water with a high pH and TA, brought me right back to a pH of 7.8 and TA of around 80.  With that being said, the boric acid doesn't "lock up" the pH, it apparently helps it to stay stabilized. 

[Vinny]

I used lock up but you are correct it is stabilizing. Locking up sounds like it shouldn't move but it will.

[Quickbeam]

First, I balanced the water using muriatic acid.  I wrote down what I added in every step, and I believe I ended up adding around 26oz. of the acid.  After I knew my water was right it there, that's when I added the boric acid, which was about a week after my first fill. 

I don't have the answer to your last question.  The boric acid is also supposed to "soften" the water and make it more sparkly.  Personally, I did not notice a significant change in the waters feel. 

I am using bromine.  My pH was going down ever so slightly every day.  The bromine tabs in the floater I use are net acidic, which was causing the pH drop.  My lowest was a TA of 40, and pH of 7.5.  So I dropped about .2 to .3 in pH over a two week period.  The solution was easy, though.  Because of the high usage of our tub, I had to top off the water level every two weeks.  Adding new water with a high pH and TA, brought me right back to a pH of 7.8 and TA of around 80.  With that being said, the boric acid doesn't "lock up" the pH, it apparently helps it to stay stabilized.

Hi Topline Mike,

I have been using dry acid to balance my water but am thinking of switching to muriatic acid. I've heard however that it has quite an odor to it. Could you tell me if you thought it was a strong odor, and also does the odor stay, or does it go away after the acid is in the tub? Thanks.

[Topline Mike]

quick, I never really put my nose to it.  The name itself sounds powerful, doesn't it!  I would recommend safety glasses and rubber gloves when you are adding it, and the label on the bottle will tell you the same thing.  I turned on both pumps on my tub, and just dumped it in the rolling water (2 ounces at a time).  I did not notice any smell after the acid was in the tub, and I guess I didn't expect one either.  Adding a couple ounces of acid to 53,000 ounces of water will do that! 

[Quickbeam]

Thanks Mike,

I really appreciate all the help. We are having Company today, but I'm going to have another go at the water tomorrow. I need to add some water to the tub, so I'll be starting with new numbers but once again I really do appreciate all the help from yourself and everyone else!

[Quickbeam]

Thought I'd check back in and let you all know that I finally, finally got my water balanced and for the last couple of days has been stable. I know my TA is low, but that's the point it stabilized, so I suppose that's just the way it is.
My numbers are as follows:
PH - 7.8
TA - 30
CH - 130
I know it's just balanced, but that's as good as it's going to get. And I certainly made some mistakes on the way, which I won't repeat next time. I had one outlet tell me to put their "Spa Stain Control" product in the water, which I did. It took my CH from about 210 to 130. I suppose normally this would be pretty good, but given my low TA, if I had the CH at 210, as it is out of the tap, I would have been much better. The other mistake I made was that I added this product before I did anything else to the water. I should have waited until I had the PH and TA where it was stable before I did this. At my first water change I won't be adding that product to the water again. So I learned a lot, including the fact that I needed a lot of patience, and once again want to thank you all for your advice.

[Topline Mike]

Are you using hydrogen peroxide?  If you are, how do you test for proper sanitation?  Maybe the peroxide is causing a high pH reading? 

Here is what my water readings were:

pH of 7.8, TA of 80-90.
pH of 7.7, TA of 70
pH of 7.6, TA of 60
pH of 7.5, TA of 50

I can understand your water and my water are different.  It just seems your pH is high for a TA of 30?  I do think you are right in there though, and you have educated yourself to better understand the water chemistry game.  On your first refill, I would bet you can balance your water in 2-3 hours, before you add any other additives or sanitizers.  Having confidence that everything is "right" when you get in the tub makes it that much more enjoyable. 

[Quickbeam]

Hi Topline Mike,

Yes we are using hydrogen peroxide and for testing the hydrogen peroxide I am using test strips. Not the best way to test I know, but I have a friend who has been using the same strips successfully on her tub, and they also are working O.K. for us.

Note that I do have the Taylor test kit for testing and balancing the water.

As for my numbers, the hydrogen peroxide could be affecting the PH, but I just don't know. I really did do things backwards as I did not have my water balanced before I added the sanitizer. Another mistake of many I made. But as you said, I did learn a lot and will be much better next go round.

The other thing that happened is that I just could not get the PH stabilized. I had read that the TA should not go below 50, but every time I aerated the tub the PH would jump on me so I didn't see any choice but to keep bringing the TA down. It was actually a poster to this thread (Trifecta) who said his TA was at 40 that kind of encouraged me to keep going. I got it down to 30 and finally the PH stopped jumping up, but then of course it started trending down. I went on the Pool Math site that Chem Geek had directed me to (thanks Chem Geek) and added a small bit of borax to bring the PH up and then also added 50 ppm Borates to stabilize. So I'm guessing the Borax may be the reason my PH is high for the TA number, but again, when my TA was at 40 the PH kept climbing when I aerated the tub.
So I took a very round about way to get there, but I think (fingers crossed) that I finally have it.
Next time I will do things in the proper sequence and I also think having that Pool Math calculator when I start the process will make things a lot easier.

[Trifecta]

Quick, glad to hear its working for you, sounds like we had similar experiences. I'm holding at around 40 TA and 7.6 PH so leaving everything as is and enjoying the heck out of it every single day. At my first drain and refill I will use the Boric Acid as suggested to help stabilize.

Anyway, following your activity did raise an interesting question on the stain control. I, like you, put that stuff right in, because my starter kit, like probably every one in the world made that step number one. I have already low hardness right out of the tap so got a very low reading right off the bat and had to increase CH. So here's my question....

I fill through the pre-filter and have already low CH out of the tap. Should I skip the metal/stain control? Or should I continue to use and then immediately bring CH back up to where it needs to be. Given water that is not hard out of the tap plus use of the pre-filter, am I good? Or are there other metals, etc. that the filter may miss that the metal/stain control will address?

[Quickbeam]

Hi Trifecta,
Not sure I'm the right one to be answering your question, so I'll just say that when I do my next fill, I will not be using the Stain Control, or if I do use it, it will be the last thing I add, and I'll only add it if I need to bring my CH down. Again, I'm probably not qualified to answer this, but I figure if the water is balanced you should be good to go.
And not to change direction on this thread, but I have another question for anyone out there. When you add the Boric Acid, do you normally do it towards the end of balancing your water, or would it be better to add the Boric Acid at the start. I added it almost at the end of the balancing this time, and it seemed to work out O.K. Just wondering if there is a proper procedure for this?