Testing water and balancing

[Chris58475]

Hi all, new to the forum and also new to hot tub maintenance after recently buying one.

Over the weekend I purchased a Pool Lab 1.0 device to try and get some exact readings re TA, pH and Chlorine levels. I’ve been using the strips so far, however find them difficult to read at times.

I’ve noticed my levels have started to become a little unstable so I’ve been trying to rebalance the TA and pH gradually. However I have some questions to some of the more experienced folk on here please.

1) is it a good idea to turn on the jets for a minute or two prior to testing to circulate the water? My concern with testing still water is that chemicals etc. may settle at different levels giving inaccurate readings. 

2) I’ve been trying to get my TA into shape before reducing the pH. But I’m finding my TA levels are dropping as I do the gradual lowering of pH. Is this normal?

3) How long should I wait between doses when adding AquaSparkle TA+ and pH minus?

4) My chlorine levels were very low yesterday so I added more and I think that’s undone some of the good work I’d done with gradually rebalancing. Is this normal? And should I wait until the TA/pH are balanced before adding the chlorine.

My levels are currently around 70 for TA and 8.1 for pH.
Prior to adding the chlorine yesterday I had them at 80TA and 7.8pH.

Sorry for all the questions, however I feel like I’m failing at a school chemistry lesson!
PS - great forum!

[The Wizard of Spas]

Pro Tip:  When lowering (and only when lowering) pH and / or Alkalinity, if you add your granulated reducing agent (most common is Sodium Bisulfate), keep the jets OFF and the water calm.  This will increase the effectiveness of the agent and reduce your levels faster with less product.

Yes - you can add them and have the jets on and the water turbulent.  However, the results are better and faster with the water completely calm.

After (say) 20 mins or so, then turn your jets on and let the water turn over.  After the water has been mixed up, then you can re-test. 

I hope this helps.  Good luck moving forward.

EDIT:  Syntax and Grammar 

[ratchett]

I'm still new to spa's so I won't chime in with specifics on balancing water chemistry however.....

Over the weekend I purchased a Pool Lab 1.0 device to try and get some exact readings re TA, pH and Chlorine levels. I’ve been using the strips so far, however find them difficult to read at times.

First off Strip-tests are not always the most accurate because they can go bad over time (and if moisture contaminates them if I'm not mistaken).

Second I'd be concerned with you relying on that PoolLab for your water testing.  I've researched a few of these electronic testing devices before and I'm not convinced any of them are accurate enough to be trusted for proper maintenance of water chemistry.   Heck reading the latest reviews on Amazon make me think you *might* be getting some wildly inaccurate results from the device.

I'm not saying definitely is inaccurate, just that you might want to conduct testing with something a bit more "traditional" - chemical drop tests to double-check your device's readouts.  The most popular brand I see mentioned all the time is Taylor Test kits - specifically the Pool and Spa test kit.    For $25 it's worth the investment to double-check critical readings like PH and Chlorine to ensure your digital device is reading adequately enough to start balancing your water, because the last thing you want is to start adding chemicals based on inaccurate testing results.

[Chris58475]

Thanks for the replies guys.

As my original strategy of targeting TA first wasn’t working very well, I changed to focus on pH first which was also the advice of my Hotspring dealer. Yesterday I managed to get this level down to 7.4 which is right in the sweet spot. I then tried to raise my TA to bring the two levels into balance, but guess what? Yes you guessed it, pH shot right back up to ~8.

My current thoughts on next steps are;

Option 1 - focus on maintaining pH levels and pay less attention to TA. See how that goes....
Option 2 - focus on getting TA into the sweet spot, at the cost of a very high pH level, and leave for a few days to see if they naturally balance out.
Option 3 - open to any further suggestions.... 

I’ve refrained from adding any Ocare solution as I’m worried this could add another layer of complexity at this stage?

Thanks!

[The Wizard of Spas]

The higher the alkalinity level, the more it pulls the pH up.  So you might have to bottom-out the pH in order to get the alkalinity into a lower range.  Or vice-versa.  Sometimes that happens:  Overshoot to overcompensate, then make it up with the other product that you bottomed out to finally end the viscous cycle you seem to be in.  This is common and shouldn't be something you stray from.

From a manufacturer's perspective:  pH is critical.  Alkalinity is key, and certainly something you want to keep in-line.  But pH is critical.  pH unbalance is what corrodes heaters, seals, gaskets, and jets.  It will be a cause of a voided warranty if your spa needs service and the issues reside in poor water chemistry. 

Your sanitizer will also play a part in this, as will your source water.  I try to speak in general terms as there are so many variables in water chemistry it is difficult to give absolutes.  Thus I would bow to the wisdom of the local dealer for the best course of action, as they best understand both the chemical kit they put you on and the source water in your area.  These two variables are the biggest things to consider, as (say) well water vs tap, Northeast US vs Southwest US, etc., and mineral vs bromine, etc. will also determine your best approach. 

For instance - where I live, the pH runs high but the alk runs low in my source water.  However, I am on a mineral-based system, and once I get my pH lowered, and bring up my alk to approx. 80 ppm, from then on out I have to battle to bring my pH up as 1) MPS Shock (a big part of a mineral-based system) has a pH level in the 2's and 2) what comes off of / out of your body tends to be very low in pH.

Thus - you need to take in a lot of variables and have a macro-approach resolved in order to look at the very specific micro-approaches to these minor situations.  Make sense? 

I hope this helps.  Good luck moving forward/

[Chris58475]

@The Wizard - yes makes perfect sense, thanks.

I’ll have a play around with my levels this weekend.