Low PH

[Jeton]

Our PH has been reading 6.8 or possibly lower(using test strips) for quite some time. We periodically used baking soda to try to raise it without success. Yesterday I put 3/4 box (app. 57 oz) of Borax in. Today we used an AquaChem Professional test kit. The chlorine is dark orange and the PH is the same! CYA is 45, TA is 50. We put 4# of Baking Soda in about 3 hours ago. Are we on the right track? Our pool has been crystal clear all summer, but we should still raise the PH, correct? Thanks in advance for your help!

[PoolDoc]

Dunno what an "AquaChem Professional" kit is -- the AquaChem site (http://www.aquachem.com) only lists 'guess-strips' and a 3-way kit, which is really a 2-way OTO / phenol red kit. I'm assuming you have that, with an OTO chlorine test?

If so, you will NOT get a valid phenol red test of pH levels, when your chlorine is at OTO orange levels (ie, > 15 ppm). You'll need to let the chlorine drop before 5 ppm, before you can test pH.

[waterbear]

The aquachem kit has not been made in several years. I used to have one. It is similar to the HTH kit but not made by Taylor. It only tested total hardness and used OTO. It idid test CYA. the pH reagent gave false high readings at about 5 ppm FC and the TA test use bromthymol blue indicator so the color chagne from very light blue to yellow was sometimes difficult to read since the colors were so pale.

[Jeton]

I can't read any other info about the Aqua Chem Kit. It seems pretty comprehensive. It tests chlorine, bromine, ph, alkalinity, hardness and cya separately (9 different bottles of drops). The chlorine drops are OTO as you mention. Do you think I should buy one of the test kits that you suggest? I saw the 6-way at Walmart about $23. I think it's HTH? Would you recommend that we quit using the skimmer chlorine tabs and go to bleach? They are HTH Trichloro-s-Triazinetrione 93.5%, Copper Sulfate Pentahydrate 1.5% and inert ing. 5.0% available chlorine 84%. Thanks for your help! We're learning a lot from your site even though we've been pool owners for a long time!!

[PoolDoc]

The 6-way drops kit at Walmart very likely is the HTH 6-way. I'll post kit links below; the 6-way link will allow you to look up the Walmart kit. Ideally, you'll get both -- the 6-way HTH immediately, and the K2006 as soon as you can. The Taylor phenol red (in both kits) will allow you to test pH in water with FC as high as 10 ppm, but will still not be reliable when you are at OTO orange.

If you ALSO buy a gallon of distilled (not 'spring', not 'artesian', not 'bottled' . . . but "distilled") when you go to Walmart, you can use the HTH / Taylor reagent to test pH by diluting the pool sample 50:50 with distilled water (1/2 cup of pool water; 1/2 cup of distilled; mix, then test) before testing pH. NOTE: this is ONLY for the pH test; if you do this on any other test, your reading will be 1/2 of the true value.

Ben

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+ Get a cheap OTO (yellow drops) / phenol test kit, or if available at YOUR Walmart (check availability (http://www.walmart.com/ip/HTH-6-Way-Test-Kit/17043668)), get the HTH 6-way DROPS test kit, which is compatible with the Taylor K2006. Test the pool as soon and you can, and post the results. If you get the 6-way kit, ALSO test the water you FILL the pool with, especially if it's a well, and post THOSE results as well. (The HTH is the best available kit you're likely to find locally, but it's not the K-2006. It can only provide rough measurements chlorine levels above 5 ppm, and it measures "TOTAL" hardness, rather than "CALCIUM" hardness, which is not ideal.)

+ Having a good test kit makes pool care easier for EVERYONE, but is an ESSENTIAL tool for pools with problems. A good test kit means a kit that can test chlorine from 0 - 25 ppm, pH, alkalinity, calcium hardness, and stabilizer with reasonable accuracy. Test strips (AKA 'guess-strips' ) do NOT meet this standard. Some pool store testing is accurate; most is not. The ONLY way you'll know whether your pool store is accurate or bogus, is by testing accurately your own self. On the other hand, pool store 'computer' dosing recommendations are NEVER trustworthy -- ignore them. They are designed to sell more chemicals than you need, and WILL cause many pool problems.

+ We recommend the Taylor K-2006 test kit, which meets the requirements above, for many reasons. The HTH 6-way drops kit is a great starter kit, and is compatible with the K2006 (it's made by Taylor). There are a few alternatives; for example Lamotte makes an FAS-DPD kit that's OK -- but it costs 3x as much. But, we're not aware of any test that is better, and since we are all familiar with the K-2006 (and can help you with it) we recommend it exclusively ( Test kit info page (http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?16551) )

One caution for the 2012 season: Amazon does not stock the kits directly. So when buying at Amazon, Amato is our current preferred seller. However, they often don't list enough stock to last the whole day, so try order mid-morning. You should expect a delivered cost under $60 for the K2006A and under $95 for the K2006C. If you can't find that, wait a day.

+ Here are links to the kits we recommend (you can check local availability on the HTH kit, using the Walmart link):

HTH 6-Way Test Kit (http://www.walmart.com/ip/HTH-6-Way-Test-Kit/17043668) @ Walmart
Taylor K2006A (3/4 oz bottles) (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002IXIIG/poolbooks) @ Amazon
Taylor K2006C (2 oz bottles) (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002IXIJ0/poolbooks) @ Amazon

[waterbear]

Also, the Aquachem kit has been discontinued as have the reagents for it so the reagents you have are at least 5 years old!
Get a K-2006, you won't regret it!

[Jeton]

The OTO yellow drops and the phenol red drops that we are using are HTH and purchased within the past two weeks at Walmart. We have city water. We are purchasing the HTH 6-way today and ordering the K-2006. My husband is asking about the hand-held digital test kits? Are you familiar?

[waterbear]

Don't waste your money on a digital tester. Get K-2006. The strip readers are only as good as the strips (which means not good at all). LaMotte does make the ColorQ. It is ok but has limitations (since all the tests are colormetric and not titrations) and is not any more precise or accurate than a K-2006 and often is less. I have used digital testers when I worked in a retail store and our LaMotte colorimeter cost over $1000 and I still used K-2006 for backup when the limited range of the digital tester was exceeded! Also, when LaMotte came out with the ColorQ I asked their tech support if it was any good. He said, It's a $100 meter. It's good for what it is.
The handheld pH and ORP testers are not worth using either, They require a lot of care and maintenance, must be calibrated with standard solutions, and the electrodes have to be replaced regularly.
The only digital tester that might be useful is a salt meter. (It still needs care and calibration with a standard solution) IF you have a salt pool. However, this is one test that strips do a decent job.

[Jeton]

As per your request I just tested the swimming pool and our city water using the new HTH 6-Way: Swimming Pool: Alkalinity 60, Hardness 0 (the drops did not turn the water red at all), CA 70, PH 6.8 and Chlorine dark orange. We didn't get the distilled water so we couldn't test the PH using it. City water results: Alkalinity 100, Hardness 170, CA 0, PH 7.2 and Chlorine .5 or less. There have been no chlorine tablets in the skimmer for about 36 hours and the test results are the same!

[PoolDoc]

I'm inclined to think your pH is low -- so go back to Walmart and get about 10 boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax + some distilled water. Go ahead and start adding borax, 1 box at a time, added slowly to the skimmer. BUT also use the distilled water to test your pH level.

And, check your pH test by adding a few grains of borax to the pH sample AFTER you've added the phenol red and taken a reading. The color should change to near purple.

Low pH is NOT good for vinyl liners, or for pool heaters, so get right on this.

I'm puzzled by the readings -- you've been using trichlor tabs all summer? And, you haven't had any algae or slime? In that case, I understand how your pH could be low, but I don't understand how you could have 0.0 cyanuric acid (CYA).

[Jeton]

The cyanuric acid in the pool is 70. It's 0 in the city water. We've used the trichlor tabs all summer. Water has been and still is crystal clear. I'll add the Borax tomorrow. I added a box last week with no change in results. Should I check the PH after adding each box? Thanks.

[PoolDoc]

Yes, you should test pH after an hour or so.

It's important to understand that, with most color based pH tests including phenol red, the low end and high end of the test do NOT mean that the pH is at that level. Instead, it means the pH is at that level OR beyond. A pH reading of 6.8 means "6.8 or lower" and NOT "6.8 exactly".

So . . . your previous box of borax DID do something: it told you that your pH was NOT equal to 6.8, but that it was somewhere below that, possibly MUCH below. If it had been 6.8 exactly, you would have seen an increase.

[Jeton]

I put the 3rd box of borax in 4 hours ago. The PH is now between 7.6 and 7.8. The chlorine seems a little lighter but is still bright orange. When I start to add chlorine after it's in the correct range, should I use bleach instead of the skimmer tabs? and can you tell me how much? I'm going to peruse your site now to see how to use the 3 B's. Continual thanks!!