Spas are relatively small volumes of water at high temperature so pH can very widely no matter what you do. Just don’t let it get to extreme and check it weekly. Trying to get if perfect is a never ending task. Some spas are easier than others
For our tub, the pH and alkalinity are often just a bit low. The quick fix is as easy as broadcasting a bit baking soda into the tub which seems to bring both in line. I usually only need to do this once every couple of weeks, as we only use our tub 4 to 5 times per week for no more than 15 minutes per time. While I have pH increaser, and pH decreaser on hand, I rarely need them. Our cyanic acid level is the one that is always on the low side. For those who aren't paid members of Swim University, I'd recommend it, it's a wealth of helpful information.
Great video.I have 2 questions. can you just use white vinegar to lower your ph and not your alkalinity. And is ok to put water in the hot tub that's from a water softner to lower it Because my hardness is at 300
Matt, I just ordered the Hot Tub Weekly Cleanse. Could you tell me if this will also take care of phosphates and if I need to worry about phosphate levels at all?
@@SwimUniversity That's the thing, the alkalinity isn't falling, it's been raising and my p.h has been sitting at around 7.0-7.2. It is a 25,433 gallon outdoor pool for a hotel. My last reading was 7.0 with an alk of 200 and added 21.3 lbs per Leslie's in book instructions to drop it from 200 to 100. Which it did, but my p.h is still wonky. I added 2 lbs soda ash at 8 am and still nothing at my 3:30 readings. This has been going on for the past month and my next saturation index test is coming up this Friday. I sit for my CPO exam on the 16th of October which I am scared as hell about, and the only thing I can think of that is throwing my water balance off this bad is the chlorine neutralizer I have to use. We have an overnight guy who comes in adds tablets and then jacks the feeders from a 1 all the way up to a 3 to a 4 which makes my chlorine readings a 10+ and I have to add a sodium thiosulfate to all bodies of water. Idk what to do except cry.
I have to admit it was a little confusing at times to be nice. specially the raising and lowering PH/ ALK part, when showing the same two product for all application the impression that it was left was pretty much a back and forth catch up game. I will try to help a little and make it easier for all hot tub lovers and owner is to first: leave your spa uncover for 15 minutes to give it a chance to vent out all possible gases and burn off byproduct that may be trap between the water surface and the cover. Make sure that the air jets are turn off, if by any reason they were running recently wait 15 minutes before testing allowing the PH to reset to its normal level. Remember aeration will raise your PH and produce a false reading. Now that the spa have air out and the water have settle lets get ready to test the PH and Total Alkalinity we are gonna be looking to be around 7.4-7.6 on the PH and 80ppm- 120ppm on the alkalinity, as we have learn the PH will fluctuate up and down by nature and the alkalinity will work as a anchor to prevent the PH from bouncing around. WHY ? the PH needs to be within range as he mention it can create problems in the water quality and the spa structure and equipment specially your heater elements since its made out off soft metal(copper) and having a low PH 7.3 or lower would make the water fall in the acid side of the scale and it would start eating or stripping away the heater element as the water flow through also it would burn your skin and eyes since the PH in human tears drops is 7.5 its best to maintain the PH at that level making the water comfortable for your skin and eyes but more importan is that having a PH between 7.4-7.6 will allowed for your chlorine or desinfectan product to work efficiently at all times which is what you want when using a hot tub. let remember that is warm water 104 degrees max and you don't want to know everything that happens and could happened in a hot water environment specially while having a couple of people in it for any period of time, the bacteria, virus, pathogen that will get someone sick and even cause deaths YES I said even death that's why its so importan to maintain a proper level of desinfectan in the spa at ALL times NOT once a week or every other week or a few hours before use and for that reason we need to test the water regularly and make sure that the Ph is between 7.4-7.6 it will assure you that your chlorine its working properly and killing all posible funky stuff that might grow in your hot water environment. but in order to keep your ph in range its very important to make sure that your alkalinity is also within range because it works as a anchor keeping the PH in check make sure its between 80ppm and 120ppm being 120ppm the magic number. in order to raise your ALK you would need alkalinity increaser better known as baking soda(sodium bicarbonate) this product would also raise your PH as mention, reason why you gonna adjust alkl first. Read the product label first before adding any amount. once you adjust your alkalinity to 120ppm it will stay pretty good for weeks, unless any drastic changes happened like adding a lot of water or adding more than supposed to. now to lower PH you would need PH down or decreaser which its dry acid and that why adding constantly PH down it will lowered also your alkalinity so add accordingly to the label instruction. its better to add small amount and test after a few minutes instead of adding larger amount, its good to know also if your chlorine levels are higher than 5ppm expect interference with the rest of your testing since high level of chlorine will bleach out the colors on your test strip, I strongly recommend for hot tub owner to invest a little more on getting a better lasting test kit like a Tylor test kit that measure free available chlorine NOT total chlorine. other reason why your PH might be on the low side or high side if you find that your PH is always in the low side it could be due to your chlorine tabs specially if using tri-chlor tabs they have a PH of negative -3 meaning when added its slowly lowering your PH and also it will bring your Alkalinity in low side due to the CYA, if using liquid chlorine you will find your PH in the high side since the liquid chlorine have a PH of 13 if you are using bromine no need to worry much since bromine its not affected by ph but remember low or high ph will affect you and your hot tub. oh man with all this info I was better making my own video. I hope it help in some way... keep educating your self NO WATER IS SAFE.... and remember clean spa swim sure.
You can aerate your water (run jets and water features) and that will raise pH without raising alkalinity. Otherwise yeah, you do have to keep doing the decreaser/increaser dance.
The Hot Tub Cheat Sheet (Free): swimu.com/spasheet
The Hot Tub Handbook: swimu.com/handbook
The Hot Tub Video Course: swimu.com/spacourse
Great video! Your tip about turning off the aeration solved a several month frustration!
Glad it helped!
Great video! Addressing aerating to raise ph was very helpful! Thank you 😅
Happy to help!
Spas are relatively small volumes of water at high temperature so pH can very widely no matter what you do. Just don’t let it get to extreme and check it weekly. Trying to get if perfect is a never ending task. Some spas are easier than others
It's so true. It'll never be perfect!
My ph is always going up. What is the problem?
I use brome too
For our tub, the pH and alkalinity are often just a bit low. The quick fix is as easy as broadcasting a bit baking soda into the tub which seems to bring both in line. I usually only need to do this once every couple of weeks, as we only use our tub 4 to 5 times per week for no more than 15 minutes per time. While I have pH increaser, and pH decreaser on hand, I rarely need them. Our cyanic acid level is the one that is always on the low side.
For those who aren't paid members of Swim University, I'd recommend it, it's a wealth of helpful information.
How do we know how much of the substances to add in? Or do we add a little then test again then add more and etc..
Great video.I have 2 questions. can you just use white vinegar to lower your ph and not your alkalinity. And is ok to put water in the hot tub that's from a water softner to lower it Because my hardness is at 300
Matt, I just ordered the Hot Tub Weekly Cleanse. Could you tell me if this will also take care of phosphates and if I need to worry about phosphate levels at all?
No but you don’t have to worry about that in a hot tub
Thank you so much
I have low pH and hi alkalinity. I add a dry acid and a soda ash?
Try just adding pH increaser and let the alkalinity fall naturally
@@SwimUniversity That's the thing, the alkalinity isn't falling, it's been raising and my p.h has been sitting at around 7.0-7.2. It is a 25,433 gallon outdoor pool for a hotel. My last reading was 7.0 with an alk of 200 and added 21.3 lbs per Leslie's in book instructions to drop it from 200 to 100. Which it did, but my p.h is still wonky. I added 2 lbs soda ash at 8 am and still nothing at my 3:30 readings. This has been going on for the past month and my next saturation index test is coming up this Friday. I sit for my CPO exam on the 16th of October which I am scared as hell about, and the only thing I can think of that is throwing my water balance off this bad is the chlorine neutralizer I have to use. We have an overnight guy who comes in adds tablets and then jacks the feeders from a 1 all the way up to a 3 to a 4 which makes my chlorine readings a 10+ and I have to add a sodium thiosulfate to all bodies of water. Idk what to do except cry.
You literally say to adjust TA first and then go on to instruct people to adjust pH first
I have to admit it was a little confusing at times to be nice. specially the raising and lowering PH/ ALK part, when showing the same two product for all application the impression that it was left was pretty much a back and forth catch up game.
I will try to help a little and make it easier for all hot tub lovers and owner is to first:
leave your spa uncover for 15 minutes to give it a chance to vent out all possible gases and burn off byproduct that may be trap between the water surface and the cover. Make sure that the air jets are turn off, if by any reason they were running recently wait 15 minutes before testing allowing the PH to reset to its normal level. Remember aeration will raise your PH and produce a false reading.
Now that the spa have air out and the water have settle lets get ready to test the PH and Total Alkalinity we are gonna be looking to be around 7.4-7.6 on the PH and 80ppm- 120ppm on the alkalinity, as we have learn the PH will fluctuate up and down by nature and the alkalinity will work as a anchor to prevent the PH from bouncing around. WHY ? the PH needs to be within range as he mention it can create problems in the water quality and the spa structure and equipment specially your heater elements since its made out off soft metal(copper) and having a low PH 7.3 or lower would make the water fall in the acid side of the scale and it would start eating or stripping away the heater element as the water flow through also it would burn your skin and eyes since the PH in human tears drops is 7.5 its best to maintain the PH at that level making the water comfortable for your skin and eyes but more importan is that having a PH between 7.4-7.6 will allowed for your chlorine or desinfectan product to work efficiently at all times which is what you want when using a hot tub. let remember that is warm water 104 degrees max and you don't want to know everything that happens and could happened in a hot water environment specially while having a couple of people in it for any period of time, the bacteria, virus, pathogen that will get someone sick and even cause deaths YES I said even death that's why its so importan to maintain a proper level of desinfectan in the spa at ALL times NOT once a week or every other week or a few hours before use and for that reason we need to test the water regularly and make sure that the Ph is between 7.4-7.6 it will assure you that your chlorine its working properly and killing all posible funky stuff that might grow in your hot water environment. but in order to keep your ph in range its very important to make sure that your alkalinity is also within range because it works as a anchor keeping the PH in check make sure its between 80ppm and 120ppm being 120ppm the magic number. in order to raise your ALK you would need alkalinity increaser better known as baking soda(sodium bicarbonate) this product would also raise your PH as mention, reason why you gonna adjust alkl first. Read the product label first before adding any amount. once you adjust your alkalinity to 120ppm it will stay pretty good for weeks, unless any drastic changes happened like adding a lot of water or adding more than supposed to. now to lower PH you would need PH down or decreaser which its dry acid and that why adding constantly PH down it will lowered also your alkalinity so add accordingly to the label instruction. its better to add small amount and test after a few minutes instead of adding larger amount, its good to know also if your chlorine levels are higher than 5ppm expect interference with the rest of your testing since high level of chlorine will bleach out the colors on your test strip, I strongly recommend for hot tub owner to invest a little more on getting a better lasting test kit like a Tylor test kit that measure free available chlorine NOT total chlorine. other reason why your PH might be on the low side or high side if you find that your PH is always in the low side it could be due to your chlorine tabs specially if using tri-chlor tabs they have a PH of negative -3 meaning when added its slowly lowering your PH and also it will bring your Alkalinity in low side due to the CYA, if using liquid chlorine you will find your PH in the high side since the liquid chlorine have a PH of 13 if you are using bromine no need to worry much since bromine its not affected by ph but remember low or high ph will affect you and your hot tub. oh man with all this info I was better making my own video. I hope it help in some way... keep educating your self NO WATER IS SAFE.... and remember clean spa swim sure.
If you have low ph and high alkalinity do you add the decreaser and increaser at the same time or do one then the other
You can aerate your water (run jets and water features) and that will raise pH without raising alkalinity. Otherwise yeah, you do have to keep doing the decreaser/increaser dance.