Keeping hot tub chemicals balanced. Constantly fighting with the pH lower and the alkalinity increase. Help!?

Question

Was told to get the alkalinity adjusted first. Then adjust the pH. When I get the pH right, then the alkalinity is low. When I get the alkalinity right, the pH is too high. Can't seem to get a good balance of both. By the way, I use Bromine for a chlorinator.

Answer 1

I'm not sure why you were told that. pH is a measure of both acidity and alkalinity. When the pH is 7 or lower, the water is considered acidic. When the pH is above 7 (up to a max of 14) the water is alkaline.

By now you probably have enough alkaline base materials in your tub, so I would just adjust the pH to near 7 (whatever is recommended for the chlorinator) and leave it alone. Nevermind what the alkaline indicator says -- you'll just have a lot of base material 'in reserve' as a buffer.

I have a 4-person tub (manually brominated, and I also use a bromine pellet 'floater') and I have rarely had any problems with pH.

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Answer 2

The reason you adjust the Alkalinity first is because there's not a chemical that will just bring that down. We make it increse by using sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). IT is a buffer between you and the pH is a god way to think about it. The pH needs to be kept as close to 7.4 as possible. The National guidlines are 7.2-7.8. Your Bromine is going to change the pH also. If you have an ozonator it is going to puch it upwards. Your missing the Calcium Hardness part of this equation to balance your water, that needs to be between 250-400ppm. Bromine is a great sanitizer to use. I would also use a non-chlorine shock for your general oxidizing (Shocking) that way you can reduce the amount of Bromine your using. There are Stabilizers out there called pH "locks" which are sodium phosphate based. They basically take the place of Calcium and I am really not a large fan of them. They seem to really gum up the filters and cause cleaning headaches over time. Feel free t email me anytime.