Raise TA without raising PH

[dozer11]

How do I raise the TA in my hot tub without raising the PH?

 

[Patrick_B]

You can use baking Soda. It has the least effect on pH when raising TA. The lower your pH is however, the greater the chance you will see on it with Baking Soda.

 

[JohnT]

Add baking soda. Why do you want raise TA if you don't need the pH raised?

 

[dozer11]

Add baking soda. Why do you want raise TA if you don't need the pH raised?

I can get the Ph down to 7.6 but then the TA goes down to 40. Is that too low TA?

 

[chem geek]

No, that is not too low assuming your spa/hot-tub is not plaster and does not have tile with grout exposed to the water (most hot tubs are acrylic so saturation of the water with calcium carbonate is not needed).

For additional pH buffering we suggest using 50 ppm borates, most easily added by getting boric acid from Duda Diesel or The Chemistry Store. Did you read the sticky on How do I use Chlorine in my Spa (or pool)? assuming you are using chlorine (there's a separate sticky if you are using bromine).

 

[dozer11]

Thanks. I left it along and I will check into borates. I found the chlorine post very very helpful. The frustrating part is the test strips don't agree with each other. I did get the Taylor test kit and those readings are so different than the test strips too

 

[chem geek]

Trust the Taylor results.

 

[pooldv]

I use bleach in my tub and adding borates made a big difference. Our tub water is very nice with bleach, borax, cya and a little epsom salt.