pH testing issue and CYA questions

JenF75

Well-known member
Jul 12, 2017
177
Stouffville, ON, Canada
I use a pH meter to test, and recently purchased a new meter. For some reason, I was doubting the new meter and decided to double check with my old meter. I first calibrated both. Everything looked good, both were reading very similar. Today, I checked again with both and they're reading very off of each other. I made a calibration solution of 6.86 and checked each meter and they're both reading the same in the calibration solution, right around 6.8-6.9. But I test both my pool and hot tub, and they're very off, enough that I would need to adjust if I went off of one meter, but wouldn't need to adjust if I went off the other meter. What could be causing this???? Could it be related to other chemicals in the water? How accurate is the drop test for pH from the Taylor K-1000? Maybe I should just ditch the meters and go with that.....

(in case the pics are hard to see, in one cup the pH is reading 7.1 and 7.54 and the other cup it's reading 7.0 and 7.41)
 

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Always periodically double check the accuracy of your meter(s) with the phenol ph test. It is accurate. Be sure to be in a well lit area & put the comparator against a white background when reading results. 😊
edit: some folks need the meter because they are color blind
Others like the assumed convenience for daily checks but either method should use the phenol test on a regular basis (weekly)
 
There was another question I forgot to ask regarding CYA. Is it possible that my CYA is going down, despite the fact I've been adding stablizer?

May 10th CYA 50 - 750g of stabilizer added (1/2 of what I needed)
May 14th - 800g of stabilizer added (forgot to do on the 11th as I planned)
May 19th - CYA still at 50
May 22nd - CYA is now 40
 
The cya test needs to be done outdoors on a sunny day w/ your back to the sun & the sample waist high.
if you did it with different lighting conditions it can affect how you saw the dot. The Minimum cya recommendation for a swg pool is 60 so definitely bump that up a bit anyway then retest.
 
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