Hot Tub Water, way off

[cschnurr]

Over Christmas I missed my regular weekly testing twice and now pH is so far off, I don't know where to begin.

Taylor drop testing of Bromine indicates about 6ppm,
My TA is about 30, but not the 'normal' colour of pink, more orangy
My pH is off and I don't know which way to go.

The mixed reagants are almost clear in the test chamber.
Adding Based Demand drops turns the test vial water Blue/Violet, but adding more doesn't bring the colour into the 'normal' range.
Adding Acid Demand drops to a new test sample turns the test vial water yellow, but adding more doesn't bring the colour into the 'normal' range.

I decided to use my Lamotte Test strips because they test a wider range of pH
My Lamotte strips, it indicates Bromine more like 10ppm and pH <7.0

So I was able to sort out that my pH was <7 and adjusted the water accordingly.

Can someone explain the colours I saw while doing the Taylor pH testing.?
Is there a better way to determine which direction to move pH when it is way off scale?

 

[Mdragger88]

Somehow missed your post..
your ph is extremely low & this can really damage your heater/equipment/surfaces.
if you haven’t already, add enough baking soda to get ta to around 50/60 PoolMath & run the jets, your ph should increase with a normal ta & aeration.

If you’re using bromine tabs (which are acidic) you should adjust the floater to the lowest setting if you’re going to be away.

For the ph phenol red test - lighter shades (orange,yellow,clear) mean lower ph & deeper means higher ph (deep magenta or purple = above 8)
High sanitizer levels (above 10ppm) can affect the test - this generally results in a falsely high ph reading so I would imagine your ph is very low.
When ph goes extremely low - test ta & adjust it to 50/60 if below with baking soda then retest ph, if it is still not in the 7’s after aerating a while You can use borax in small amounts (.4 increment adjustments or less) to get it to a measurable range.

PH - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[cschnurr]

Mdragger,
Thanks for your reply. I know I screwed up . I couldn't figure why I didn't get a normal range reading be adding either Acid Demand reagants or Base Demand reagants. Only the LaMotte strips provided me a way forward, and then I and I immediately adjusted the TA and pH as you described. I then did a drain refill of the tub