Very Low pH?

[amccleskey]

We just switched to a salt water system a few weeks ago and I thought I had all my numbers in line with the recommended levels, but I started getting a pH reading that I wasn't sure of. It was a dark orange that didn't match anything on the scale. I rolled with it for a few days, but then did a little searching and found that could be a bad thing, so I went and bought a new bottle of reagent yesterday and tested again. It's giving me a very pale clear pink orange color, again it doesn't match anything on the scale. Is my pH extremely low?

Now I'm not sure if my pH has been out of whack for a while and I didn't know it. I hope I haven't done any major damage.

FC 7.5
CC 1.5 (These were below 0.5. Guess I need to do another SLAM.)
pH Below 7.0?
TA 70
CYA 60 (Still working on raising this to 70-80. Raised it from below 30 to 60 in the last few weeks.)
SALT 3800

 

[PoolGate]

pink/orange is what you want. Yellow would indicate low.

 

[Richard320]

Try putting an extra drop or two in to deepen the color and see if it reads better then.

 

[amccleskey]

Thanks for your replies. Here are a couple of pictures of the reading I'm getting. I don't know where it lands on the scale. I tried to do the acid and base demand tests to see what happened with my color. When I started adding drops for the acid demand it immediately got pink like a high pH and when I added for the base demand it immediately turned pale yellow, so I was still unclear on my reading.

This picture is with 5 drops of R-0014


This picture is with 7 drops of R-0014

 

[Richard320]

I'd call that 7.6

 

[borjis]

When I do that test, I hold it up against the background of my neighbors white house in the backyard (full sun on his house).

I wonder if having it flat with paper towel behind makes it look less or more orange.

just thinking out loud, but what Richard said....looks good.

 

[DeanP66]

That is a strange shade of pink. I have the same pH tester and I don't ever remember getting it to come out that color. Could there be something interfering with the test in the pool?

With those CC's, definitely do a SLAM before raising your CYA any higher. Shoot for FC 24, and hopefully that will get rid of the CC's. Then let your FC come down below 10 and run another pH test. Maybe you get a different result.

 

[Tstjohn14]

If that is the 44ml sample, the reagent should be r0004. I believe r0014 is for the smallervtest samples.

 

[amccleskey]

If that is the 44ml sample, the reagent should be r0004. I believe r0014 is for the smallervtest samples.

Thank you! I didn't even realize I had purchased the wrong thing. You are right, my original bottle was R-0004 and the one I just bought is R-0014. I have one of the small testers around somewhere, I will recheck it with that and see what I get.

 

[Tstjohn14]

You are welcome. I learned from the very best...the people here on TFP!

 

[proavia]

If that is the 44ml sample, the reagent should be r0004. I believe r0014 is for the smallervtest samples.

BINGO!!
Double check you are using the correct pH reagent - R-0004 and R-0014 are NOT interchangable. I think the K2006 uses R-0004. I do know that the K1000 (which is included in the TF-100) uses R-0014.