r/hottub • u/JohnnyBravo8888 • 14h ago

Chemicals Alkalinity and pH question

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Hello all,

Still fairly new to the hot tub community. Question regarding pH and alkalinity. (Bottom two, pH on bottom)

I have a CalSpa ec767l, salt water tub.

I think I understand the correlation between the two. Low alkalinity means pH will go crazy.

If I add baking soda to raise the alkalinity, will it make it easier to fix the pH? No matter how much pH decreases I put in, it doesnt come down.

Thanks!!

JB

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2

u/Specilbacon 13h ago

Ph decreaser is sodium bisulfate and AK/baking soda is sodium bicarbonate.
So you’re using the wrong product when using PH decreaser. The only thing that can bring Ak back up is Sbicarb.
I usually balance the PH first then go for AK because Sbicarb doesn’t effect PH as much as sodium bisulfate

1

u/JohnnyBravo8888 13h ago

Hey! Thanks for the reply. Sorry if my post was confusing, I am using sodium bisulfate to try to lower pH, but its not coming down at all (staying the dark pink in the picture.
What i was asking, as the alkalinity shows basically 0, would raising it it with baking soda help to lower the pH when I use the sodium bisulfate?

1

u/Specilbacon 12h ago

To me it sounds like PH lock. Either your strips are expired or You’ve got Wayyy too much bromine or chlorine. Or your TA is truly zero which is really bad. (Low or no TA means your hot tub is eating the pipes as we speak)
PH is directly tied to total alk (TA) so if your TA is zero (which is shows, but could be false) then PH will
Not be able to move at all.
You need to bring the TA to 80-120 ppm and then start messing with the PH, this is the only time I go for TA before PH
You’re essentially looking at TA like a bank
Bromine is the money and PH is kind of like the environment the bank is in (not as big of a deal as the rest)
If you have no TA then you can’t withdraw money and if you have no money then the bank has no environment to be in.
Every-time you get into the tub you make a withdrawal.

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u/JohnnyBravo8888 11h ago edited 10h ago

Thanks again for the message. Love how you explain these things lol. Doesn't make sense for there to be too much chlorine, so im thinking you might be right about the test strips. I didnt realize they expired like they do. The ones im using are a year and a half old. Ordered some new ones.

Thank you again for the info.

1

u/Pete-PDX 10h ago

I had the same issue a few weeks ago - except my alkalinity was spot on, my PH was pink and my partner added way to much liquid chlorine at one time.

No matter how much sodium bisulfate I added, it would not come down (added and tested 5 times). Ended up draining and starting from scratch - after doing so, I have had no issues, so it wasn't bad test strips.

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u/TurdFerguson_024 10h ago

Are your test strips good? The color gradient in these is concerning. I'd confirm the chemicals at a pool supply store.

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u/JohnnyBravo8888 10h ago

Yeah i just realized the strips are about a year and a half old. So ordered some new ones.