"Hi....I am so confused as to which test to order. We have copper piping that has developed leaks due to tiny pin holes in the piping. Our PH is excellent but do not know what is causing the greenish color inside the pipes. Our plumber, about whom you can have a peek here, recommended we do a test on the water but since the water has normal acidity we do not know what to do now. Please help. Thanks so much. I am clueless and hoping you can point me in the right direction as to what we need to test for now!"

Hello, Sue, and thank you for your inquiry.  We suspect the greenish color you see comes from oxidation of the copper on its surface and the fact that you see it on the inside of the pipes indicates that your pipes most likely spent some time with air in them.  Perhaps the leaks in the pipes allowed oxygen into the system or maybe the system spent some time in a drained condition?

As for what caused the pinholes in the first place, pH would normally top the list as likely offender. Aside from that, you may want to take a look at alkalinity which affects the stability of the pH. If you have low alkalinity your water may have a great pH today and an absolutely horrible pH tomorrow.

Also, how old is the plumbing in question?  Perhaps just the age of the system has given it time to develop pinhole leaks?

Easy Way to Test for pH & Alkalinity

We currently carry a product called the WaterWorks pH & Alkalinity which performs a test for both pH and total alkalinity at the same time.

The WaterWorks pH & Total Alkalinity test strip utilizes a single test strip designed with two separate test pads: one for measuring pH and the other for measuring Total Alkalinity. The test procedure works well as an alternative to traditional wet chemical tests that sometimes require the use of potentially hazardous chemicals.

• pH: 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 8.5, 9.0
• Total Alkalinity: 0, 80, 120, 180, 240, 360 ppm (mg/L)

Why the concern?

By now pretty much everyone has seen the videos of people lighting their well water on fire and some of you may have even seen the video where a representative from a gas or oil drilling company took a drink from a glass that allegedly contained fluid used in hydraulic fracturing — to ‘prove’ that the stuff was harmless.

One side says fracking destroys water sources and the other says it does little, if any, harm to the environment… so who should the homeowner believe?

Our opinion…

Regardless of WHAT industrial activity takes place in the area of a private water well, be it fracking, coal mining, gold mining, oil drilling, or maybe even commercial farming, the responsibility for monitoring the water coming out of a private well falls on the shoulders of the well owner.

With that said, private water well owners need to watch the quality of their water and alert authorities when a noticeable change in water quality occurs — because rest assured the companies potentially responsible for changes in ground water quality will not say a word about potential problems until they get caught by the EPA or called out by the public.

Simple tests the public can perform…

Opponents of hydraulic fracturing have called for gas and oil companies to release the list of chemicals involved in hydraulic fracturing for a number of years. Now of COURSE not one single company (that we know of) has made that sort of information public… which leaves many folks wondering how they will know if fracking fluid or other byproducts of the oil and gas drilling industry have crept into their well water.

Since the average person does not have regular access to laboratory grade equipment or usually feel like spending hundreds of dollars each time they want to test their well water, we suggest using the following simple water tests as indicators for when a person may want to consider having their water checked by a certified water testing laboratory:

• Chlorides
   
• Heavy Metals
   
• Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)
   
• pH & Alkalinity

Drastic changes in the above water quality parameters may indicate that some sort of contamination of the well water source has occurred and that a well owner may want consider having a certified water testing laboratory perform a more thorough, complete analysis for contaminants not detectable using home water test kits.

We all know that improperly balanced pool water can cause eye irritation due to a low/high pH, low/high alkalinity, and/or too high a chlorine count, but what about a properly balanced swimming pool? Does that water cause harm in any way?

According to the article,

• The human eye has a natural protective barrier over it that helps protect it from infection by bacteria, parasites, etc. Chlorinated water removes that thin layer temporarily.
   
• Swimming pools disinfected with chlorine may have the correct amount of chlorine in them to effectively ward off ‘bugs’, as the author called them, but that same chlorine loses some of its efficacy if the pH or alkalinity has drifted out of acceptable range.
   
• The amount of bacteria and other unwanted pool water contaminants introduced by a high bather load (aka: lots of people in the pool at one time) may temporarily overwhelm the chlorine concentration’s ability to neutralize threats to swimmers — especially their eyes whose protective tear layers have temporarily gotten washed away.
   
• Contact lens wearers may want to pay special attention to pool water water quality and possibly take extra steps to flush out their eyes after a swim. Putting lenses back in one’s eyes possibly without rinsing traces of pool water out first may allow infectious, or simply unwanted, bacteria and/or parasites to get trapped between a contact lens and a person’s eye… where it could breed, grow and basically cause problems.
   
• The good news? A properly sized and well-fitting set of goggles can really help minimize an eyeball’s exposure to tear film erasing chlorinated water and opportunistic ‘critters’ that sometimes lurk in pool water — like, for example (and we did not know this, by the way)… ‘pink eye’.

The article also mentioned something in passing: Carrying a pool water test kit with you to the pool. Sure you may look like a science geek or some sort of paranoid parent at the neighborhood pool, but if the water turns out to not possess the right chemicals to keep you and your family safe, well, we think a little embarrassment goes a long way!

Moral of the story?

Swimming pool water, even in the best circumstances, temporarily wipes away a vital protective barrier that our eyes rely upon to keep them ‘safe’. Therefore it stands to reason that we ought to make certain our pool water has the right balance of water chemistry (testing pool water helps with this!) and use properly fitting eye protection whenever we go for a swim!

Oh, and… one more thing before we go: At the beginning of each swimming season and each time a pool gets filled up or topped off with fresh water from a well or spigot, make sure to test the quality of the fill water for things like metals, hardness, alkalinity, pH, etc.

Why? Because just like in the world of computer programming, “Garbage in, garbage out!”

For your pool that means if you add water that has some water quality issues to begin with, then your pool water will have water quality issues, too.

Thanks, ‘Kara-Lynn’, for this very good question about the relationship between pH readings and alkalinity readings when testing water. A good many people have confusion on this topic!

Going back in time a bit…

Many years ago when we worked in a pool store that performed free water testing and (obviously) also sold a variety of pool water adjustment chemicals that raised the pH, lowered the pH, raised the alkalinity, or lowered the alkalinity levels of pool water we faced customers on a regular basis that had questions about the relationship between pH and alkalinity.

Quickly we learned a very simple way to explain the relationship:

• Think of alkalinity as a total number of particles that can change color in a body of water.
   
• Think of pH as the range of colors that each particle could change.
   
• If color change is required: It is easier to convince a small number of the color-changing particles to change color than it is to convince a large number of color-changing particles.
   
• If color change is unwanted: It takes more effort to convince a large number of color-changing particles to change color than it does to convince a small number of color-changing particles.
   
• Higher alkalinity means greater color (pH) stability. Lower alkalinity means less color (pH) stability.

Some people understood the meaning of my little story asked for more information on how they could test for both parameters since a clear relationship existed between pH and alkalinity.

For those folks we suggested pool water test strips like the Pool Check 5-Way and the Pool Check 6-Way test strip products as the easiest ways to keep tabs on both the pH and alkalinity of pool water.

Other people developed a blank look on their faces and simply said, “Yeah, OK, just tell me what I need to buy”… and went on their merry way.

Testing pH & alkalinity in drinking water

Can you use pool & spa test strips to test the pH and alkalinity of drinking water? Yes, but in general the manufacturers of pool & spa test strips calibrated those products using water with a higher temperature.

Therefore, we suggest using products specifically designed to test water with a cooler temperature such as the WaterWorks pH & Total Alkalinity Test Strips which come packaged in bottles of 50 tests for each parameter and cost less than $10 per bottle.

Detection ranges for the WaterWorks pH & Total Alkalinity Test Strips:

• pH: 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 8.5, 9.0
   
• Total Alkalinity: 0, 80, 120, 180, 240, 360 ppm (mg/L)

For those curious as to WHY a person would have interest in a fast, easy-to-use and accurate test strip for dissolved copper, pH and total alkalinity, the answer lies with pools, spas and water features (i.e. decorative ponds, coy ponds, fountains, etc.). In water samples from each of those three water environments a person could very easily expect to find traces of dissolved copper.

• Copper in Swimming Pools – Dissolved copper in swimming pools may come from a number of sources including, but not limited to, copper based algaecides and algistats, normal wear and tear on a heated pool’s heating element, and/or from source water used to replace water lost due to intentional draining and evaporation.
   
• Copper in Hot Tubs & Spas – One could expect to find dissolved copper in a hot tub or spa due to the natural wear and tear on its heating element. Also, in the case of outdoor spas and hot tubs we have heard that some, but not a whole lot, of people employ the use of copper based algaecides to ward off algae attacks in tubs that do not get used on a regular basis.
   
• Copper in Water Features – In an effort to retard and or prevent the growth of algae in water features — many of which do not have the protective benefit of sanitizing or disinfecting chemicals due to the presence of organics (plants, fish, etc.) — owners of water features will often use small amounts of copper based algaecides/algistats. Not keeping a watchful eye on the dissolved copper could have a seriously detrimental effect on plant and animal life if levels get too high.

Now that we know why people would want to test for copper in water, some of you probably want to know why anyone would find it desirable to also test for pH and total alkalinity at the same time. The answer to that question lies in the relationship between copper as a solid metal and the effects of pH & alkalinity on that solid metal when either parameter drifts out of the acceptable range.

Water with incorrect pH and/or alkalinity becomes more corrosive than properly balanced water and will eat away at (dissolve) most metals at a much faster rate. In pools, spas and hot tubs corrosive water will target the copper heating elements of water heaters and pull copper metal ions out of them.

If not watched closely water with improper pH and/or total alkalinity can very easily shorten the lifespan of copper heating elements in swimming pools and hot tubs to a mere fraction of what one would normally expect… and if they go bad unannounced, well, the cleanup & repair — especially for indoor hot tub owners — could very easily wind up costing a whole heck of a lot more than monitoring and balancing the dissolved copper, pH and total alkalinity levels in the first place!

Other reasons to monitor copper, pH and alkalinity levels?

While the untimely and expensive demise of heater elements certainly should make a good enough case to encourage folks like us to perform regular testing for dissolved copper, pH and total alkalinity, other folks out there may need a bit more convincing… so try THIS on for size: Dissolved metals (i.e. and especially copper) will drop out of solution and stain pool/spa/feature surfaces if the pH and/or alkalinity strays too far out of range!

To make matters worse, getting those stains off surfaces typically takes a good amount of time, physical labor (elbow grease!), and metal stain removal chemicals.

Testing for copper in source water?

Earlier we mentioned that water used to fill a swimming pool, hot tub or water feature may contain dissolved copper… and we meant what we said. Some well water and even some municipal/city/tap water may contain dissolved copper so it makes sense to always test your source water for quality before blindly adding to your pool, spa or water feature.

AND it REALLY makes sense to make sure you test for the presence of heavy metals (i.e. copper, iron, etc.) before adding strong oxidizers like chlorine or bromine because the addition of those chemicals causes a sharp change in the water’s pH and alkalinity levels… and as stated earlier this could cause the metals to fall out of solution (form precipitates) and potentially stain surfaces.

Copper/Silver Ionizer

Back in the old days people used only one of two things to keep their pool water safe, clean and clear: Chlorine or Bromine. Nowadays people can choose from chlorine, bromine, ionizer, mineralizer, biguanide, peroxide, and salt systems — and each method requires special attention to specific water quality parameters.

Not knowing what to test for with each pool water sanitizing system could have disastrous results… which brings us to an email inquiry from ‘ShonShondra911′ who recently had a pool installed in her yard and had no idea what type of test kit to use:

"Our pool salesman suggested we install our pool with one of the ionizer systems that puts small amounts of copper in the water to help keep the pool from turning green and slimy (his words) and he said we would have to test for the levels once we got all the water in and the system started but he never said what levles to test. Do we just use the yellow and red kit you sell? Test strips you sell? Or do we need lab testing each time? Can you help???"

Do not panic, Shon. Do not panic. We can help you decide what type of pool water test kit should work best for your pool’s copper ionizer sanitizing system.

While you COULD invest in a traditional wet chemistry test kits such as the Taylor Copper Test Kit which tests for copper (.2ppm – 3.0ppm) in pool water and the Taylor K-1004 Troubleshooter Test Kit which tests for alkalinity, pH and other water parameters… a simpler, less expensive option exists.

The Pool Check brand of pool test strips manufactures a dip-n-read test strip product called the Pool Check Copper 3-Way which tests for copper, pH and total alkalinity — the three main water quality parameters you will want to keep an eye on most of the time.

This product boasts detection ranges of:

1. Copper: 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 2 ppm
2. Total Alkalinity: 0, 40, 80, 120, 180, 240, 360 ppm
3. pH: 6, 6.4, 6.8, 7.2, 7.6, 8.2, 9

… and has a total test time of around one minute.

Additionally, this product requires no special chemicals, no multi-step instructions, no proprietary testing vessels (containers), and has a cost of around $11 for 50 tests!

So, unless you feel re-visiting your old high school chemistry days, we suggest you take a look at the Pool Check Copper 3-Way for your day-to-day pool water testing needs.

Well, Tony, you raise a very good point. We can only say that we would HOPE municipalities used reputable third party testing agencies (which we believe they must) to perform the required testing. At some point SOMEone in the equation must have the values required to tell the truth if problems exist with a city’s water.

Assuming you can trust the water report…

Let’s say that the water reports we receive each year do tell the truth and all the reports say our water meets or exceeds Federal, State and Local guidelines for water quality — and we believe the reports accurate and factual. Does that mean we all have safe, clean drinking water coming out of our faucets?

Not by a long shot, unfortunately. Our tap water may have left the water treatment plant in perfect condition but before it reaches our homes it must travel through many miles of mixed composition plumbing (i.e. PVC, copper, cast iron, etc.) that may have gotten installed well before health regulations outlawed the use of heavy metals like lead in the solder used to connect pipes.

This means the crystal clear water produced by the water treatment plants could have picked up some unwanted drinking water contaminants along the way even though the political folks who wrote the annual drinking water quality reports told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Does this mean everyone needs a water filter?

While water filter manufacturers would LOVE for everyone to run out and purchase a water filter for their home, not everyone really does need a water filter. In fact, the vast majority of people on public water systems do NOT need water filters and have them merely for aesthetic reasons (i.e. removal of chlorine taste, removal of chlorine odor, etc.).

So… Should YOU have a water filter in your home? You will not know until you test your water — and of home drinking water test kits range from basic (4-in-1 City Water Check tests for pH, total alkalinity, total hardness, and total chlorine) to slightly more advanced (SenSafe Water Quality Test Kit tests for 14 water quality parameters).

Which water test kit will work best for you?

We have found that most people who draw their water from a municipal source typically can get by with total hardness testing, metals testing, pH testing, alkalinity testing, total chlorine testing, and/or coliform bacteria testing.

This does NOT mean, however, that some municipal water quality situations will not require more advanced testing for VOC’s and other drinking water contaminants.

Already know what you want to filter out of your water?

Next step: Determine which type of filter will work best for your application and where you want to install it (i.e. countertop, undercounter, whole house, on the shower head, on the faucet, etc.). Each location has benefits, but understand that each also has drawbacks.

So, before you plunk down you hard earned cash on a water filter for your home, school or office, make sure the type of filter you choose will do what you want it to do!

= = = =

Recently we saw that a company had a link on its web site entitled Online Pool Water Testing… and quite honestly it seemed a bit weird to think that a company could POSSIBLY test your water over the Internet so naturally we went and checked out the link.

We EXPECTED to find a convoluted bunch of advertising hype leading up to asking us to send a sample of our water to a lab someplace bu we did not find anything of that nature.

The company, In the Swim (www.intheswim.com) posted a very simple online form that asked for just a few simple pieces of information that one could obtain by looking at their pool water and using a test strip like the Pool Check 5-Way Pool Test Strips offered in our online store.

The form asked for the following pieces of information: Pool type (pool or spa), water conditions (cloudy or clear & color if cloudy), visible algae, visible stains, pH, total alkalinity, calcium hardness, and free/available chlorine (or bromine).

Then, once we hit the ‘submit’ button it took us to a page where it placed all of our values in a nice, neat table that also contained the industry accepted values for the same pool water quality parameters. This made it very easy for us to see exactly how our pool water quality compared to the way it should be.

We then had a chance to ‘view suggestions’ regarding our personal water quality situation — which we did — and a new page appeared with information regarding possible causes of our pool water woes (we said we had cloudy water and low pH). At this point the program did, of course, give a push for us to add some chemicals to our cart, but never once did the program’s language seem threatening or intimidating… like we have overheard in many pool stores over the years.

• “If you don’t fix this problem right away your pool will rot.”
• “Yeah, you CAN swim in it as-is, but I wouldn’t.”
• “Hey, if the machine says you need these chemicals then you NEED these chemicals.”
• And one of our favorites of all time: “Don’t come crying to us when your skin gets all itchy and your hair turns green, OK?”

Yep. Got to love the untrained, uncouth water testing personnel in some pool stores. Wait, we take that back. No, you don’t have to love them. You SHOULD, however, make use of Pool Check Test 5-Way Strips and the convenient, not-too-pushy Online Pool Water Test program on IntheSwim.Com. No download required, either! It’s 100% online and easy!

Pool Check 5-Way Test Strip

Pool Check 6-Way Test Strip

Pool Check Salt Test Strips

= = = =

We had not seen the online water test on In the Swim before and want to thank Water Testing Blog for bringing it to our attention. After playing around w/ it ourselves just now we, too, found the process pretty easy, completely painless and totally worthwhile.

Many pool stores use test methods no more sophisticated than the testing tools than you may already have at home or that you can purchase online at places like In the Swim or from our own Pool Water Test Kit Store.

• Alkalinity – Not having the correct amount of alkalinity in your water will make getting and keeping the pH of your pool water very difficult.

• Calcium Hardness – Having too much calcium in your water could result in deposits forming and could also make it harder for other chemicals to dissolve in the water. Too little calcium in the water could result in pool water becoming aggressive and starting to attack various pool surfaces.

• Chlorine (Free) – If you use chlorine as your sanitizer, check to see if you have any left over from last year… or risk adding more than you need to add at the beginning of the year and ‘wasting’ money.

• Chlorine (Total) – If you use chlorine as your sanitizer and shocked your pool at the end of the previous season (as you SHOULD have), then you may have a lot of combined chlorine in your water that needs to get ‘burned out’ w/ a non-chlorine shock. Combined chlorine does little good when it comes to keeping pool water clean.

• pH – Incorrect pH levels drastically reduce the effectiveness of important pool chemicals such as bromine, chlorine, clarifiers, algaecides, etc.

• Metals – Having unwanted metals such as copper and iron in your pool water when you shock it w/ an oxidizer like chlorine or bromine at the beginning of the season could cause the metals to precipitate out of solution and stain pool surfaces.

• Stabilizer – Also known as cyanuric acid, having too little of this compound in pool water makes it difficult to maintain a free chlorine residual. Having too much of it can keep chlorine in a pool from doing its job.

• Total Dissolved Solids – Too many total dissolved solids in pool water will result in the water not accepting additional material… such as the chlorine powder (granules), tablets, sticks, or pool chemistry balancing chemicals.

So, get your water tested before adding start-up chemicals. Any questions?

Pool Check Salt Test Strips

Pool Check 5-in-1 Test Strips

Pool Check Copper 3-in-1

]]> http://watertestingblog.com/2012/04/26/what-to-test-when-opening-your-pool/feed/ 0 http://watertestingblog.com/2012/04/19/why-fix-alkalinity-when-ph-is-the-problem/ http://watertestingblog.com/2012/04/19/why-fix-alkalinity-when-ph-is-the-problem/#respond Fri, 20 Apr 2012 02:44:07 +0000 http://watertestingblog.com/?p=5419 Once again warmer weather has brought out the topic of pool water… and since no one REALLY wants to swim in unhealthy pool water we see NO REASON not to tackle pool water quality questions when they come our way.

Today’s question came to us from ‘AnThony07’ who asked, “Pool store guys said to fix pH after alkalinity. Why not just fix the problem pH they pointed out?”

Many folks mistake pH for alkalinity and at other times they mistake alkalinity for pH. Do the two have a lot in common? Well, sort of, but they also have enough differences that they both matter and need to get addressed separately and in the correct order.

Simply put,

• pH – A measure of how acidic or basic a water sample is.

• Alkalinity – A physical count of the ‘molecules’ that make a sample acidic or basic.

Yes, yes, we know… we oversimplified that by a mile… but for most pool owners that model works quite well.

On a more real-world level, think of it this way: If you walked into a room and wanted to change the overall mood or opinion of the room, would you have better luck exacting change on a room full of people or a room with fewer people in it?

Obviously you could get the change in mood or opinion in the room if it contained fewer people, right? Well the same goes for pool water. A pool with low alkalinity will change pH very easily as a result of outside influence (i.e. addition of acidic rain water, depositing of leaves that give off acids as they decompose, etc.) whereas a pool with the proper amount of alkalinity will take longer to have its pH altered by outside influences.

Conversely, a pool with too much alkalinity could, over time, go out of balance (acidic or basic) and then it would take a whole lot of persuading (i.e. the adding of chemicals) to correct the pH — and a lot of times the pH will shoot from one end of the spectrum to the other after the addition of, for the average pool owner, an unpredictable quantity of pH correction chemicals.

So… Does alkalinity matter, Anthony? You bet it does!

Moral of the story

Before you go WASTING MONEY on chemicals to fix the pH, make sure you have the proper amount of alkalinity in your pool water! If you don’t want to travel to the pool store every time you think your alkalinity may need checking, pool water test strips such as those manufactured by AquaChek or Pool Check work quite well, cost very little and provide fast, accurate results on-the-spot.

Or, for those who want to perform more in-depth testing so they can fine tune their pool water’s quality, pool water testing meter’s such as the eXact Micro 7+ Pool Testing Meter make it possible for the the average pool owner to test for a large number of important pool water characteristics — without the need for complicated mixing, measuring and interpreting of chemical reagents.

eXact Micro 7+ Pool Water Testing Meter…
a Pool Testing Meter for the Average Pool Owner