3.4 PH ?

[BarryB]

I purchased some bottled distilled water and checked the PH and it reads about 3.4 . Is this normal???

 

[Rob Klein]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by BarryB:
<STRONG>I purchased some bottled distilled water and checked the PH and it reads about 3.4 . Is this normal???</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


Are you sure it's not sulfuric acid? ;P

 

[BarryB]

I tested it with two test kits and the color was off the chart, also checked with a digital ph meter. Maybe it's not correct, but it read 3.4.

 

[Chaser]

I seem to remember a thread about this sort of thing a few or two ago. You may be able to find it if you do some searching. As I recall, an electronic pH meter has a hard time getting a reading is distilled water.

Anyone else?

 

[gazpep]

Yikes, thats close to pure acid. Not even freshwater fish can tolerate a pH lower than around 6.

I think the reading is wrong !

 

[MarkS]

Any liquid with a pH that low is an acid. Pure water has a pH of 7. For the pH to be so low would require an incredible amount of chemicals.

A sure test would be to stick your hand in it. If there is even a slight burning sensation, you do NOT have a gallon of water.

I am no chemist, but I seriously doubt that it is really that low.

Mark

 

[tanzy]

Water at pH3.4 will taste very sour. I don't think it's possible even to drink it. Why would any company bottle acid for drinking? Are you sure it's distilled water or vinegar? Try another bottle of the same product.
Why are you testing the pH of distilled water?

I'll try some local distilled water and get back to you.

 

[Dewayne]

First off sulfuric acid would be way below 3.4 pH. and if you stuck your hand in it you would not like the results

Severe chemical burns would take place. It is possible that the distillation process that supplied your water is faulty. I work in a water treatment plant and we use ion exchange equipment to "polish" our water. With out going into too much detail, this process consists of cation units, degasifiers, and anion units in series to each other to remove the positive and negative ions from the water. If our degasifiers (basically big distillers) are not working properly, carbonic acid can form in the Anion units because of high CO2, resulting in a low pH effluent. Water that we consider up to spec. has a pH of around 6. I used this as top off water for a long time in my tanks with no ill effects. The conductivity of pure water is extremely low. Its the junk in water that conducts electricity, with no ions present,the water itself is a poor conductor. A pH probe that is calibrated in hi conductivity water (your tank water) will respond very slow in low conductivity water. give the probe time to settle out before taking the reading.
Just some general info to pass along

Dewayne

 

[Rick O]

Are the test kits you're using for FW or SW?

Rick

 

[scallop]

Here's the thing.

A pH of 3.4 really is'nt all that terrible. Now, although the pH scale is logrithmic, the difference between the H+ ion concentration (what makes something acidic) in carbonated water 3.9 and what your reading 3.4 is (what is approximatly 50 times greater) ends up being fairly close for our purposes. Stomach acid is anywhere between 1, and 3 depending on digestion. As far as a sour or painfull taste. Orange juice is 3.54, so not to worry about it tasting like death.
If you would like to know how dumping this into your aqurium would be effected we can do some simple calculation to figure out pH change based on volume of distilled water added to the volume of the existing solution. A good fix is to add an alkalikity adjuster which tends to swing pure water back to its SW friendly state. Sometimes depending on SW mix you may be fine, it may add the basic properties back to the water.

Good Luck.

 

[srbayless]

Howdy,

I'm no chemist (not much of a linguist either), so I can't comment on the state of the water.

I can say that if the water's PH is 3.4, it will lower the PH in your tank when you pour it in. I would do as scallop mentioned, and add a PH boosting chemical to the water before putting it into the tank.

Now I am wondering what the PH is of the Sparkletts I am using as top-off water. I'll have to check.

Good luck,

Scott.

 

[BarryB]

Three different tests are wrong?? When compaired to tap water all three tests read about 8.7 , tank water reads about 8.3. Also the reason that I bought the water is that the water from my LFS has basically the same reading (3-4 ph)!! Whats the deal. I have been doing this for about a year now(keeping a reef tank), but I have never actually tested distilled or deionized water.

[ July 25, 2001: Message edited by: BarryB ]

[ July 25, 2001: Message edited by: BarryB ]

 

[Nathan1]

I asked a very similar question a couple of days ago:


http://www.reefs.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=026904

Basically, only liquid "litmus" style test kits will work. Digital meters use electricity and since pure distilled water doesn't conduct electricity the results can be very far off.

-Nathan

[ July 25, 2001: Message edited by: Nathan ]

 

[danmhippo]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by srbayless:
<STRONG>Now I am wondering what the PH is of the Sparkletts I am using as top-off water. I'll have to check.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Scott:

Your city water can't be that BAD!! I used to use it straight into my FW tank, until the whole house installed the water softening unit. Of course unless you do not live in San Marino anymore. I work off in City of Industry, where my tank is at now. The straight tap here is pretty good and consistant with PH of 8 +- 0.5 and PO4/Nitrate all Zero. I am pretty happy with my tap here.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree that the reading is probably off due to the pH probe. It may be below 7, and I wouldn't be too surprised to see it significantly lower--it takes very little to change the pH of very pure water.

Once you dump salt into it to 35ppt, it really doesn't matter WHAT the pH was of the water prior. It's going to be close to 8.3

Ty