We bought a Bestway Monaco spa at Christmas and aside from one brief outing in March, the temperature hasn't been "safe" enough to leave it out for longer. It seems like the temperature is finally settling in to a consistent safe zone so we can probably get the hot tub out and keep it out until the temperature starts to top again in Autumn.
When we used the hot tub in March I don't really feel like I had much luck with chemical levels. After I'd filled the tub, I immediately set it to heat and added a shock treatment of Chlorine right away. Once I'd left that for 24 hours, I tested the water and saw that the Alkalinity and PH were very low and so I started adding PH plus but basically I was guessing at the amounts and so I would see the PH rise but didn't see much change in the Alkalinity. The PH would quickly drop off again and it was only after a couple of days of trying that I managed to get the PH to a level where I was happy for us to have a dip but even then, the Alkalinity was still low and I had to add PH plus every day for the few days we had left to use the tub. I was also adding the recommended amount of Chlorine before bed every night to make sure the Chlorine level was okay.
When I get the tub out later this week I'd really like to do things right and get a good balance as efficiently as possible so I'd love any advice anyone can give me. I can post the levels I find as and when I test but at this point, how would you start? Am I right to fill the tub then turn on the heater and shock at the same time? Should I be working on my Alkalinity before anything else? I'm lost!
Thanks in advance for your help!