S-F

Do either of you have recommendations on where I could pick up a cover? I live in Western MA but ordering online is preferable.

I'm in need of a new cover for my hot tub. The thing weights about a million pounds on one side and it's getting a bit ratty. I'm overwhelmed by the amount of places out there that sell them. My spa is small, about half size, if that makes any difference. I also live in a fairly cold climate. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!

I guess I know that as I studied chemistry in a different life. So why is it recommended to get the TA right and then balance the PH? I guess I'm not sure what role TA plays in all of this.

I ordered the test strips yesterday. So I should be up and running with borate next week. This morning I tested the PH again. Still at 8.0 and a TA of 60 ppm. I added 3 more droppers of HCL and nothing. I tested the acid demand and it only took 1 drop to bring it to 7.4. I added another tsp. of the dry acid and now it's at 7.6! Yes! I'll test it again tonight to see if it rises again. This is all really, REALLY weird. With the amount of acid I've added you'd think the PH would be down around 6 or lower. I'm assuming my HCL is good because it clearly fumes when I open the bottle. Thanks for all the help chem geek. I'd no doubt be doing loads of stupid things otherwise. I'll report back next week about how everything works out.

Gotcha. The PH was about 7.9 though, not 7.6. I ordered 5 lbs. or boric acid. That ought to do it! Where do I get borate test strips? Thanks!

First of all, I'm using bromine so FC isn't at play here. When I first got the muriatic acid I accidentally put too much in and then it did register a drop in PH. I then added some baking soda to raise it a little bit. It was just too hard to pour an accurate amount so I got the dropper. What would happen then is I'd put a couple dropper fulls in and see no change so then I'd put a few more in and over shoot my mark. I got frustrated with this and got the dry acid yesterday. I also got a new filter and installed it. Not because the old one was bad but just so I could have the leisure to swap them and clean one for as long as I desired. Yesterday morning I added some more water because the level had dropped by several inches and after the PH read 7.6. With the new filter installed. I tried to raise the TA by adding some baking soda thinking that 50 (which it was then) was too low. I consulted the pool calculator to find out how much and then used a little bit less. Every reading I've taken since has been exactly the same with the exception of just now when the TA was still 60 and the PH seemed to be 7.9 or so. I should add that the TA readings are consistent with those of the test strips. My dropper isn't getting 1.5 tsp. Maybe more like .4 tsp. I just tested it. Oh, and I always take the sample from below the water line by immersing an upturned bottle and righting it when my arm is at full extension. This is really weird.

Well, I have now added 6 droppers of Hcl and 3.75 tsp. of the dry acid since yesterday. The PH is still at 8.0 and the TA is still at 60. I have been doing some reading about this on the forum and TPF and it seems like people are saying that with a hot tub you shouldn't really worry too much about TA in comparison to pool chemistry and just go with whatever keeps your PH normal. Should I just keep dumping acid in the tub until it all goes down? Could there be an issue with my reagents? My very old test strips say the PH is 6.8!

I can't lower the PH! Basically every time I take a PH reading it says 8.0 and every time I test the TA it says 60. I was adding muriatic acid with a dropper and I couldn't get it right. It would say 8.0 repeatedly and then I'd add another dropper full and it would go to something like 7.2! So I got some SpaGuard PH Decreaser. It says to add 1.5 tsp. to bring 200 gal. down to 7.2. Well I've added 2 tsp. to my 180 Gal. tub and it still says 8.0. What's up with that? The pool calculator says to add .2 oz. of the PH Decreaser which is just a little over a tsp. How long should I wait after adding the acid to test again?

Thanks for all the help chem geek! This morning everything is looking much more normal. I had company in the tub for about 15 - 20 minutes and I had the cover all the way off for the first time this week. This morning the TB is 6.25 and the PH is 7.8. TA is still steady around 6. I'll continue to keep an eye on things and won't add any more chemicals unless there appears to be a need. I think I'm all up and running here. Thanks for all your help. I'll chime back in if I run into any more questions.

Is this what I want? http://www.lowes.com/pd_206474-34228-CR.MA.P.01_4294610251__?productId=3024039&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=

OK. My Taylor test kit arrived today and the results are in. Using it is a tad tricky but I think I've got it now. I ran all tests twice and reached the same results both times so either I did it wrong both times the same way or I have it figured out. PH 8 TB 10 CH 30 TA 60 So the TA seems good but the PH is too high, the CH is too low and the TB is too high. I shocked the tub yesterday morning and have used it four times since. So it looks like I don't need to do as much shocking. Do I get dry acid at a spa shop? There are none near me. I can use boric acid also? Are there local resources for obtaining boric acid? How do I raise the calcium hardness? It doesn't surprise me that this is low since I fill the tub with filtered water.

Ahhh. I think I get it now. My bromine level seems to be steady so it looks like I have the floater properly dialed in. I do use the tub frequently but not for very long. I would say that 15 minutes is an average. I really have the tub to warm up. I often work outside in the cold New England winter and a hot soak really is the only think that warms me up. But I get bored if I'm in there for too long. So I probably only need to shock it when I've been in there for longer than usual or if I've had company in. I have one more question (and certainly more to come in the future!). My spa has settings for recirculating the water twice daily. It will run for either 2, 3, or 5 hours. I currently have it set to 2 hours of run time. Does this sound reasonable? Is there some metric I should follow when determining how long it should run? Thanks again!

So much bleach, huh? Is this relying on the chlorine to oxidize the waste or is it to shock the bromide? If so much is needed so frequently then why didn't waterbear mention it in his sticky? I'm not arguing here, just curious. It just seems that if I'm adding cups of bleach to the water every day it's eventually going to become a chlorine spa and I particularly dislike the smell of chlorine.

So I'm the new owner of a 180 Gal. tub and am going with the 3 step bromine procedure as outlined in the sticky and am a little unclear on maintenance. I've only had it a week but I ended up needing to drain it Sunday because it got NASTY after I had company Friday night. I had some dirty hippies in it and they were spilling beer and cigarette ashes were falling in. By Sunday morning the water was pretty gross. So I emptied it, balanced the PH, put just under 1 ounce or bromine in and shocked it with the shock powder that came with it. Bromine levels are consistently good now, around 5. The TA was good as soon as I added some baking soda but the PH was still a little low. This has stabilized as of last night. I am using test strips that came with the tub but I've ordered a Taylor k-2106 from Amazon which should arrive this week. Then I can test things like the CH. I'm a little in the dark about that stuff until then. Any way, First question. I've read here that you should shock the tub after every use. Really? Every Time I get out? I have some 8.25% bleach. So that's about 2.5 - 3 Oz. every time I use it? I usually am in in the evening and then again in the morning. Seems like a lot, but I dunno. Second, what about all of the stuff like body oils and such? Does the sponge thing called "Scumbug" work? Are there other products I should use, or is the catch basket and filter alone enough? Third, I am keeping it at 102 - 103, which I find comfortable, during the nighttime and I set it back to about 95 when I get out in the morning. Is this an acceptable practice or will it effect the water chemistry? Fourth, Since I added the initial bromide and have the floater apparently dialed in properly, will I need to ever add bromide again? On a single fill that is. I'm not talking about the next time I do a water swap. Thanks for all the great information everyone! I'm really glad I found this forum. Better late than never!