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lmartine

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  1. If you are on well water I would definitely recommend it. Mine was It was ~100 dollars CAN, good for 20 fills on a 400 gal tub, that is a lot of water. It is supposed to take care of heavy metals, hydrogen sulfide, organic compounds, etc. (and cleans the kitchen sink too). My main concern was more mechanical filtering, the other stuff is just a bonus.
  2. I have had the same clear green water a couple of times as well, but only after a month or so of use. When it happens, it is quick, one day it is fine, then boom! This just happened to me again, but I had low chlorine and large bather load. The green never goes away, even after restoring water balance (no abnormal smells either). I am on well water and use a prefilter. Supposedly algae is hard to grow without light (my spa water rarely sees daylight) and I don't know why a metal issue would take so long to show up.
  3. Exactly what is the name of the Purex product? The only thing I can easily find in the frozen north is chlorox at 6%. Based on the MSDS, I could not find any Purex bleach product with with sodium hypochlorite. Is it called something else on the MSDS?
  4. I think you will find lots of people who swear by the ozonator. My tub came with one and for the first fill or two it probably helped since I had little understanding of how to manage the water in the first place. The selling point of ozone is that you can keep the chlorine at 1-3PPM, versus like 3-5PPM. I find less than 3PPM insufficient to manage peak loads like 4+ teenagers all at once anyways. YMMV. Once I figured out the balancing process I disconnected the ozonator and I am now convinced that, under normal circumstances, with a chlorine system, it makes it harder to keep the spa sanitized. The ozonator would take a 3-5PPM chlorine reading to 0 in less than 24 hours with nobody using the spa. Maybe my ozonator is too aggressive, but when you start reading about the health effects of ozone (not to mention what it does to plastic spa covers!) you have to wonder what the benefit is. On my system the electrical part of the ozonator was connected via a plug on the side of the spa internal control module, just followed the cable and unplugged it (turn off the breaker before rooting around under the cover). I'm not sure how the aeration part works, in my case I suspect I have a mechanical/venturi thing which works in conjunction with the spa's secondary filter pump which runs continuously.
  5. Thanks for the info everybody. Is there potential for chlorine gas to be produced under normal circumstances (ie, chemicals added separately to ~1600l of water)? Do you need to worry about timing the addition of chemicals?
  6. I usually scoop some spa water in my ~1l jug, add granular to that, dissolve and dump back into the spa, with a separate trip back and forth for each chemical. Well, yesterday, I added a tblspoon of ph minus to the jug, got distracted and then added a tblspoon of lithium hypochlorite to the mix. Holy #@*! As soon as the water in the jug started to bubble and fizz and produce some nasty fumes, I realized the mistake. What does 1 tbls of ph minus + 1 tblspoon lithium h. + 1l water produce exactly?
  7. I have some stain preventer from the local spa dealer and the bottle does not list any ingredients other than 'contains phosponic (sic) acid'. It is a descaler that neutralizes iron, copper and manganese and is added 15ml per 1000 litres. Also on the label are warnings not to add sanitizer for half a day after adding the stain preventer or the water may turn brown. Anybody have the low down on this stuff? How/why does it interact with the sanitizer?
  8. Thanks. I read the higher percentage degrades faster. Any idea what kind of time frame is needed before it makes sense to just buy the lower percentage? I called Clorox's 1-800 or 1-888 phone number printed on the jug and I was told the Ultra is 6%. You can get a 5 litre jug of Purox liqiud chlorine at Canadian Tire for $5. I was told it's 10.8%.
  9. Any spa users using ultra clorox? This is 'new' in our part of the great white north. Usually I buy the no-name brand with 5.25% explicit on the label, but it is not always in stock locally. They seem to be phasing out the regular clorox; you can't even compare the price to see how much (more) you are getting ripped off. Regular clorox says 5.25% right on the label, but the ultra clorox label says nothing about concentration. The clorox website does not even mention 'ultra', but some web hits indicate 6%, others 6.95%.
  10. All good advice IMHO. Last time I had major bubble infestation I used a metal mesh splash guard normally used for frying pans to remove the foam. Only 12 inches in diameter, slow but effective.
  11. Richard, No time to shock again, I added my usual maintenance dose and somebody is already in the spa. I still don't have a proper test kit (lost orders, lost emails, yada yada) so I can't give any proper numbers. I know the test strips are so-so, but they are in the ballpark of tests done periodically at various spa dealers. Basically I am aiming for just the faintest hint of chlorine smell on my skin when I get out. I am currently in the 0.5-1PPM range on the test strip, which I think is too low. I need to get into the 1-2PPM range (just like it says on the spa instructions!). If I get 3-5PPM on the strip I find the chlorine smell too strong. The 10+ during shocking is obviously too much for normal usage, but is certainly not life-threating if one gets in by accident. -- Lee
  12. David, I have a 350g spa with an ozonator, there is low speed pump which runs continuously. I fill with hard/iron/sulfer-flavoured well water through an inline hose filter. TA is 80-100 and CYA is low (0-30 depending who tests it). The MPS brand is 'Oxy Pro' by a company called Aquapro, evidently based here in Ottawa. No specs on the label, just say 'contains peroxysulfate'. I started by adding 4oz 5.25% bleach and, simultaneously, just under 1 tablespoon (??ozs) of MPS with pump on high, no air and lid propped open for about 15 minutes. Chlorine goes in straight from the measuring cup and then MPS thrown on top. I do this twice a day, usually at 7ish in the morning and 6-ish at night. I have tried skipping the afternoon addition if the spa does not get used in the afternoon, but this leaves little reserve. My teenage son and 3 of his friends hopped in one evening without me adding the afternoon dose (wow, instant cesspool), but an immediate application of chlorine and MPS brought things back in line. I really think this is still not enough chlorine though. I have been considering upping the chlorine to 8 ozs in the morning without MPS, then maybe 6 ozs in the PM and only add MPS after the last soak of the evening. Convenience (laziness) is a factor too for me so I might try two shots a day of 6ozs + 1/2 tablespoon MPS. The ph tends to go down if no one uses the spa, then goes back up with use. I have not adjusted the pH for at least two weeks, although it has been borderline low on occasion. FYI, I shocked yesterday with 6 full tablespoons of lithium and no MPS; 12 hours later with no bathers and there is no residual. -- Lee
  13. David66, my experience is similar to yours, no chlorine residual unti I started daily use of MPS. My first fill was dichlor only (and lithium), and lots of it, but it still went south. My second fill was dichlor initially and then bleach, and that was dicey until I started with MPS. As for some of the other comments in this thread, I really don't know what to think about spa 'professionals' and all of their decades of experience. Each dealer has a different approach to chemicals (one dealer swears by trichlor tablets in a bromine dispenser!) but none of their approaches worked for me.
  14. I add the bleach and MPS at the same time, dumping the bleach directly from a measuring cup (no premix) into the tub over a large output jet, pump on high with no air, rinse the cup and then immediately throw the dry MPS on the top. I realize it would be better add the bleach and MPS at different times, but I want to minimize the maintenance trips out to the spa. I prefer a regular maintenance schedule in the off-hours rather then adding stuff just before or just after use. I'm sure this approach has left me with zero disinfectant at times, depending on the bather load, but I think the ozonator has saved my bacon here. Lee
  15. I have had my spa since September and am now on the second fill. It wasn't until a few weeks ago I discovered that the only way I could maintain good quality water with chlorine and an ozonator was to add a daily dose of MPS. I prefer to have as little chlorine as possible, but still above zero, in the tub when I get in. I went through a few weeks trying to get chlorine to last more than a few hours (like >12PPM to 0 in 4-6 hours) with bleach, dichlor and lithium and found no difference between the different types even with the ozonator off. I was ready to take an axe to the stupid thing. I have a cupboard full of products: dichlor, lithium, clarifier, de-foamer, stain-away, ph-down, MPS and of course bleach. The only thing I use now is MPS and bleach and the water maintains that same 'crispness' as when it was fresh. Worked, for me, YMMV, etc, but I am amazed at how simple the solution turned out to be in my situation. The TA is around 100, CYA around 20. The pH tends to go down if the spa gets only intermittent use (does not happen very often) but goes back up after use.
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