Wrinkles

Well, I refilled the spa and the CH is now just around 300 so lets see what happens in the next few months.

I may just change water again. Since the spa is inside, it won't be a hard or cold job to do. I'll try defender and see if that helps. I wonder why after a year and 3 water changes I never had this problem and now I do? Thanks for your advice

I've had this 300 gal Catalina spa for just about a year now and all of a sudden my CH is going too high. It's reading about 450+ now but has always been around 200 or so since the beginning. I am using bromine and have changed water 3 times in a year. There is also a ozinator installed and running. My wife and I use the spa about twice a week and all other tests are at the preferred levels. Is there any way to lower the CH? FYI, I use a Taylor test kit if that helps

Thanks, I was clear on everything except for the sodium bromide. I thought I had read on another post that if you had shocked with chlorine and then waited for it to get down to about 3ppm then you could just add the bromine tablets with the floater. I'll get the sodium bromide and get it started.

What would be the easiest way to convert over to Bromine after I have had my spa set up with the chlorine method? Right now my water tests are perfect and have been for about a month. I have the bromine tablets from leisure time and a floater so do I just put it in the water without using sodium bromide or do I need to add it even though there is chlorine(I use bleach) present? Right now my chlorine level has just hit about 0ppm after I added 3oz to it last night after we used the spa.

Thanks for that info on the CH & TH.

What is the difference between Calcium hardness and Total Hardness or is it the same thing? Just wondered because my old test kit had a test for Total Hardness and not the CH.

Well, I feel a little on the stupid side right now. I just went out and took a look at the bottle I have the bleach in which I marked every 2 oz on the side and instead of using 3oz, I went to the next line which was 6oz. No wonder it went up so high. I wish I could delete my posts Anyway, now that I know what happened, does the chlorine level going back down to 3ppm the next day mean that my ozone generator is working?

chem geek, The bleach I am using is made by Clorox and it is unscented and says it is 'regular bleach'. I tried looking on the label and there is nowhere where it says what the chlorine % is. As far as the 3 oz goes, it took 8 Tablespoons. I'm using one of those glass kitchen measuring cups sitting on the table. I dunno. As far as the level goes, I tested about an hour after I had put the bleach in with the jets running. The next day, it tested at 3ppm So, either my test strips are not accurate(I ordered the Taylor Kit) or maybe I have the wrong bleach.

I'll take a look at that chem geek. I thought I had read in one of my manuals that it does hold 300 gal but I may be wrong. I know I have a 300 gal stock tank for my turtles and it looks like about the same size. If it is only 190 gal, that sure would explain why it went up so high. Just took a look at that link and that is not what I have. I have a Catalina CL 300 which is this one: http://www.catalinaspas.com/designs/celebrity/ It does hold 300 gal.

Just for reference, I just added 3 oz of regular bleach to my 300 gal spa and it took it from 0ppm to just over 10ppm. I didn't want to shock it but just bring it up a little but that's what I got.

Thanks for that insight. Right now I am just using Chlorine and it seems that I am always adding some everyday to keep the right level. The spa is covered all the time unless we use it and that would be about 3 times a week at about 30 minutes each time. Of course with the program that it's set at, it cycles twice a day for 2 hours but other than that the jets are off. The store people had sold me Bromine Tablets and said to just put one in the skimmer but I am hesitant about that because I keep reading on posts here that you should use a floater.

It's a brand new tub and ozone gen unless you are talking about it being an older model.

Thanks for that advice. Sounds like a good plan and cheaper also without losing results. I do have one question about my ozone generator. Do I still use it or is it even needed with this treatment ?

Thanks for that link. It explains a lot and how to do it. I just retested and everything is in the desired ranges now.