bartman9

I ended off adding Borax to keep the pH more stable. With my 400 gallon tub, I added 22.6 ounces volume of Borax and 10.1 ounces volume of dry acid. With that done, here are my new readings: Alk: 60ppm pH: 7.4 Calc Hard: 130ppm Bromine: 7ppm Do all of these seem to be in order? Should I make any adjustments? I was playing with the Taylor Water Balance Calculator wheel that came with my test kit and it says my Saturation Index is -0.4, which is says may be corrosive to concrete, plaster or metal surfaces (below -0.3). Should I be concerned about this? Should I bring the pH up to be more balanced? Thanks, Dave

Oh, I think I get it now. The UV cuts down on the amount of oxidizer (bleach) I need to add to maintain 4ppm of bromine. The bromine level we want is the same, but the amount of bleach needed is decreased. Is that right?

A couple of things and an update... - I do have a 400 gallon Jacuzzi J365 which has their Clearray system which uses UV-C technology. Don't know if that is just marketing hype of actually helps me in any way. - I did add dry acid to bring down the pH. Now for the latest readings: Alk: 70ppm pH: 7.6 Calc Hardness: 120ppm Bromine: 1.25ppm - Since I do have this Clearray UV thing, how how high should I bring up the Bromine by adding bleach? - From the earlier post it sounds like I should add Borax and Dry Acid to help buffer my pH. Is that correct? Any recommendations on how much to add? I appreciate any help you can offer! Thanks, Dave

I thought Borax will raise the pH? Isn't a pH of 8 already too high? I do have the recommended floater. Dave

Thanks for the help, chem geek! I will use dry acid to try and bring down the Alk and pH later today. Then I will use the bleach to try and bring up the Bromine. I do have a question about the floater with Bromine tabs in it. How many tabs should I put in there? I currently just put 4 in, but it was a complete guess. Thanks, Dave

We finally got our Jacuzzi J365 installed and I could use a little help with balancing the water. I followed the 3-step Bromine process outlined in this forum, but not perfectly. The Taylor K-2106 test kit did not come until today and we couldn't wait that long to use the hot tub. So I tried to balance it using the test strips the tub came with... bad idea, I know. Anyway, this is what I did: - I used baking soda to bring the TA up to about 100. - Then I used borax to raise the pH to 7.5 - I added 1 packet (2 oz) of Leisure Time Sodium Bromide. My tub has 400 gallons of water in it. - I added 2 ounces of 6% bleach (just realized this was a mistake, it should have been 8 ounces) - I added a floater with 4 bromine tabs in it. All of the above was done on Friday... now it is the following Monday and I just receive my K-2106 test kit. Here are the measurements I have taken: Alk: 130 ppm pH: 8.0 Calcium Hardness: 140 ppm Bromine: 0 Since I realized I didn't add enough bleach, three days ago, I just added about 6 ounces of bleach. Here is my updated Bromine reading: Bromine: 2 ppm Now that I have my test kit, I want to make sure I do things right going forward. I would appreciate any suggestions on what I should do next to get things more balanced. Thanks, Dave

Thanks waterbear! One other question. When I get my new spa, do you recommend doing some type of spa flush/purge? Or is that unnecessary with a new spa?

My new spa is coming with the Spa Frog system, but from what I have read, it is not all that great. So I have decided to go with the 3-step bromine process since it sounds like the most forgiving and relatively easy. Thanks to waterbear and chem geek for providing such great information! Please let me know if I am leaving anything out. I used links from Amazon just for simplicity. I wont be buying all of these from there, but I just want to make sure I have selected the right items. Taylor Bromine Test Kit K-2106 http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-K-2106-FAS-DPD-Bromine-Complete/dp/B0002IXIIQ Sodium Bromide http://www.amazon.com/Leisure-BE-Sodium-Bromide-2-Ounce/dp/B000V8BUF0/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_t_3 Chlorine Bleach http://www.amazon.com/Clorox-Liquid-Regular-96-Fluid-Bottles/dp/B0036B8UGG/ref=pd_sbs_hpc_5 Bromine Tablets http://www.amazon.com/Leisure-45425-Brominating-Tablets-2-Pound/dp/B000O5ZZ4W/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1347334428&sr=8-3&keywords=bromine+tablets Bromine Dispenser http://www.amazon.com/Kem-Tek-879-Floating-Dispenser-Accessories/dp/B000FJVRAS/ref=sr_1_7?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1347334798&sr=1-7&keywords=bromine+dispenser Baking Soda (for raising TA) http://www.amazon.com/Arm-Hammer-Baking-Soda-01170/dp/B0005ZXPY8/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1347335482&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=baking+soda Dry Acid (for lowering TA) http://www.amazon.com/CHEM-LAB-Minus-Acid-packs/dp/B008G8XXR0/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1347335682&sr=8-7&keywords=dry+acid+spa I appreciate any feedback on my shopping list. Thanks! Dave

Okay, That is helpful. I did update the poll one more time to hopefully reflect most of this. Not sure how valuable to poll info will be, but thought it might be fun.

waterbear and chemgeek, Thanks for your feedback. I know I still have a lot to learn so I definitely appreciate your comments. I did update the poll to accommodate some of your feedback. However, if I am reading correctly, it seems like there could be different subcategories under chlorine and bromine. What are the different (common) chlorine techniques and bromine techniques? I'll take a stab... Chlorine: - dichlor then bleach - ? Bromine: - tabs in floater -? ...off to do more reading. Thanks! Dave

I am new to the spa world and am about 2 weeks out from getting my new Jacuzzi J-365 spa! Have been trying to do some research on different sanitation methods and found some great info here. I am interested is seeing which method others are using/prefer. Did I leave any important ones out? I appreciate your feedback. Dave EDIT: I edited this to include feedback from waterbear

Interesting... do most people just go with the standard 50 Amp wiring?

The price for the J365 looks like a good one. We were quoted the about the same thing w/o the stereo. I too would be interested in hearing the differences between the J365 and J470... doesn't seem like much by looking at the brochure.

Were were worried about how slippery the "Platinum" shell was too. I think it looks the best, but we are seriously considering the "Sahara" shell. It is textured like the "Sand" but it is a lighter shade.

Just another comment, we also checked out the floor model Maax 480. Besides the color, another reason we didn't like that one was the filter separates two of the corner seats. So the people sitting in those seats cant talk to each other. We saw this on a lot of different brands/models. We have pretty much settled on the Jacuzzi J-365. Just trying to figure out the colors of the tub and cabinet now.