Maxemily

Thanks. The link showed test strip availability in my town, that I like. I would likely use Borax - I noticed some in the laundry room cabinet - as it would be nearly free and I have lots of acid. My PH likes to climb so I will give this a go.

Do I want them? Need them? Wish I had them? How would I get them if I did? How would I test for them?

Never mind. There's another idiot who thinks spa owners need Cialis.

Not really. Plug the numbers in here and you will see the problem. By playing around you can also see what works to correct the balance.

Thank you.

You need to close the board to new members for a while and get rid of the idiots. Put up a sticky explaining to who ever might want to join what is going on and let's let the kids move on.

Two choices: Dry acid or muriatic acid will reduce both TA and PH. I have not used dry acid, but I understand it is safer than muriatic in that should you spill there will be no issues if it doesn't get wet. As far as muriatic acid is concerned - available at any hardware store - you would add 2 oz. at a time running the spa for 10 minutes and checking TA and PH. Reduce to 1oz at a time as you near the target values.

My guess is that your chlorine demand is higher then you think. I would add a teaspoon every fifteen minutes or so with the circ pump running until FC shows.... it will. You aren't giving enough specific information for the gurus herein to accurately pinpoint the problem, but I'll guess you have not been using enough sanitizer from the onset. If you are only using test strips everyone in this forum will tell you to get an accurate test kit. Without that information and bath loads, it is harder to diagnose any issue.

What was that address again?

For what it's worth, our municipal well water here in Lake County, Illinois tests as follows: FC 0 CC 0 PH 7.4 T/A 300 CH 80

Sounds wrong. Is there another place you can take a sample? Your locality should also know the content of the water.

Care to point me to a 'borates'.

If memory serves me correctly, I got one from Spa Depot.

I'll respond backwards... I used a prefilter during the fill. We got some tough water I guess. I have only used chlorine twice; initially to activate the N2 cartridge and the other day to shock. The shock the other day was mostly for yucks as I had only used the tub twice and also to build CYA. I have both Dichlor and a chlorine only powder. Since I only used the Dichlor once there is no CYA showing (TF-100 kit). The FC level before adding Dichlor was 1.5 with CC @ .5. Nitro, thanks for reminding me that if the FC level stays up like mine did it is because nothing for the chlorine to work on. I will lessen the quantity. There was a though of getting the CYA up, but that will come with time. I now have the TA at 60. We'll see how that goes. Thanks again folks, really appreciate the time.

58.2% sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione. More questions... Twenty-four hours after shocking, including the cleaning cycles and 20 minutes of jets with air, the FC is at 8.5 and the PH rise is .2. What is going to keep the PH from going silly if I use the spa an hour every night with the jets and air? And, the shock FC rise take two days to drop below 5. This keeps me out of the tub for two days... good. What are my options?

Yep, good old well water. The pool calculator would have me add 3 oz of acid. I'll wait. While I am here... I shocked today with 7 teaspoons of 58% dichlor and the FC went to 16. Does that sound right and would that be considered a correct weekly shock? Oh, I also filter cycle on a 1 x 3 schedule.

Thanks for the responses. My alkalinity starts up near 300 on a fresh fill so I know about, and have plenty of acid. I'll play the wait and see game - it seems sometimes doing nothing is the best choice. Sure is the easiest.

325 gallons - N2 - Ozone - MPS daily - Weekly Chlorine Shock. PH 7.8 - TA 80 - CH 120 - CYA 20 What is the trick to lowering PH without affecting alkalinity? Pros and cons about using a PH lock? Thanks - love this forum!

Bookmark it.

Anyone?

I am uncertain as to chlorine usage on the per person per soak angle. I recall the usage numbers being 7ppm of FC per person hour in 350 gallons. Does this mean after three people soak for an hour in a 350 gal. tub that began with 1ppm FC, I will need to add the equivalent of 20 ppm of FC - 10 tsp of dichlor or 5+ cups of Clorox? Will adding this much chlorine theoretically result in a 1ppm residual FC level the next day because it takes that much to clean up what we do to the water?

In my perusing of this forum, the only mention of CYA is in association with the addition of dichlor or trichlor. I snooped around a bit (read that as Googled around) and found this; paragraph 9. I would like Chem Geek to add his thoughts since he is a proponent of a CYA levels in spas.

I suggest taking a few hours and looking through this forum. First key on the threads whose titles might sound useful, then look through the ones with the most posts and your 'schedule' questions will be answered. You will likely find that there is no exact schedule that can be prescribed. Each spa is unique in that fill water and bather load all vary. Take the time to learn about water chemistry (it is not difficult) within this forum and you will be on your way to creating your own schedule. If problems arise there are wonderfully helpful people here who can answer your questions. I am not one of those aforementioned people. I am like you; reading and grasping, even after owning a spa for a year.

I can't answer the part of your post I didn't include in the quote, but I might be able to help with the rest. The metals you don't want are iron and copper. They are of no use besides staining the spa or discoloring the water. As far as soft water goes, you might still have metal in the water. Water softness and hardness refers to the calcium and magnesium content (the latter of which we don't seem to concern ourselves with), but not the amount of metal. From what I understand - and this would be limited and quite possibly completely wrong - Metal Gon does not distinguish between metals, it just gets rid of them all. This is bad for us N2 folks who want silver in the water. Of course, the whole no copper theory is shot with Clearwater Blue and their copper system.

My new heater/controller arrive on Friday so I will be heading to the local pool/spa pros for piping. They have the same water we do and I will find out exactly how metallic it is. I am glad I asked because I would have done the same with the Metal Gon and N2. If I can get away with one or the other, I think the fill filter is the easiest option. Thanks Hillbilly.