mscdman

I made a mistake in the information I provided. I’m still learning all this stuff but you, while extremely knowledgeable and a long time member, seem to be easily bothered when people ask information that doesn’t meet your requirements. this forum should be about people helping each other and growing the knowledge and user base. I appreciate all your great pinned posts and information and your responses. But take it easy on me and others. I posted some incorrect information about my system because I had forgotten. No one is forcing you to reply to me sir. ps - this post was about TA not even about bromine levels so not sure how we even got here

@waterbear any issues you see with what I’m doing? sorry I wasted your time man. Was just asking for help

@waterbear any issues you see with what I’m doing?

Got it thanks waterbear! in full disclosure I lied earlier. I actually am running a bromine floater in addition to bleach after every use. But the floater is set at the bare minimum just to keep the bromine levels above 1/as an emergency buffer inbetween usage of the tub. Then when I get out from the tub I add bleach after every use. I’ve been using this method for a year and haven’t had to shock. I drain the water every 4 months and the water has been crystal clear the full time. When I purge the system in between fills I’m barely seeing any nasty stuff. I do add more bromine salts from time to time just to keep the reserve up. I think the reason I wanted a little CYA was in the event my bromine reserve were to go away and Id then be adding bleach with no CYA I was concerned about the unstablized chlorine if all the bromine was gone. In any event good information thank you. I think as long as I keep my bromine reserve up (somehow) you advice of not needing to build up CYA makes sense. Thank you again!

I’m not using a floater. I’m using 2-step. Seed with sodium bromide and add bleach after each use to reactive bromides to bromine. Other than that I’m following your post on 3-step/start up to a T. You are saying that there’s no need for me to use dichlor for the first two weeks(ish) as a means to reactive the bromine and that I can immediately use bleach to do reactive the bromide to bromine? I was told adding bleach to an unstablized (no CYA) system to reactivate Bromide to bromine was a no no. Am I mistaken and can just use bleach to reactivate my bromine right away?

I start with seeding with bromine. Use dichlor to reup the bromine and build a small CYA reserve so that when CYA is there I switch to bleach. From that point on no dichlor and only bleach added with the occasional add of sodium bromide…

I’m using the bleach method. Seeded with bromine. Used dichlor to raise CYA to acceptable levels. Switched to bleach. I keep my TA at 60. It will raise with aeration after 1-2 30 minute sessions to ~8.0 so I add a little oh down. Periodically check TA to keep around 60. im imagining if I raised TA to 120 like the previous poster, my PH would rise even faster with aeriation than it already does

Odd. I would think a high TA like that would cause PH to rise even faster then it does for mine at 60…

I’m still figuring out this whole alkalinity thing. I have mine at 60 now and still find PH is rising rapidly. Do I want MORE alkality to guard against PH rise? I thought Alkalinity guarded against PH drop. Am I mistaken? it seems my PH will be fine at 7.4-7.6 before I take a dip with jets and aeration for 20 mins then it goes up to 8.2 causing me to add PH down after almost every dip. Thoughts?

I am enjoying the tub. It’s relatively maintenance free. Pool calculator and this group huge help!

For those using the Dichlor then bleach method like me how often are you adding bleach if not using the tub daily? Do you add in daily anyway? Ive been adding after every use, usually every other day, bringing bromine to 6ppm. but it drops to 1ppm by the time I use the tub the day after. Are you all adding the bleach daily then to keep it consistent at some level? last year I added bleach after each use to 12ppm so that on my off day there was still bromine but the issue then was that high that regular was eating away at the pillows. thoughs?

Looping back as this question is on my mind and I’ve seen CH ranges all over the place. I think @waterbear mentioned in the 3-step bromine setup post that CH between 130-150 was advised but anything from 130-400 was okay? Taylor says 150-250 I think. So not sure what I should be aiming for. I have TA at 70. CH at 170. PH 7.6. Temp 102. Bromine with bleach method. Is my CH range for my hot tub okay? Too high? Too low?

Mildew remover is basically bleach. I hear what you are saying, however why would I have never had this issue for 6 months with the tub at 102? Hmm…you know what? I bet it’s because I’m not using the tub at all this summer and it barely gets opened. Duh

The last few months I’m seeing mildew fairly frequently on the underside of my cover. im running my ho tub at 85 F over the summer - like a pool - but I have it balanced and properly brominated. i wasn’t seeing this all fall and winter when I had the tub at 102. What could be causing the mildew? ive been straying mildew remover on it to clean. Bad idea?

So for the summer I’ve converted my hot tub into a faux pool. I’m at temperatures of around 85° consistent. In the winter time I noticed that using the bleach/bromine method I was having to add an ounce or so of bleach every other day to keep the bromine level is consistent at temperatures of 104. However after draining the tub for the summer refilling it and balancing the chemicals and setting the water temperature to 85 I’m noticing that the bromine level is staying consistent using the bleach method for some times a week at a time. This seems extremely unusual as shouldn’t the bromine be breaking down just as it would in the winter with the higher hot tub temps?

Interesting. Good thing I can differentiate shades of red and when I test PH, CH, TA etc. I make sure my sanitizer levels are not high. ive not had any issues yet

Incidentally, reading your post and your say NOT to use the K2005. Why is that? I just got it and love it. It’s easy to use and seems more accurate than the test strips

Thank you! I just got it drained and refilled yesterday. This time I got the proper ranges from the start hopefully. adjusted TA up from 50 to 90 - to account for bromine floater lower PH fall adjusted CH up to 120 PH was good.

Ok so in my case the cover is a 4 inch taper to 2 inch. There’s about 1/2 inch overlap around the perimeter and there is a “foam and vinyl covered flap) that is at the hinge and wedges between. im okay with water loss. Provided it’s not a leak. I’ve noticed on my tub even with the cover on 💯 of the time over a month I might see 1/16 loss. I think you’ve answered my question. It’s unlikely a spa cover will 💯 seal in all evaporation even without being opened. So some very minimal water loss could be expected even without use. Especially as the water temp greatly exceeds the ambient temp and with minor imperfections in the cover design

Yeah but you had a leak 🤣. I’m talking if there was a zero leak Covered tub that was set at 104 and never used would it be reasonable to say see a 1/16 or so inch water loss drop?

Anyone?

True but the water loss (per another post) is minimal and I can’t tell if it’s from a leak or normal loss from evaporation and carry out. I wrote a whole other post about that.

Thank you. Yeah I did finish it thanks for asking. I painted the frame black and filled with a small crushed granite between the stringers. Added mulch around the outside edge and some planters and electronic tiki torches for ambiance. only thing I would have done different is lay plastic under the whole thing to make it a little easier to catch leaks (vs. emptying to the ground and extremely hard to tell)

So been wondering about this. If you had a normal fitting new cover and a temp set at say 104 but never really opened and never used the tub (just an experiment - no obvious questions like like why have a tub then :)) would you still see any water loss over a month? im thinking no, but then again these covers aren’t 💯 hermetically sealed…

Also for a single bather and lightly used tub will I be in trouble if I Skip one 4-month drain cycle purge in order to allow the product seal not to be ruined