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Thanks allot Waterbear! I think I will go with option #2. Adam

Yes, it would but I thought you wanted to avoid draining it. The small amuunt of water left in the pipes won't be a problem. Just shock it and maintain about a 20-25 ppm FC for a day to sanitize the spa after you refill it. Once the FC levels drop to normal range then rebalance your water. Either way, you can sanitize the spa by brining the FC up do oxidize and destroy anything that might have started growing. It's not really different to what many pool owners do every season when they open their pools and they have turned into green, murky swamps. All they need is chlorine to clear them. The advantage of a spa is that water changes are practical to do because of the smaller volume of water so there is much less htaqt you have to do if you are going to drain and refill. Ok, well I have now 3 option. Which options is the best one? 1.Leave the water in (power off the spa)just shock it 20-25 FC when I come back. 2.Drain the spa completely and power off. 3.Keep the spa running and let my neighbor just do aprox addition of bleach( 100ml = 5ppm) every other day. Probable after a month I will still have to shock my spa anyway. Thanks Adam

I will probably fallow your advise Waterbear. If I correctly understand, you will live the water in the spa and power off for a month without any chlorine.? My question also is :won't be better to drain the spa and refill when I come back?(some water will be still in the system and pipes) Thanks for all inputs. Adam

" Why not Bromine then bleach " that was the post : http://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=23840&st=0&p=101459&hl=bromine,%20bleach,%20dichlor&fromsearch=1entry101459 But now I found the difference. First build up the Bromine reserve and the shock weekly with bleach. I was hoping it is some way not to drain the spa. Will be ok to just drain (remove the water from the spa). The rest of the water will still be in the system. Do I have to super disinfect the spa before next refill? Or just fill the water and ready to use? If I do have to super disinfect ,how is the process looks like? I know to many questions......... Thanks Adam

Thanks for your input. A couple months ago it was similar post about mixing tablets with bleach method. I will try to find it since I remember was very nice explain and I will get back. Thanks Adam

Until you have a bromide reserve in the water the tabs won't do much good. You could add sodium bromide to create the bromide reserve and then the bromine tabs will help keep the water OK but you will have converted to a bromine spa (any chlorine added will be converted to bromine) until you drain and refill. Even just using the tabs will start the conversion to a bromine spa. Also, therre is not guarentee that bromine will keep the water nice while you are gone. It it were me I would just shut off the spa and drain and refill when I got back if the water was really bad. It is just green then bleach can clear that up pretty fast.

I'm going on vacations and won't be able to control the level of my chlorine. I was hoping someone will tell me about mixing bromine tablets for the time off. Right now I'm on bleach and I'm going away for a month. It is possible to put bromine tablets and my good neighbor will put extra chlorine every other day? Maybe is better way to keep my spa in good shape. Please give me some advise. Thanks in advance. Adam

Yes you right. After some time (I guess I fill so secure) I did automatically start adding on regular basis same amount of virox. Without soak 40ml and with soak 80ml.Of course I mesure a water Once a week with my digital meter and before soak or every other day with strip tests. Water chemistry was fine till 2 days ago when become cloudy. Can you please tell me, beside changing the water can I save my old refill by adding so much chlorine or is not possible? Thanks

I just would like to add my numbers before water changing right now. F.ch = 0.17 T.A =64 PH = 74 temp = 95 CYA = 25 The water is very cloudy. I did add 55g of lithium hypochlorite 29% this afternoon and now is again chlorine level back to Zero. Can someone tell me please what went wrong? Thanks in advance Adam

Hi all, I ve notice yesterday my water become magi ,greenish color. I tough maybe cloud water makes me see differently. I add my chlorine as normal regular addition. Today morning I measure and was showing zero and I did superchlorinate with bleach with 150ml ( normal day is 50 ml.) Now after 4 hrs I checked again and again 0 chlorine in my spa. I did add extra 55g of Lithium as disinfectant. Can someone please tell me what are my option and what I did wrong to came to the point where my chlorine demand is high. Thanks Adam

This is my second refill with bleach method and my TA is a little higher with good PH level. TA now is 52+ and PH is stays sharp at 75. At the first refill with bleach method the TA I have to keep at 40's in order to ph to stay at around 75. My hardens previously was 170.I do not now if Hardness have any effect for TA and PH levels, but in my case looks like. Please coment if hardness can have any effect for TA and PH Thanks Adam

This is my second refill with bleach method and my TA is a little higher with good PH level. TA now is 52+ and PH is stays sharp at 75. At the first refill with bleach method the TA I have to keep at 40's in order to ph to stay at around 75. My hardens previously was 170.I do not now if Hardness have any effect for TA and PH levels, but in my case looks like.

Hi, I'm on the bleach method for over 9 months. Recently I change my water about month ago. The first to weeks the water was superbly clear and my measure numbers where in good range. After my daughter use the spa with girlfriend my water become foaming.The walls of my spa on the edge with water become dirty. I try to use Defoamer but is 't helps for a day. Since then my measure numbers are not perfect: PH =7.5 TA = 52 Temp=96 F.ch = 4.38 T.ch = 5.10 CYA = 28 Calcium Hard = 99 I use digital meter. I do not like rising every day difference between F.ch and T. ch. Also my Calcium Hardness is on Low. My question is :can my C.H stays around 100? How to prevent from rising deference between F.ch and T.ch? Should I remove some water to get no bubbles or I have to change the water completely? I think the cause of foaming is a swimming suit was with some detergent or maybe to much makeup was inserted in to the water. Please advise me what to do. Thanks

Can you please repost decontamination procedure. Thanks Adam

Thanks Richard, I did change my water last time to be exact in November before cold winter days since I'm in Canada, Ontario. Dichlor method I started in the middle of December with bleach mostly and Lithium once in the wile. During the winter time I was using the spa almost every second day 20-30 min each time. I'm glad the winter is over and is time to change the water. I mist one time to add the chlorine to the water and chlorine level become "0" for about a day. But I was surprise when I try to superchlorinate the water by increasing the chlorine level to 10 ppm (using Lithium) and nothing happen.( no change) That's way I started this topic. Thanks for technical explanations. Adam

Thanks PaulR, That's what I would like to hear. Thanks for shearing your experience. Adam

Thanks for replay, I'd like to understand what you saying.If I keep the chlorine level between 3 to 5 all the time, the problem should clear itself within a week? It's not in my case. It is already more then two weeks and the difference betweeen the nummmbers are incrising. I do use dichlor then bleach method recentley and I try to bring once chlorine level to 10pm like I mention in the bigining. The only level CYA at he moment I do not know.Could be close to zero since last time I did CyA test was 4 months ago and was 28. You think maybe that's way the super chlorinate want work for me bringing up 10 chlorine level? Thanks Adam

Actually the numbers are going the apposite direction and is more the 2 weeks now since first time I've notice. The previous normal difference was only 0.2 - 0.5 not 1.2 and up.

Hi everyone, Recently my spa 350 gal did not get enough chlorine one day. Same day I add regular amount of chlorine(bleach) The next day I've notice the difference in Total chlorine and Free chlorine. The number exceed =1. Example: Total chlorine 4.23 Free chlorine 3.03 I'm using digital meter(that's way is so accurate) I try super chlorinate my spa with Lithium Hypo and I added 10ppm of chlorine(around 40g). The next morning I measure and the difference between T.ch and F.ch was still over 1. I do not know how to correct that with the chemicals(I prefer not to change the water) Thanks for any help. Adam

Hi, For a past 4 months I apply the bleach method in my spa. The water chemistry was good and stable. My PH best stability number was set at 7.7 with TA at around 45-49. Last week I was behind with adding chlorine one day. The Chlorine level drop to around 0. Now after a week I've notice my Free And Total Chlorine are out of balance. My numbers are : F.ch 2.99 T.ch 3.99 PH 78 TA 63 My concern is F.ch and T.ch What should I do in the case like this when the difference is 1.0 between this 2 numbers.(or even smaller#) My first though is to super chlorinate up to 10ppm. Can you please give me some advise. Thanks Adam

I would think it depends on where you're at geographically / how cold it gets. I would definitely (if it were me) superchlorinate or add a bromine floater or something. Logistically I've never had a spa sit for so long, so I'm sure someone else has more info on that. I can tell you that it took a flush or two to get my spa back to ship-shape after it sat at my in-law's place dormant (but at 104) for a few months. A super shock + spa flush got it back on track in a day with two refill + heats. Also - do you have ozone? You could put a floating blanket and that (at least anectdotally) keeps the ozone on the water a little longer. Hi there, I'm talking about summer time travel no worry about freezing temperature. Let say I will drain the water. What will be the next step to do ? 1.Leave it for 2 months with cover up, or............. 2. 3. ........ What chemicals to use or just fill the empty spa with the water and just enjoy. Thanks Adam

Hi everyone, I was wondering what will be the best option to keep spa with water or without during 2 months away from home. If I choose to drain the spa, what will be the correct procedure and do I have to flash it and with what chemicals before new refill or just refill with fresh water. Please tell me what my option are. Thanks Adam

In my case Borates did not make any difference with rising my TA level just I've notice softer water.With the next refill I should focus to keep my CH lower then 200 to get the ph faster in range with higher TA? Can you please give some example of prefect saturation index with numbers.My understanding is to keep F.CH and T.CH as closer numbers possible. Example: F:ch 1.54 then T.ch 154 and just above will be fine.The higher difference between this 2 numbers then higher saturation index out of. In case F.ch and T.ch is very out of then the water need to be shock with bleach if we using bleach method up to 10 ppm? Correct me please if I'm wrong. Thanks Adam

Hi there, Finlay my numbers are looks ok. I do test my water every day with the strips and at lest 2 times a week with my ColorQ digital tester. I did some adjustment adding more PH minus a week ago. Last week numbers with ColorQ before soak: F.ch = 2.82 T.ch = 2.08 PH = 7.6 TA = 42 CYA - 28 temp = 99 I did not use my tub for a week. Last night after 30 min soak: F.ch = 1.84 T.ch = 2.06 PH = 7.6 TA = 44 CH = 202 CYA = 27 temp = 29 The PH looks stable at 42-44 I wish to be at 50'-60' i will fill more comfortably. My CYA do not drop much for 3 weeks stays almost same.Is that normal? How often I should retest my CYA and do ajustment? Thanks

Richard, Thanks a lot for all your help. I do my tests with ColorQ PRO 7-PLUS digital meter. My ozonator runs 2 times a day 1hr each. The bleach I'm using is Clorox Ultra 6% bleach. My Ch when I last tested was 220. Thanks again Adam