my12by60

Yes, cost of doing business is how I look at the covers. And the cover cost is about $50 - $60 per year if I spread the cost of the cover over the 5 year life that I have been getting from my covers. However, if Weathershield will last for 6 or 7 years, then I will pony up the extra $50 for the new material. According to what I read, the Weathershield only needs to be cleaned with soapy water to keep it maintained. So no more 303 treatments, which would be a side benefit as 303 is expensive.

Yes, I have been using the 303. I am told that some people who do nothing to take care of their spa cover in full AZ sun only get 3 years from the marine vinyl. So the 303 does help as we have been getting 5 years.

I am looking for a new cover also. We are in the Phoenix area and this will be our fourth cover. Each cover has lasted 5 years. The cause of failure is always sun damage to the vinyl covering. We have never had a problem with a water-logged or heavy cover. I see a few of the cover companies are now offering the Weathershield fabric option in place of the marine grade vinyl that has been on all of our covers. Does anybody know if this new cover material is going to prove to better than marine grade vinyl in a high UV damage climate like Arizona? I just got off the phone with Spa Depot. The rep said they don't have enough experience yet with Weathershield as they have only been selling it as an option for one year. The rep said that Sunbrella was is use for a while and that it was standing up much better to UV than marine vinyl. But he said they discontinued Sunbrella because UV was penetrating the Sunbrella and damaging the core of the cover (the foam core covered by the plastic wrapper). Thanks for any spa cover feedback.

I have been on dichlor/bleach for about five or six weeks now after doing a water change in which I used Swirl Away and high chlorination. I used dichlor initially till I had put in enough for CYA of about 30. I am now doing a two days of dichlor to resupply the CYA. My current readings for a 400 gallon tub are: FC = 3 TA = 60 pH = 7.8 B = 50 CH = 250 I have not had any problems managing the pH and TA since I followed the start-up procedure pinned in this forum and used the borates. Chlorine demand seems ok. I soak for 15 minutes in the am then add 2oz of bleach and I soak for 15 minutes it the pm and add another 2oz of bleach. This seems to always leave some chlorine in the water before each soak.I am getting some bubbles which have an almost soapy appearance. During the first few weeks of fresh water, all surface bubbles were clear and small. All bubbles would quickly disappear once the jets were off. Now, while soaking, I am getting a few gatherings of larger bubbles where the bubbles are not clear, but appear to have a soap-like film on them as the lights shines through the bubbles. The bubbles also seem to linger longer after the jets stop. I also notice some white chips gathered on the bottom near the returns. The chips are hard and break down into powder when rubbed between my fingers. Based on some reading here, it sounds like the problem may have something to do with calcium. It does not sound like white mold, which is the more gooey flakes that float, as per my reading. I have no floaties. I had noticed a minor amount of film on the water surface when the sun hits the water at a sharp angle. I added some Slime Balls a few weeks to try to deal with this and now the water surface is more clear. The water looks good and smells good, but I know something is less than perfect since I am getting the bubbling. I did not do any sort of shock at the one month mark. If a shock is advised, what should I shock with? Any other suggestions or ideas?

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I am aware of the CYA issue with the pucks because I have been reading and learning on this site. I am glad to hear I can let UVs take care of the chlorine that is in the water. I have been reading all of the info here and at TFP on The Liquidator. I am thinking of giving that a try to get away from the rising CYA problem by using liquid chlorine. I am not sure if The Liquidator will work with our equipment set up or not. I think I will start another thread with questions on The Liquidator.

We went on an 11-week RV trip this summer and returned in mid-October. We had friends adding four of the 3-inch chlorine tablets into our in-deck chlorine dispenser each week. They also checked the pH each week and added acid if needed. The four tablets system has always worked well for us in prior years so we did not ask our friends to do chlorine testing for adjustment purposes. This year when we returned and tested the chlorine it was hot pink in our K-2005 test kit. For more precise information, I ordered the FAS-DPD kit from Amato to see just how high the chlorine is. The test showed FC = 20 ppm and CC = 0. The pH and TA readings are within normal ranges. We live in the Phoenix area and our pool has no heater and a cartridge filter. Can I just let the chlorine level come down with time or is leaving the over-chlorinated water in the pool going to hurt something? If we go away again next summer we will make sure to have our friends perform chlorine testing and adjust tablet additions as necessary. We try to keep things as simple as possible for them.

The scumball has removed the sheen from the water surface. I took a close look this afternoon when the sun was at the correct angle to the spa water. Now that I read your logic on the other product versions, I wish I would have gotten one of the other designs, but at least the scumball did the trick.

Thanks for the tips. My local pool store sells the 2-pack of Scum Balls, so I picked those up today and dropped one in the spa this afternoon. Based on the reviews on Amazon, I think the Scum Ball should work. http://www.amazon.co..._pr_product_top

I just came back from a long trip of about three months. Friends were watching the spa and changing out bromine and mineral cartridges in the spa frog. Water was in decent shape, but about six months old so I added Swirl Away then drained. I am about three days into the dichlor-bleach protocol and counting the CYA additions so I can switch over to bleach and off of the dichlor. The water has looked very good, other than a few bubbles that are larger than normal. Not enough to call it foam, but enough to indicate that something is not perfect. I usually use the spa for 15 minutes in the early am and 15 minutes in the pm before bed. Today, I missed the morning soak and used the spa before lunch instead. In the later day sunshine, I noticed a slight film on the water's surface, which is probably the source of the few rogue bubbles I am getting. Could this be left over Swirl Away that was left in the bowels of the system after my drain job? All of my water readings are within the recommended ranges. Is there a chemical or technique to clear out the slight film on the water's surface without disturbing the other water readings? Thanks for any feedback.

Here are the specs on our pool, refill water and operating history. We live in the Phoenix area. Our pool was built in the year 2000, has a pebble sheen finish, two-speed pump, cartridge filter system and an ozonator. The pool is built into the grade of our backyard and has two water levels. The smaller, upper section (not a spa) spills into the larger, lower section over a 12-foot long dam wall. So we get a lot of aeration. Total gallons are 15K. Historically, my wife has taken care of the pool and I am now going to take over. The normal procedure for her after a refill would be to add what she called a conditioning agent, get the ph and alkalinity in range, then add chlorine tablets to the in-deck chlorinator and use liquid muriatic acid as needed. She would strive to maintain at least 1 ppm of chlorine. We run the pump year round for 24-hours a day, using low speed for 22 hours and high speed for only 2 hours during the lower power cost time of day as per our electric provider. The pool always has looked great without the use of shock, algae control products or anything else. We have been using Leslie's, 3", trichlor tabs for years. During the hot months we would normally be adding 1 tab every 2 or 3 days. During the cooler months (starting right about now) we usually add 1 tab per week. We would also add about 1 quart of the liquid muriatic acid per week throughout the year. I just did a complete drain and refill yesterday. We have been completely draining and refilling every 2 years in the month of November. The TDS of the drained water was 3500 ppm per a Leslie's in-store test. Our fill water goes in with 550 ppm of total dissolved solids (really hard water in Phoenix area) as per a Leslie's in-store test a few days ago using a sample of our hose water. This summer, unlike prior summers, we had more of white line forming at the water line than in prior fill/drain cycles. I refilled to a level an inch or two above the white line and added a bottle of Scale Free by Natural Chemistry. The person at Leslie's (and rep at Natural Chemistry per my phone call to them) say this product will break down the white line and make it much easier for us to remove with minimal scrubbing or pumice stone work. We shall see. Here are current water specs (using a Taylor K-2005 test kit): ph - somewhere over 8 (sample is very pink in color) TA - about 130 TDS - 550 CYA - not tested, but should it not be at zero after a complete refill? I added 3 Leslie's tabs to get some chlorine in the water along with the bottle of Scale Free I mentioned earlier. I am intrigued with the idea of using grocery store products to maintain the pool going forward but am not sure I want to move away from my wife's system which has been working well. I am around the house everyday and would not mind adding liquid bleach or chlorine every morning or two, especially if there is some cost savings. I am outside each morning using our portable hot tub anyway. Any recommendations of where I go from here to get this new water started right and into a good maintenance program? I was hoping we could come up with a system that might let our water last longer than two years before building up such a high level of TDS and a system that would minimize the white line formation. My wife has not been testing for CYA so I can't tell you anything about the historical levels of CYA using the trichlor tabs. The folks at Leslie's have always advised us to do a complete drain and refill every 2 years due to the high level of TDS that builds up in the water. All that I know about any of this is what I have read here and what I have observed my wife do. Thanks for any help or ideas.

We have the K-2005. I now see right on the front label that CYA testing is done by this kit. We have the R0013 and the tube set with the black dot at the bottom. My wife has been managing our pool and spa chemicals which is why I am so ignorant. I am now taking over the spa maintenance since I am the only one that uses it 99% of the time. We bought one of those far-infrared saunas a couple of years ago and she prefers that to the spa. My wife will likely recall how to conduct the CYA test.

<<This worries me. How heavy a dose? Did you calculate how high this brought your CYA or did you test CYA? Did you do the decontamination procedure that I linked to in my previous post above or just shock the spa with dichlor? Did you drain and refill after the heavy dichlor dose? Too much CYA is actually worse than none at all in a hot tub in terms of water sanitation.>> I added about 10 teaspoons of Dichlor at first and that did not clear the floaties. I tested the chlorine level two days later and it was about 2-4ppm. So I added another 15 teaspoons. That cleared the floaties in a few days. I tested the chlorine again and it was again back to 2-4ppm. The water had a strong chlorine odor, so I threw in some non-chlorine shock (based on what I read here) and let the spa run open in the sun for an hour or two. That got rid of the odor. I then started in with about 3 oz of bleach after each 15-20 minute soak. I have not tested the CYA. I looked at the Taylor site and I thought the CYA test called for the use of some powder which I did not see in our test kit. So I am not sure we have what we need to test the CYA. When I used to use Dichlor for sanitation I would add a heaping teaspoon of granules per day. The 25 teaspoons that I added did not seem excessive since the advice I read here called for Dichlor for a week or two before bleach. I am going a bit by the seat of my pants here as I read and learn.

<<BTW, do you still have the same opinion of your enzyme system or are you now willing to listen to the (more experienced) voices that tried to tell you in the other thread (which I ended up locking because it was starting to go in a less than nice direction) that it really was not keeping your water sanitized?>> I am always willing to listen, especially in areas (like water chemistry) where I know so little. I also see a benefit in first hand experience. So I do not regret that I dabbled with the enzyme system. I am not totally ready to label the enzyme product a failure because I believe I subjected it to conditions above and beyond the call of duty. I should have decontaminated and drained right after we got back from our RV trip. The water looked good so I did not, which was my mistake. Maybe the mold formed while the tub was sitting unattended for 3 months? I still have plenty of enzyme product left and am now trying to figure out how to derive some constructive use from it, perhaps in conjunction with some other sanitation products. My original thread and comments on the enzyme product were entirely honest and non-promotional. The proof of that is that I am now back reporting that the mold grew. <<My suggestion would be to not worry about it before you leave. Drain, decontaminate, and refill and balance when you return and take it from there.>> So I don't have to worry about what the water might be doing while sitting in the tub unattended for 3 months since I will decontaminate and refill upon return? <<By the way, did you initially start off using Dichlor to get the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level up to around 30 ppm or so?>> Yes, I used a heavy dose of Dichlor granules to kill off the white water mold. Thanks for the feedback.

I started a thread here a while back on the Clear Choice enzyme system which we started using in March 2010. Things worked great for March through July. We left for a 3-month RV trip during August-October and came home to clear water with nothing having been done to the water for three months. But after resuming daily spa use after getting home, I started to notice some white floaties. I did a water change in March, but the floaties did not disappear. Even after the water change, I was needing to clean the filters every 3 or 4 days instead of once a week. I read some here and see that this was likely white water mold. I put in a bunch of chlorine (dichlor granules) and the water is now crystal clear again. I have now started to use bleach on a daily basis and the water continues to look good with no sign of any floaties. I also replaced the filters as the old ones were quite old. I use the spa in the am for 15 to 20 minutes and in the pm for 15 to 20 minutes. I have been adding about 3oz of bleach after each soak based on my reading here. Does that sound about right for this bather load in a 500 gallon tub? We have a nice Taylor test kit and I have been showing chlorine in the 2-4ppm range, ph at about 7.2 and TA at about 100. We are going on another 3-month RV trip during August-October and I am thinking about using the enzymes again while we are gone? Any thoughts or comments on that idea? Or should I consider just draining the spa for that period? I thought I had read not to do that here in the hot climate of Phoenix. Any comments appreciated.

Just following up on my experience thus far with the enzyme-based water treatment system now that I have been using it for almost a year. So far I am satisfied with the system. The apparent stability of the water during periods of non-use is the main advantage that I see of the enzyme system vs. my prior practice of throwing in a scoop or two of chlorine after each daily soak. The only thing I never liked about the chlorine system was that the water always seemed to want to turn green if I was away for any number of days and the sanitizer became used up. I never had any issues with chlorine so long as I used the tub every day and threw in a scoop after soaking. The enzyme system is the same in that I add a few drops of the enzyme solution after each soak. The difference is that the water will always be clear if I don't use the tub for 3 or 4 days. We went on an RV trip this summer for about 2 months and came back to perfectly clear water. All that I did was added some extra drops of solution and gave the filters a thorough cleaning before leaving. The enzyme manufacturer recommends cleaning the filters weekly, which I have been doing (except when we are traveling). So that is an extra minor chore vs. the monthly filter cleaning that I used to do when I was using chlorine. I have not had any sort of rash, itch or other skin or health problems thus far. I know that this does not prove that the water is healthy and does not guarantee that no such problems will ever develop. I am just reporting the results as they stand thus far. I will do another report in another year or so. I am not trying to tout enzyme systems as being better or worse than chlorine/bromine or any other method. Just putting my real world experience out there for those that read these forums as I do looking for such observations.