shaner
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I'm just wondering at what point is the bromine level too high for it to be safe to use the tub? Is anything under 10 safe? I shocked the tub about 2 hours ago and left it circulating with the cover off, but the levels are still pretty high. It's a very cold day today and I would love to use the tub, but don't know at what point it's unsafe to do so. If it's at 9, for example, is that safe? Even if it could theoretically cause a rash or minor skin irritation, is it safe? I know Bromine is toxic, so I wouldn't want to risk breathing in the dispelled gasses if it could theoretically be dangerous.
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Thanks for the help. Through Google, I read that if copper is present in the water it will turn green when adding bleach (plus you just told me in your last post). I got a product called "metal free." I added it as per the directions on the bottle and then I added a bit of bleach to see what would happen and it didn't go green. Everything appears to be back to normal. I'm confident my water is balanced. My test strips indicate my ph is in range but my alkalinity is still just a little high. Also, twice a week I take a water sample into the store. Because of all this I've been going to two different spa stores to have my water tested (they are right beside each other, so I walk out of one and right into the other) and both are giving me the same results, ph 7.6 and alkalinity is 120. Yes, hopefully there is already copper in my water (I'm on well water and I bypassed the softener to fill the tub) and I didn't damage the heater. Time will tell. I've learned a valuable lesson though, that I need to very slowly bring the alkalinity down rather than try to do it within a matter of hours. How long would the ph need to be low for it to start damaging the heater?
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My manual says the same thing. It says to keep calcium levels very low and to keep alkalinity higher to balance it out. I have no idea if that would be effective or not, but it's impossible as my ph will rise if my alkalinity is high.
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Updated my first post with the following: As you can tell reading through this post, my problem was resolved and I believed I knew why my problem occurred in the first place, at least I thought I did until now. I went to shock my tub the same as I always do. I added 8 ounces of 6% bleach. As soon as I did, the water went green. I left the lid off and ran all the jets/pumps for 10 minutes. The green is slowly fading, but it's still green. I stuck in a test strip (I know, I know) and it went black/purple (the same as before). What on earth is going on? The water was balanced and the only thing I added was 8 ounces of 6% bleach. I've done this many, many times and never had this problem until now. Anyone know what's causing this?
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Thanks. That very likely explains what happened. In the future, I will lower the ph much more slowly. Even when the ph is in range, if my alkalinity is over 100, I continue to lower the ph to get my alkalinity down. I now see that's not the right way to do it. I need to wait for my ph to drift back up (which it will do if my alkalinity is above 100) before I try to lower my alkalinity. I will also get one of those test kits. Thanks for the help.
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How am I calculating how much to add? Not so much calculating as I am estimating based on what the test strips tell me and based on how much I've needed in the past when I've refilled. Plus I take my water in to be tested every week or so. I added about 50 grams of ph minus today and then had my water tested. Alk is 150 ph is 7.7 I'll likely need to drop my alkalinity to below 100 or my ph will keep rising. Usually the sweet spot for my water is an alkalinity around 70 and then the ph holds, otherwise the ph shoots up way too quickly to even keep up with it. I still want to know why my water went green and stunk for a couple hours. The cloudiness can be explained by the water being unbalanced, but what can explain the water going green after putting in a new filter?
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Now my test strips are all working fine. According to them, ph and alkalinity is high. I tried 2 strips from 2 different manufacturers, and both gave me the same results. The water is crystal clear and smells like it should. I'm going to add a small bit of ph minus again and see what happens.
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Okay, well I will get a test kit. In the meantime, can my local spa store test for metals in the water? How am i going to know if there's metals, how much and what to do about them? Like I said, I had my water tested, and TDS came back at 400, which is low for well water. I had already done the 3 step bromine method and my water hadn't gone green, but was cloudy, perhaps because of the high alk which was causing the ph to constantly rise. My concern is with the water going green immediately after adding a small amount of ph minus and installing a new filter. I guess I'll wait and see what my numbers look like.
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Yes, sorry, I'm referring to Canada. For some reason I thought my location was listed in my profile. It appears you're in Canada as well. Where did you get your kit from? Even without the kit, I've done fine with test strips and taking my water in to have it professionally tested on a regular basis. Something happened yesterday though to make my water go instantly green and make my test strips give odd readings. I will be taking it in today to have it tested, but I'm just curious what on earth happened? Could an improper filter cause this somehow?
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Getting that test kit up here isn't easy or cheap. Nobody sells it up here, and the US companies that will ship want a fortune, plus we have to pay brokerage fees to UPS/Fed Ex for importing it for us. So yes, I use test strips along with taking water samples into the store to get it professionally tested. No, I didn't use a carbon pre-filter. I have never used that before and my water has always been fine. Even when I first filled it, it was cloudy, but not green and the test strips were giving accurate readings (as accurate as possible for test strips). 24 hours later I put in a bit more ph minus, put in a new filter, suddenly the water goes green, stinks and the test strips are giving me inaccurate readings (going black). Something happened.
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Testing my water tonight isn't an option as I live out in the country. I will get it tested tonight, but I don't particularly want to use it tonight if I have no idea what's messing up the water. It's not cloudy or smelly anymore, but the test strips are still going haywire (test strips from 2 different packages from 2 different companies). I thought maybe the alkalinity and ph crashed due to too much ph minus, so I added some ph + and alkalinity + to rise both (added separately of course) and the test strips are still giving me odd colours. Short of getting it tested tonight, any ideas?
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UPDATE As you can tell reading through this post, my problem was resolved and I believed I knew why my problem occurred in the first place, at least I thought I did until now. I went to shock my tub the same as I always do. I added 8 ounces of 6% bleach. As soon as I did, the water went green. I left the lid off and ran all the jets/pumps for 10 minutes. The green is slowly fading, but it's still green. I stuck in a test strip (I know, I know) and it went black/purple (the same as before). What on earth is going on? The water was balanced and the only thing I added was 8 ounces of 6% bleach. I've done this many, many times and never had this problem until now. Anyone know what's causing this? So the test strips are working again and are showing a fairly high bromine level (to be expected). The water isn't green anymore and is crystal clear. What on earth caused it to go green? Could there be some kind of metal in my water that is reacting with the bleach? If so, how do I test for that and how do I deal with it? None of the stores in my area test for metals. I am on well water, although I've never had this problem before. ORIGINAL POST: I have an 1800 liter tub. I drained and refilled 48 hours ago. I'm on well water. I used the 3 step bromine method, as I always do. My alkalinity out of the tap is very high and the ph is a bit low, so it takes a bit of time to get that balanced. As of today, the alkalinity was still a bit high, and the ph kept drifting up too. I have slowly been adding ph minus and aerating to get the alkalinity and ph balanced. Anyway, immediately after filling the tub, the water was cloudy. Other than the alkalinity, all water levels were fine. My filter was very dirty though and needed to be replaced, so I took it to the spa store today and bought a new one. The lady gave me one that looked exactly the same, although we didn't compare numbers or anything of the sort. I put the new filter in and added a bit more ph minus, and the water went green. I stuck in a test strip and it went haywire. All the colours on the strip went purple and black. I decided to shock the tub to be safe. A couple hours later I checked again and the test strip is still going haywire with strange colours. The tub isn't green anymore, but is still cloudy and stinks a little bit. Considering my water was close to being balanced and the only thing I added was a bit of ph minus, why did my water go green and now cloudy/smelly? Could the new filter cause this somehow? Even with my old filter, the water went cloudy immediately upon filling and heating, although the old filter was dirty and old. Any clue what's going on? When I had my water tested last night, these were my levels. Bromine - 7 ph - 7.8 Alk - 200 Calcium hardness - 220 TDS - 400
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Thanks, I did exactly as you said. I had to shock the tub 3 times and now the bromine levels seem to be stable again. One thing I haven't been doing is leaving the cover off after I shock. I will make sure to start doing that. The water was very cloudy but seems to be clear again.
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A week ago I drained my hot tub. I did the whole decontamination method. Cleaned out the pipes, drained, superchlorinated, drained, re-filled and did the 3 step bromine method. My water looked better than ever and my bromine levels were more stable than ever before. Last night I had a bunch of people in my hot tub and this morning when I tested the water the bromine level was 0. I decided to really give it a good shocking so I added about 12 ounces of 6% bleach then left it covered. I tested it about 7 hours later hoping it would be under 10 so I could use it, and found the bromine level to be at 1.5. This really surprised me as I just dumped in a lot of bleach. I just added another 8 ounces of bleach and I'm going to go test it in a couple hours, but I have a couple questions. The bromine levels likely sat at 0 overnight after everyone got out. Does this mean I now have a little bug growing in my hot tub that is eating up all my bromine? If so, can I kill it by continuing to shock until the levels stabilize again? Or is it more likely there was just so much sweat/oils/urine etc. (I hope no urine, but you just never know when people are drinking) that the chlorine I dumped in initially had to kill all that which is why it got used up so quickly? The water was cloudy but seems to be mostly clear again. I don't have to drain and re-fill again do I? I know the problems with leaving bromine levels at 0 for any period of time, but when you get out very late at night and you've been drinking, you don't always think responsibly.
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Thanks for the answer. Was wondering about the second part of my question. How important is it to have a CSI of 0 according to that pool calculator? Should I lower PH and TA slightly to try to get closer to a CSI of 0? Or does everything look well balanced and I should just leave it?