Venams
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Posts posted by Venams
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can anyone comment on using the Spa Frog @ ease chloring treatment during the extended periods when I'm away (2-3 weeks)?
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What about using this product for 2-3 week trips while still using the Dichlor/Bleach system when I'm home? It says it maintains a low CL amount between .5 to 1ppm and seems easy enough to use?
https://www.spadepot.com/Spa-Frog-ease-Floating-Sanitizer-System-P2793
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Have been using the tried and true Dichlor then bleach method to dose my tub on daily basis.
This has worked great but now I have a new dilemma.
I have to leave the spa to travel out of state for 2-3 week intervals for the next 6 months.
Other than draining the spa and leaving it dry/dormant, is there a way that I can safely balance the water and keep the chlorine levels within check when I'm away during the 2-3 week time period?
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just realized that I probably should have placed this in the Water Chemistry forum.
Moderator delete thread as I'll post over there....
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Have been using the tried and true Dichlor then bleach method to dose my tub on daily basis.
This has worked great but now I have a new dilemma.
I have to leave the spa to travel out of state for 2-3 week intervals for the next 6 months.
Other than draining the spa and leaving it dry/dormant, is there a way that I can safely balance the water and keep the chlorine levels within check when I'm away during the 2-3 week time period?
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bumping for advice..
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anyone else can chime in regarding the $1500 quote from IL to FL please?
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Thanks Tubber. I did receive one quote for $1500.
I'm thinking that is quite reasonable considering the distance, don't you?
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Need some advice/suggestions please.
Our family has endured a tragedy the past few weeks and we now have to move a hot tub from Illinois to Florida.
Has anyone paid a service to move their hot tub across state lines and provide advice/suggestions on the most reasonable way to do this?Spa is Hot Springs Gleam dimensions 7'7" x 9'2"
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Could it be that you actually have bromide in your water and that the ozonator is making bromine from it? You didn't add any sodium bromide or use any bromine tabs, did you?
Nope. Didn't add any type of bromine.
I think I will add the 50ppm of Borate now that you explained how it keeps the PH in check. I still don't understand why my chlorine demand is so low with a brand new Freshwater III ozonator installed?
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OK. So I've been dosing Dichlor at the rate of .5oz each day per the Pool Calculator for 550 gallons.
I just tested my chlorine levels yesterday and it's at 16ppm!!! What the heck. Chlorine is high once again!I'm confused. Pumps were just replaced and they replaced my ozonator as well so with the ozonator my chlorine demand should be higher. I just tested chlorine levels 24 hours later and it's now at 14ppm. Using the formula from this website my chlorine demand is 13% right (14/16= .87 , 1-.87=.13 or 13%)
Isn't this extremely low chlorine demand supposedly with a brand new corona discharge (freshwater III) ozonator?
There are bubbles coming out from the circ pump so I know the line is not obstructed from the venturi and the check valve was also replaced.
I'm at a loss to figure out how the chlorine levels got that high again? Anyone have any suggestions and how can I reduce my chlorine levels at this point?
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With the higher chlorine level, it may also have oxidized the CYA faster so that would have had the active chlorine level get high and yes that could have degraded the pump seals faster. So maybe that is what happened. It sounds like you weren't testing before each soak and just assumed things were in a steady-state. Even so, that still seems pretty fast for just one week of high chlorine to damage seals in that way. You didn't mention if you periodically (say, once a month) used Dichor to keep up the CYA level. You should probably test CYA monthly until you get a handle for how quickly it drops in your spa and then use Dichlor to keep it up as needed.
It's up to you whether you want to go back to the 50 ppm TA. I don't want a service guy refuse to honor a warrantee because of that. You could see if your pH is still reasonably stable at a higher TA of 80 ppm that won't cause the service guy to freak out. Up to you.
As for the borates, that depends on how quickly your pH rises. If it doesn't rise too fast or too high, then you don't need them, but they are an additional pH buffer that resist the rise in pH from carbon dioxide outgassing. So whereas TA from bicarbonate is a SOURCE of rising pH, the borates are not. Again, up to you, but they should help keep the pH from rising as quickly.
As usual THANS so much for the advice Chem Geek. To answer your questions: I really hadn't been using the tub at all. Just adding daily bleach to keep chlorine levels up. I guess I did that for about 2 months and yes I did add some dichlor here and there but didn't test CYA since it depleats so much of my FAS-DPD test kit reagent.
I'm going to be checking ALK/PH more often so this doesn't happen and I'll look for PH rise and add Boric Acid if needed.
Thanks Again Sir!
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TA is at 80ppm and PH 7.1
I was going to aerate tub to bring PH up and then add enough acid to bring TA down to 50ppm.
Does this sound right?
Or should I add borates to 50ppm and then test and proceed? Just wondering if I really need to add the borate? -
I had been using powder to bring the borates to 50 ppm but decided not to use it and just try it without this time.
My spa has an ozonator. Now that I think of it, the ozonator did stop working which resulted in my CL levels rising over the period of a week with daily addition of the bleach. I think it was about 22ppm or so. When I tested and saw the high CL I stopped dosing bleach and checked ozonator, It was dead. They sent out another one and I had it replaced. This happened about 2 months ago. Didn't associate the high CL with the pumps leaking but that might be the culprit?
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I've been using this site for the valuable information and the Dichlor then Bleach method for about 2 years with success.
I recently bought a new Hot Springs hot tub (replaced my old trusted and tried Sundance Optima) a little over a year ago. I noticed 2 wets spots by the front of the cabinet just past the 1st year. I thought it was because of the recent rain but when I saw the telltale white residue I knew that my tub was leaking.Pulled the front panel off and sure enough, 2 of the main pumps (equipped with 3 pumps and 1 circ pump) were leaking at the bushings.
I cannot believe that not only 1 but 2 pumps would be leaking this early into the tub ownership.
Placed call into Spa Repair. They came out and asked about my water chemistry. I told them look at the water, it's crystal clear and my TA is always balanced to about 50PPM while my PH remains fairly constant at around 7.5. He tells me that the TA is low and water was acidic and probably lead to the pumps premature failure?
I've been given advice to keep my TA around 50ppm so the PH won't stray and rise too much over time. Was that bad info???
Anyway, drained tub and refilled. My TA is at 70ppm and PH at 7.1. If the previous advice I was given is OK I'm assuming I should aerate tub to bring PH up and then use Muriatic to bring TA back down to 50ppm area right?
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I have recently new Hot Springs Gleam tub which came with and OZONATOR from the factory.
Water has been very balanced and I've been supplementing about 2oz of Clorox (8.25%) every day or so keep my Chlorine levels around 3-4ppm
So I recently tested my tub and level was at about 30ppm!!! I left it alone for 3 days and it's still reading close to 30ppm!
What the heck is going? I'm assuming that the Chlorine is staying in the water and accumulated from my daily 2oz additions and is not dissipating because my OZONATOR is no longer working.
It is injected into the tub by my the 24 hour circ pump and I so see little bubbles coming out the nozzle.
Is there anyway to easily test to make sure the OZONATOR is actually working? -
I've recently changed the water in my hot tub, balanced the water to following parameters:
PH=7.9
TA= 80
Borate = 50ppm
Temp = 97
Normally I have sparkling water with no cloudiness at all with TA about 50 and PH near 7.5
My PH has risen a bit along with the TA but it still seems within range. Problem is the water is not super clear like it has been and there is a slight cloudiness to it. No smell at all. I used dichlor the first week and have been on the Clorox bleach since then keeping sanitizer level at about 3-5ppm
I rinsed the filter (very clean and sign of dirt especially since tub has only been used twice since fresh fill) and tried using SpaGuard Water Clarifier. NO CHANGE: Rinsed the filter again and used Sparkle-X by Nature's Way: NO CHANGE. Rinsed filter after this as well.
I'm stumped. Anyone have any suggestions for a way to clear the slight cloudiness up?
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chem geek. I was still using Dichlor because I hadn't reached 35ppm yet. I didn't want to use my Taylor kit to test it since it takes so much of the reagent for the CYA test and the dip strips aren't very accurate.
I'm thinking that's the reason my PH dropped?
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Last 4 hot tub fills I had a nice system down where I could quickly get my TA down to about 50-60 and PH at 7.5 with 50ppm Borates added (3 cups Boric Acid).
Not sure if this is the problem but while brining the TA down I added the Boric Acid, which I usually add when the TA is at desired point.
My PH was lower than previous fills at about 7.0 / using the POOL CALCULATOR it stated that I Could add BORAX (which I previously had on hand) at 2.7 ounces. Added and voila PH was right at 7.5 sweet point!
Used the tub about twice since then (about 2 weeks ago) and remeasured:
TA= 60
PH=7.0
I didn't expect PH to drop back down. Is this a problem and if so how do I remedy the drop in PH?
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You could enable summer mode on your GLEAM, which shuts down the circ pump for 8 hours a day. If you're just gone for a week, with the cover closed, I wouldn't be concerned about the chlorine going to zero for a couple days.
So I'm thinking I could shock to 10ppm FC day I leave and lower temp to reduce chlorine use right? If so should I use shock higher than 10ppm for a week and what temp to lower hot tub?
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Yep. That's what I meant Chem Geek and thanks for the info.
I'll most likely just leave it alone for now and wait for it to rise
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I've been using Muratic and Boric Acid acid to bring down the TA/PH of my tub water the past few fills.
Always works perfect and I get TA about 50ppm with PH around 7.5
This time I added 3 cups of Boric Acid just prior to my last dose of Muriatic. My TA is between 50 and 60pmm but my Ph was low after I was done, at about 7.1
I tried aerating for an hour or so and PH is now at about 7.3 and doesn't appear to be moving higher.
Did I screw up by adding the Boric Acid before I was done with the Muriatic? If so how can I fix this or should I just leave it sit at 7.3 and wait for it to rise?
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I have a Hot Springs GLEAM and the circ pump and ozone run continuously?
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Thanks Chem Geek. My spa is equipped with Ozone.
Now what?
Suggestions for keeping water chemistry in check for longer periods
in Hot Tub Water Chemistry
Posted
so checking back in to report Guys and Gals.. I went ahead and purchased the Spa Frog @ease floating chlorinator system after reading lots of positive reviews.
I balanced the water as I usually did using the Dichlor then Bleach method: TA = 70, PH 7.4, CH 150
@Ease said to add the package of their spa shock to the water prior to installing the system. I then switched the unit to setting # 3 which is for spa volumes of 450gal to-530 gallons.
Dropped in the Spa Frog.
Just shy of 3 weeks later I returned to find the water cloudy, smelly with a milky white tinge to it. I grabbed the Spa Frog floater and it was dripping the milky white water as I removed it. So the milky white cloudiness definitely came from the Spa Frog floater.
Quick test showed the PH at 6.8, TA at 40 (water temp was steady at 96 degrees). Does ANYONE have an idea what went wrong here? The chlorine section of the floater still had granules and it was not flipped over when I returned which is the indicator that all the chlorine has exhausted and needs replacement.
I added Spa clarifier to the tub and tried in vain for hours to clear mess up. I ended up dumping the otherwise clean fill water and rinsed the filters with a garden hose.
Refilled the tub and balanced back to TA= 7.6, TA = 80 and added 1.3 oz of Dichlor. Next day my water is turning cloudy... What the heck is going on. I normally have pristine extra clear water, all the time with these parameters using the Dichlor then bleach method and the water was absolutely pristine before I used the Spa Frog system.
calling WaterBear, Nitro et all! Any idea what's clouding the water right now and how I can clear it? Maybe I need to add non chlorine shock? Can I add that if my chlorine level is at 12ppm right now? Need help and advice on how to right the ship please....