RalphK

Well, I'll tell you where I got my numbers from. The people at Taylor recommend (I believe it's part of their company) http://suretreat.com/ . All I can say is I am glad I checked with someone, because their analysis, APPARENTLY IS WAY WAY OFF.

Firstly, phosphates are food for organisms, and the remover is fairly neutral as far as chemistry, but will cause me to clean/change filter more frequently. I am being forced to use it, as my wife was told about this, and she insists. She was shown the before and after pictures of his pool and I have to agree it is cleaner with phosphate remover. I answer to a higher power and it isn't God - she keeps reminding me of this. So I have this out of the way. I am going to use the softened water, so I measured it and found the following, as I need to come up with the initial chemical recipe: Free Chlorine 0 Combined Chlorine 2 ph 7.6 Acid Demand drop to target 7.4 1 Base Demand back to 7.6 1 Total Alkalimity 20 Calcium Hardness 0 ppm (the softener is working) Sodium Chloride 150 ppm So far I've come up with the initial fill recipe of about 2 oz of 56% Dichlor, 3.5 oz of Bicarbonate of Soda, and 13 oz of Calcium Chloride. 200 gal spa, targeting a normal summer temp of 95 degrees ( using it as a cool off dip pool ) Comments?

I am well on my way to resurrecting a broken 200 gal 3 person hot tub and has a working ozone generator in it. I have a Taylor k2006 test kit coming. We are in Albuquerque, NM. I have got it all cleaned and sanitized, but now I am getting ready to put the initial final fill in for regular use. I plan on using a phosphate remover upon recommendation of a friend of mine who has a well maintained pool - he isn't familiar with hot tubs and told me to ask in this forum. I am also to change the water frequently. And I want to keep the chemicals to a minimum as water is expensive and I would like to be able to dump it for my trees. I plan on a 1 month rotate/cleaning program for (3) filters. Replacing the set once a year. So here are my questions: 1) how should I program the ozone generator/low speed recirc/filter sequence? I can do up to 4 different periods a day. 2) what is this list of chemicals I need to have on hand to start with. 3) I can use softened or raw city water, which should I use. We are at 25 grain hardness, but we have a high silica content in either.

I am kind of in a similar boat. Anyway, I picked up a broken hot tub as I'm retired and like challenges. After fixing the known broken pipe and discovering the one seeping leak after the first cleaning and verifying the pump worked, I found (and wasn't surprised) the the control system was completely dead. We really didn't care because we were more interested in using it as a dip pool. Well I got it working so well, I became interested in repairing or replacing the control system. I found out from the spa dealer, and the manufacturer of the control system (Balboa) that the typical life spa of a control system is measured in LOW SINGLE DIGIT YEARS. One said 5 years max, the other said 3. Well, Balboa suggested putting a retro fit kit in and suggested a model number on their website, but to my surprise they directed me to a third party that sells their product because I could buy it for $300 less from the third party - so we are talking about $450. So I talked it over with the other half, and she said go ahead. So I asked Balboa for an installation manual to show my plumber and electrician and they simply refused to supply one. Which made me look for someone that would be more helpful. Using Google I found AcuraSpa and they were happy to supply manuals, drawings and answer all of my questions. On top of it, they warrant their product for 5 years, the guy I talked to has been doing this for 30 years and better yet, cost under $400 with a few upgrades. You might want to take a step back and not try to figure out why what you have doesn't work and just gut it.