Hi guys,
I am new to hot tubs, i got my tub about 2 months ago. Initially i think i messed with the chemicals too much from information from bottles and such and adding scents and all that junk and last week i just drained it to start fresh when i opened it up in the morning and the sanitizer was 0 and water was cloudy.I am diabetic and didnt want to risk any health issues and waste supershocking or chlorinating and it also gave me a chance to use my flush to clean out the system (bought a 8 month old used tub, kept getting white stuff out of jets, guessing previous owners didnt know too much.)
This time i filled with a hose filter and then adjusted the PH only and added bromine sanitizer with and tablets in floater. The sanitizer i added is called Gran Brom and its a powder that dissolves faster and doesnt cloud water. bottle says its guaranteed ~57% chlorine and ~17.5% bromine and to add 6g per 1000L, I added 15g to start it initially. TA was at around 100 so I did not mess with it.
This time around i find there is not a whole lot of clouding in the water when the jets and air is on, where previously there was a lot along with some foaming which i liked because it provided some "privacy"
My main question is about PH measuring, I have been using Phenol Red (bought a couple new bottles and a new kit) and test strips. The test strips were mainly for measuring TA and Hardness but had PH and Chlorine/Bromine measurements as well. I always got very different reading using phenol vs test strips so i went with phenol as the more accurate reading. I bought a PH meter that was not too expensive but also was not super accurate (+- 0.1 vs +-0.03). Its a Milwakee PH600 and Ive used this before for hydroponics successfully in the past (5+ years ago) so i thought it would make things easier than the phenol red. I calibrated the meter and cheked the water which was at 7.8 and adjusted PH to 7.4. using phenol is shows the same water at 8.0 or higher (red/pink) where i would usually adjust it to orange to slight pink. Test strips show an orange range which in the bottle would be about 7.0. also my TA is around 80 it seems now, but i dont want to mess with it really as i hear its ok to have it in the 50 range to keep PH at the right place. I also just read another thread on here on how to keep TA up and PH down (battle) I may try that.
What gives, what should i trust? with the digital meter i don't have to mess with the water too much, just add a tiny bit of PH down, before i was out there for 30 minutes or more trying to get everything right after each use of the tub.
