LydiaRobinvale

Hey guys, i've looked all over and cant find the answer to this. I recently got the taylor k-2042 mps interference remover because i had to start using mps every time the spa gets used. Its colder now and my landlord (who never bathes) and his handyman who's been working all day get into the spa at the end of the day every day now. It is super gross.. But i went through 2 weeks of problems associated with how dirty they are and the spa is finally back to normal. I need to learn how to use the k-2042 though, as the little card of instructions that comes with it just doesnt make any sense to me. Maybe i am missing something but i figured i would ask you guys. The kit i have is tje k-2006c. When i do the chlorine test i use the 25ml mark. How much of the k2042 do i need to put in to that? Do i add it before or after the powder? Thanks!

Hey guys so things have been going pretty well since we got our spa in the summer save for that one algae incident we had. I recently drained and refilled the spa with fresh water. I did the dichlor bleach method, but it seems i cant get the ph to come down now. It comes down briefly with acid to about 7.5 or 7.6 and then quickly shoots right back up to 8+. Whats the deal here? It doesnt aerate that much. I am using bleach though and i know that has a high ph but i dont want to continually use dichlor My second issue has to do with bather load. Now its starting to get cold here in socal and my landlord wants to start using it more. Up until now he has only used it a handful of times. The problem is its him and the handyman who want to use it at the end of the work day. And they are both very sweaty and dirty. My landlord actually doesnt shower hardly at all, he kind of just uses the spa as a bath (he doesnt bring like soap in or anything). The point is they are both VERY dirty people and i dont know how to oxidize all that bather waste without dumping a load of chlorine in. He doesnt like chemical smell so if it smells like chlorine hes going to be mad. Should i be using mps and chlorine after they are in there to try and lighten the load on the chlorine? Should i be super chlorinating once a week? Or should i shock with mps? How will this affect my ph? How can i best prevent that chlorine smell from happening when i do this so the landlord doesnt get pissy? The TA is at about 100 right now. Before the refill it was around 60. Cya is probably 30. I have a taylor kit and alsl a color pro q 7 and the ph readings on those dont match. Taylor kit says 8+ while the color pro says 7.6. Not sure which one to go with honestly. I do not currently have any borates in the spa.

Everything's been going fine with my spa after a long period of learning. Fine up until today. I went out of town for 2 days and made sure to get the levels up enough to account for that. I come back to this. A bluish green powdery substance ring around the tub. And cloudy af water.. What the heck is this???? Anyone know what it could be? It was completely fine just 2 days ago. It also has a weird smell i cant quite place... On saturday I went to the store and broke down in my car.. I had left the spa open because I had just put some bleach in. I wasnt able to get home for 7 hours so the spa was open that entire time. Is it algae? Is it copper from metal deterioration?

Deleted I'll make a separate post about this

Hojestly i cant be bothered with the pool. The landlord believes none of this is necessary. He has not drained and filled the pool since the earthquake in northridge in 1996 because it caused a crack in the pool. He also has never replaced the pool filter. Some idiot out of scores of pool guys told him what he wanted to hear (that his water ans stuf would last forever as long as he threw chlorine in it) and he believes it because it is what he wants to believe. I have tried putting tons of muriatic acid in, not more than the mac each night and it doesn't do anything. He wont let me run the pump at these times so it's kind of pointless anyway. Yesterdsy he used jb weld to put back togetger the lid to his jacuuzi pump that he has had since the 80s. Hes never cleaned that either and he has it set up so the jacuzzi dumps its water into the pool. So basically the jacuzzi is constantly getting fresh water but the pool gets his nasty soup (and he doesnt bathe as i mentioned before). At this point the pool is kind of a lost cause no matter how much i would love to be able to enjoy it. The spa is doing well. I finally got someone to come look at the pump and they pulled a bunch of dark grey plastic pieces out of it. He said the impeller looked good but it was still loud so i am going to keep an eye on it. The only thing that is botgering me now is the crazy high phosphates i cant seem to lower. I have tried both spa perfect and spa phos free and it isn't helping at all. Still high at like 500 and no one has been in the spa (but we are going in tonight)

The taylor test kit came in today. I tested the pool stuff first as i had just added some bleach in the spa.. Man these test kits are WAY off. The lamotte kit told me my ph is 7.8 and the alkalinity is 165. The taylor kit tells me my ph is somewhere between 8 and 8.3 because it says it turns purple at 8.4... It was way pink but not purple.. And the taylor kit also says my alkalinity is 400?! Am i doing something wrong here? That is obscenely high

The size of the spa is 1620 gallons at the minimum operating level which is right about where we keep it at. That level is noted in the manual that came with the spa. No one has used the spa at all in the last 2 weeks because it's just been too hot out. Like 105 here where I live. Still very hot even in the evenings.. I will note the readings in the morning.

The taylor kit hasnt arrived tet. My lamotte colorq pro 7 tests free chlorine and total chlorine. I am curious to see what the difference is in the two. I added another 8oz of bleach and the test quite a few hours later the free chlorine isnt even to 3 yet (from 1.6 starting point). I feel like i am having to use a lot. Ny total chlorine was like 1.85 which i guess is super close to the fc which is good. But again i feel like i am using a lot of bleach and never quite getting to the level i need. I know my cya is at 42 as i mentioned in my last post.. But now its weird too because it seems to be increasing my alkalinity even more. The Alkalinity is at 72 now and ph sits at 7.4 for the moment. I am super confused. The pool calculator tells me what to add to get to 4ppm for the numbers i have and it is not working. I have it set to 6% bleach on there too which is what i have. Not a lot of black stuff today, mostly just tree particles from what i can see. But i didnt really look that close today and i didn't vacuum. Landlord had me doing stuff on the cars and i didnt even get a chance to ask him about them sending someone out to repair the pump..

The dealer basically want nothing to do with us. I had to contact master spas directly. I am very unhappy with the treatment we have had from master pool and spas (the dealer) and master spas themselves. VERY unprofessional. And they basically dont want to help, they just want your money. We had to contact the company that deals with warranty work and it took me forever just to get that number from master spas. And guess what? $100 to come out because the warranty only covers the call out itself for 30 DAYS. The parts and labor are still covered but i have to speak with the landlord first and get him to ok it. And what if just dont want to do any work and they say nothing is wrong? Then he will blame me. There is definitely something not right with it. Today i hadto add another 8oz of bleach. I want to keep it at 4ppm due to my 42 cya and the alkalinity and stuff. The alkalinity is 67 andthe ph is 7.4 now. The pool valculator says 3-7ppm is normal for those numbers. I went from 3 yesterdsy to 1.65 overnight. I have an ozone as well. Is this normal for the chlorine to go down that fast? I suppose i should figure out chlorine demand then

It took forever to get someone on the phone from master spas today about my pump. The first guy actually hung up on me. They finally gave me the number to a completely separate company that performs their warranty work. I called and apparently because we have had this spa fr 2 months it doesnt cover the call and it will be $100 for them to come out. Outrageous! Spend 30 thousand dollars on a spa and charge another 100 just to come out and look at their screw up? I couldnt believe it. I have to speak with the landlord tomorrow about it but he is going to have to do it or we could be looking at a more expensive repair down the road.. As for the cover yes we keep it covered. I do not know where this stuff is coming from. ALthough there are tiny gaps in the cover folds, and some stuff does get in there but this stuff is weird. Like a large sand particle and very heavy. They sink immediately to the floor of the spa. I have not physically seen one come out of a jet... But I am concerned it does have to do wit the pump which is why I need them to come out. The noise this pump is making is not normal especially for a 2 month old spa (actually only been running for 1). I have been trying to bleach method with the lamotte tester. It seems I have to add a lot more bleach than recommended in the pool calculator and more frequently.. Perhaps because the ozone is on. How should I apply it? With the current jets on? I want it to mix good and not gather near the sides too much. Also it seems like the addition of the bleach has risen the Ph a little. Which is fine because it was slightly low. The alkalinity is still kinda low at 64. I cant seem to get either one to rise too much. Even after adding more calcium hardener I am only at 75 on that. I added an entire bottle of the Spa Guard CH.. I have more on the way. I looked and I have Balboa pumps. Are these able to be cleaned in case debris gets in there? I couldnt figure it out and there is nothing in the manual about it. Edit: You know what? This black stuff reminds me of Aluminum Oxide sand blasting media. I did use this when I was sandblasting my landlords VW Bug a while back, but I am pretty sure this was well before the spa was delivered and it was also in the garage which is on the other side of the property. I have no idea how this stuff would have gotten into the spa, or even how it would become airborne at all due to its weight. I think tomorrow I will collect some more and compare it to the aluminum oxide I have left... The spa did sit for about a month uncovered before we had it installed. Now that I think of it, this concerns me..

The only thing i was really worried about was that some were saying bleach deteriorates gaskets and such. Since i already have black stuff coming from somewhere and a pump making a lot of noise, i wasnt excited about that. I unfortunately didnt see that last response in time so i did get the 6% walmart brand bleach and not the 8.. I will use the pool calculator to figure out how much i will need. I did do a recommended experiment on another forum. I gathered some of the black grit (which was very difficult lol) and put some bleach in a small white cup. I waited one hour and the grit was still there, it did not get any lighter or . So its not organic.. I guess. Really not sure what it could be!

Ok. Well my bias is that i have never been told to use it and have in fact been told by every single person not to do so, so its going to take a little getting used to. I am not adverse to using it, i am just concerned of the effect on a fiberglass tub. As it is not my hot tub i want to avoid damaging it, so i am hust trying to be extra careful. Upon inspection when i got home, all those little black dots are back. It is mostly a very heavy black grit. Now i did some searching and found this link here https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/black-particles-in-bath-hot-water-only.49345/ Where one guy asks if the black grit leaves a trail when smushed.. That is exactly what it does. He mentions it xould be magnesium sulfide something about the heater element. Now i know they are talking about regular plumbing here (hot water) but i am assuming it could also be trye for a hot tub. Any ideas?

I am at walmart now. Their regular concentrated bleach is 6% and says 94% "other ingredients". What are the other ingredients? And if they arent just water, why would i want those other ingredients in my hot tub? The 7ppm per person hour is for a smaller tub though isnt it? My tub is 1620 gallons...

I tested this morning. Last night i added some MPS to try and free up some chlorine. This morning my FC is about 2 and the total says 6??? What the heck lol.. Is the mps showing up as total chlorine? I know chlorine gives false high mps readings but i wasnt sure if it was the other way around. (Edit to add: i answered my own question and now see mps shows up as combined chlorine for a few days after adding) I removed the Nature 2 stick.. I have a whole tub of leslies fresh n clear though that i would like to use up but its making my ph and alkalinity go down i think. Ph today is 6.9 and alkalinity is at 62. I added 3 tablespoons of baking soda yesterday. Someone mentioned that fiberglass tubs make the ph go down by itself as well. I am interested to see what the difference will be in readings when i get the taylor kit. The calcium hardness has the biggest difference between the store and lamotte test kit. My research today so far suggests that the calcium hardness test on this kit is not very accurate so i will wait until i get the taylor kit to start worrying. Should i just ditch the fresh n clear? I only have dichlor at the moment... I have to go buy some bleach. I am going to try it and see what happens. How should i oxidize bather waste after using the tub? Most people say a certain amount per person per hour but thats for very small tubs. What formula would you recommend with a tub this size? I'm sorry this thread is so long, but I'm learning.

I think he just believes that all bleach in a regular store has all kinds of other stuff in it. Its odd though because i added half a bottle of the spa calcium hardener and it only went from 50 to 66? That didnt make sense to me. After i added the first half it went up past 75 and then to 150 at the store test. I also have a taylor kit coming. I didnt want to cross contaminate with the pool as the pool has mustard algae in it right now, plus this only gpes tp 10ppm fc as was mentioned. Maybe i will use this one for the pool and the taylor kit for the spa. I am keeping an eye on the end of the spa that the spots were on. The landlord turned the spa up to 104 which is the max it goes and i know that will go through chemicals faster.

I cleaned the stains off and they havent come back. Perhaps crisis averted? The test kit came yesterday. The problem is we also went to leslies for a water test. The results were essentially completely different. I am blanking the unit correctly, i believe. The results are as follows.: Free Chlorine: leslies, 3/lamotte colorq 1.5 Total chlorine: leslies, 3/colorq 3 (no one has been in the spa for over a week and definitely not last night) Ph: leslies 7/colorq 7.2 (after adding a bunch of ph up last night) Alkalinity: leslies 70/ colorq 58 (also after adding the ph/alkalinity up. I dont know why i cant keep my ph and alkalinity up and stable) calcium hardness: leslies 150/ colorq 66 (wtf????) cya: leslies 30/colorq 43 ugh... What could i be doing wrong? I dont want to add too much calcium. The guy at the store keeps telling my not to use bleach because it "has other chemicals in it besides chlorine" i thought this test kit would make things easier not more confusing lok

Hmmm my spa doesnt seem to have a way to turn off the ozone...

Like this one? https://www.amatoind.com/taylor-test-kit-k-2006-c-2-oz-bottles?search=Taylor&page=5 do i need to purchase anything else aside from this?

Ok sounds good. I dont think the test kit i got has the kind of free chlorine test that the link you provided mentions, though. I have ozone though. The test says a loss of 1 ppm fc as a test to see if you're done with the cleansing but it is my understanding that ozone eats up chlorine faster so will i ever get to that point? You mentioned letting it cool down, meaning turn the temp down? To what exactly? I have it at 100 degrees right now. I dont really want to use bleach. Liquid chlorine seems like the best way to go. I am getting ready to clean the filters but i will wait to soak them until after this process

isnt black algae like thr hardest to get rid of and it roots down into your tub??? I just shocked it last night. The test kit should be here tomorrow. The chlorine seemed high still today. The filters dont seem to be sucking up grit from the bottom of the spa. I have to constantly use the spa vac i bought. I think its the nature 2 stick i put in blocking flow but there are 2 other filters aside from that. I brushed the spots off for the most part. Some of them were really really hard to get off and i wanted to be careful what i used. There are still a few tiny dots in there. The pool has mustard algae right now (i have given up on the pool as the landlord thinks algae is normal and all pools and spas have it) and i don't want cross contamination but i cant prevent what he does. I dont know how this spa would have got black algae. Can you even kill the roots? Can you tell i am actually panicking? Lol

Thanks again for all your help. I'm afraid we may now have black algae. I am SO FRUSTRATED. It started after the handyman was cutting down a very large tree next to the spa. Some of the sawdust got in there... Some little dots appeared on the bottom at the far end of the spa. We thought it was just sap from the tree stuff but it seems to have gotten worse like more dots. They are small black and brown dots and theyre hard to remove. I did try to get one with my finger that was closer to the surface and it smeared a little but there was still a hard spot left. What can i do jow? I seem to have mostly got the sanitizer thing down but is it too late? I looked at the filter and it has no spots. Is black algae really impossible to remove?

Ok cool. Its not really a "public spa". Myself and my room mate use it, as does our new neighbor alexis and the landlord. Often its just the landlord or its 3 or 4 of us. I do think (when its not too hot as it has been the last 2 weeks) we qualify as "heavy usage". Then there is the added complication of the labdlord never bathing which quite frankly is disgusting but unfortunately we have to deal with it. The spa phos-free came today so i can work on getting the phosphates down. I think with the help of this forum and the pool calculator, which i am slowly getting the hang of, i almost have this down lol

It does free chlorine and total chloring. Cant i just subtract FC from TC?

I think I was wrong about the tester, I think it was a different guy the last time I had the spa water tested and that guy was dumber than a rock lol.. Not surprised really. I am calling master spas directly tomorrow about the pump. It takes a few minutes of pump #2 running for it to get really loud. The spa is still well under warranty and they need to bring us an eco pur anyway. I dont think the lamotte does TDS though. Is there a separate kit for that?

Wow yeah i understand selling stuff. I did just get back from there and had both pool and spa water tested. Somehow my total dissolves solids on the spa in 4 days with NO ONE using it launched up from 300 to 800... What the heck? And thr phosphates went from 200 to 500. Again, no one used the spa between these two tests and they were performed by the same guy. Im ok with the total dissolved solids as we will be drsining the spa in a couple months anyway and filling up again. But the pool is at 5000. The landlord refuses to drain the pool and doesnt believe in chemicals. We have been trying to get the alkalinity down from 250 and it was going down slowly but shot up in a week to 300. I give up on the pool. Im just dealing with the spa now the pool can rot for all i care. The spa is good on all other fronts now except the shock i did did not raise the cya at ALL. It is still at 20. So i dont know about that. Free and total chlorine is both at 3. Ph is 7.6 and alkalinity is 80. Calcium hardness is only 75 after putting in 10 tbs of spa ch. So i will put more in tonight. Its due for some algicide maintenance dose as well.