Rayf01

I have a 1500L Beachcomber 380 hot tub. I believe that is approximately 375 gallons. We don't use it that frequently and when we do we've usually showered before hand already. I'd estimate the hot tub gets use 2 to 3 days a week by one more, so a daily bather load of like 0.5 to be generous. When I take 375 divide it by 3, then divide it by the daily bather load of 0.5, I get a water change frequency of approx 250 days. Does this seem right or OK to go that long? My TDS are very low and barely register on my test strips.

Thank you for the reply. I ended up filling and using a bromide / MPS sanitizer instead of chlorine. Everything was good and I used the tub that night and then the bromine levels dropped right off. I added some mps and even shocked it with non chlorine shock. The bromine levels never came up. I attempted to super chlorinated with dichloride as well anf used about 37 gram got a 1500 litre tub. Then levels finally came back up and hit 10 for bromine and also chlorine in the water. I left the cover off for like an hour and the levels came back down to about 5 for bromine and everything looked good. I'll see what it looks like when I get home but it's odd that it took the super chlorinatation with dichloride to get the levels back up again. I have noticed some white paper like soft flakes in the water and I'm unsure if they are white mold or calcium. I tried putting some in a 1 cup jar with water/bleech and they didn't really dissolve much. Most of them I have caught in the ore filter soak which I have had to wash out three times now and I'd describe it as gunk. I'm not seeing a ton more of them now so we'll see what happens. Just wondering if I should decontaminate and drain or leave it. They also Staines the top of the filter cartridge as well with a light colored ring. I'll have to try soak it eventually and clean it.

After over an hour, the largest one is still there along with a small one. there appears to be some white dustish looking debris in the bottom like it has partially broken off. the piece itself is quite soft and a bit slimy, tearing easily, its still like paper. I honestly have no idea.

took a few of the "flakes" and put them in 1 cup of water. I then put in a bunch of bleech as I read online that it a way to test for biofilm. If it remains its likely not biofilm and likely calcium. Well so far after 20 minutes the flake is still there and I added a decent amount of bleech. Does this mean its not biofilm them? Just seems like it woulndt be calcium, it kind of tears when I hold it. It also coated the inside of the prefilter sock and made it yucky. That said there is a lot less in the hot tub now then there was before.

Hi everyone. I bought a house back in May that came with a 1580 Liter hot tub. The previous owner hadn't lived in the house for a few months and the hot tub was running. It wasn't gross by any measure, but there were some floaties in it and I wanted to be sure it was clean. I purchased a tub clean product, ran the product in the hot tub for awhile ( I can't recall how long now) and then did a drain. I scrubbed the walls down as well with tub clean, rinsed it, and left it for a couple months as the tub needed a few repairs and had some leaks. During that time I also know that there was likely residual water in some of the piping including the bottom drain as it never seems to empty all the way. Fast forward two months and I have the tub back together again with a new motor/pump, seals and a few jets. I also installed a new filter and pre filter sock on the skimmer basket. I did the following two days ago: 1. Filled with tap water. 2. Added some water decriminalize as thats what the hot tub shop said to do. Based on my research and my water here I don't think I needed to do it. 3. I then balanced, but the only thing I had to do was raise the calcium hardness and my PH and Alkalinity were good out of the tap. 4. I used a non chlorinated shock to spec on the bottle. 5. After it was balanced and heated, I added the Bromide liquid to spec, then added MSP to spec. The bromine level shot up to about 10. 6. I later noticed some floatie stuff in the water at all levels so I added a bit of clarifier to the tub, and later added a product called "Soft" which the spa dealer said helps make the water feel softer. Now that "floatie" stuff i referred to I would describe as chunks of skin almost. They were of various sized but honestly looked like skin flaked off the bottom of someones foot. I know it wasn't skin though and there was a decent amount of it. I ran the jets on high for quite a bit and would take out the pre filter sock and rinse all that crap out of it. I've done that three times now and for the most part its pretty good. I do notice some pieces still floating around so I have been watching it. I've used the tub twice yesterday once the bromine level came down and I also added a bromine tablet floater. After using the tub twice yesterday I notice the bromine level was like nearly 1. So I added a bit of MSP to the tub last night along with the bromine floater. This morning the bromine level hasn't come up a whole lot, its probably at 2 still. There are also some of the peices still floating around and the sock had some inside it. I also noticed a small discoloration ring on the top of the filter itself which is a similar colour to what the sock is once I rinse it, due to those floaty things. I did have all of the motor/pump out, along with the large PVC pipe that runs between the heater spa pack pipe and the pump itself. All of those pipes, including the heater pipe, and the PVC pipe looked clean and didn't appear to have any "build up". Sooooooo, this leads me to the following: 1.Is that floatie stuff bio flim that I keep reading about? 2. Should I decontaminate my hot tub again using Nitro's post method that i read about? The level of the floaty stuff has gone down, but I am guessing its still in the pipes.. 3. My bromine level went from 10 yesterday, to like 1 by the end of the day. I used it with my two young children for about 20 minutes, then again with a friend at the end of the day for about an hour. After that I added a bit of MSP to the tub, and again this morning the bromine level is still pretty low. That is with the floater in all night as well. Reading that post about medical bills and sickness has me concerned, so I want to make sure I am doing this right. Not sure if I should do a full decontamination or what. Is it possible this isnt old dead biofilm or something else?

So, I got my hot tub back together with the new motor/pump and seals. This is my first time filling it, so I had the local store test my tap water, results below: TDS: 250 ppm Alkalinity: 110 ppm PH 7.4 Calcium: 130 ppm Free Chlorine 4ppm Combined Chlorine 0ppm Iron: 0 ppm Copper: 0ppm So with the above results I have a few questions: 1. With my TDS at 250, however my iron and copper at 0, do I really need to use any additive to remove metals and prevent staining upon the first fill? I have spoke to other people in the area and they never do. 2. My alkalinity and PH seem to be bang on out of the tap. Therefore I shouldn't need to add anything at all right now right? 3. I added some Calcium Hardness Increasing to try bring my calcium up to the 150-200 range so I will test that shortly, buts its the only thing I can think of for balancing right now that I need to do I believe? 4. Shocking and Sanitizing: Can I just use Chlorine Granules and Super Chlorinate, or should I be using an initial non chlorinated shock first, then do the chlorine later? 5. Is Free Chlorine the level of Chlorine I need in my spa to stay between 3ppm adn 5 ppm or is it the combined chlorine? My Free is already at 4ppm out of the tap. 6. A friend gave me chemicals from his spa that he just sold with a house. I have two types of chlorine granules. One says CHLOR on the bottle and is 65% Calcium Hypochlorite. The second says Stablized Chlorine Granules and is 100% Sodium Dichloro-S-Triazinetrione. Which is the better one to use to sanitize my spa? 7. Should a person use chlorine pucks in a floater to maintain the chlorine level instead of having to add granules all the time? 8. Also, how do I convert grams to something useful like cups? Or do you have to measure the weight of all your chemicals? The chemicals are all instructed in grams. Since particles from one chemical can weigh more than another should I be using a scale? Will balance values change with temp? These are tested at 64 Fahrenheit as the spa heats up.

Ok, well I guess I'll give it a go. Not sure what else to do, hopefully it works fine. It won't blow anything since the amp draw is less, just wondering about pressure.

Hi all, looking for a bit of feedback here. I bought a home with a tub. After some looking, I elected to do a bit of overhauling and replace the pump/motor which was 8 years old and had some issues. Now, the pump for the old one had a sticker that said 3.5 hp on it. I took it to a pump/motor shop and the guy told me "I always go off the number on the actual impeller", which says 3. So he says it was a 3 hp pump. I had him order me a new one, and of course when I look at the amp ratings the new one is lower and its a 3 hp pump. I am pretty sure my old one is a 3.5 hp. Looking at the specs of both pumps, they both appear to run at the same RPM, 3450/1725 If I install the new 3 hp one, is it going to make a huge difference and lack in jet pressure or do you think a person would even notice it much? Keep in mind I have never used the hot tub before because as soon as I took possession of the house I drained it. I attached some photos. Old pump/motor are the one with the stickers together. New pump and motor are the one with the two single stickers.