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scorpionc53

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Everything posted by scorpionc53

  1. I was able to simplify balancing my water on my initial startup after purchasing my hot tub without adding all the junk and had a successful 2 months of running without issue and water perfectly balanced. Just recently, I drained and cleaned the tub, refilled, and am attempting to get the spa back into balance from this latest fill and for whatever reason, I can't get it right. Below are my steps, then the issue. 1. Refill water to 1" below seat pads. 2. Re-install filter 3. Purge pumps. 4. Let warm up to 90 Degrees 5. Adjust PH and Alk as necessary. I use PH + and PH- by Pro Team Spa to set these values. 6. Check hardness(I use an RV filter to fill the spa, so my hardness is usually on point the last 2 fills). 7. Super Chlorinate with 1.38 TBSP of Dichlor by Pro Team Spa 8. Once my FC has dropped back down between 1 and 3, I'll insert my Frog Mineral and Chlorine cartridges on their proper settings. I"m using pro-team spa products except for the Frog filter unit that's built into the spa. If that looks good, onto Issue. I set the hardness and alkalinity and can normaly get those in check. Ph is another story. Upon initial check, pH strip shows it's way over 8, so I use pH- to bring it down. I've gotten it down to around 7.2 and let sit overnight, and it acts as though the pH rises over a 24 hour period. On one occasion, I got the pH down to 7.2 then introduced my chlorine and within 12 hours, my total chlorine reads 5-6, my free chlorine reads 0, and my pH appears to be skyrocketted again over 8. I've tried multiple brands of strips to make sure one wasn't bad. Last week over the course of a few days, it looked like my pH was set and would stay around 7.2, so I introduced a superchlorinate and then the Frog system and let sit for a couple days. Checked the water and again, the TC was around 5-6 and the FC was 0, and the pH was around 8.0+. I took a water sample to my local spa shop and they basically said, Yup, your PH is high, try this, and offered me a pH- bottle which I politely declined since that's basically what I've been using to try and get my pH in check. Like I said, I've used color strips, the Aquachek digital scale, and even the frog color scale that came with my frog cartridges. The Aquachek gives me a digital value of 8.4 and says hi, Chlorine 0, and Alk is around 120. The kid at the spa shop did not seem interested in helping me so I don't plan to go back. What am I missing, doing wrong, or both?
  2. I would like to run my startup procedure and maintenance schedule by you folks because A. I'm a new owner, B. I'm not a chemist, C. I'm good at following direction, and D. I received multiple products with my tub. I own a 2019 Hot Springs Relay, it holds 345 gallons, keep it at about 103F, and use it 1-2x per week, sometimes an extra couple time on weekends with more people. I just had a problem with getting my FC up for more than 8 hours and simply bit the bullet and drained it. Frog, the inline folks, told me that my spa likely had too much chlorine in it and it was ready to be drained, so I did. Below are my steps for startup and maintenance, chemical wise. Please let me know if it looks good, you see something wrong, or have other suggestions. 1. Refill water to 1" below seat pads. 2. Re-install filter 3. Purge pumps. 4. Let warm up to 90 Degrees 5. Adjust PH and Alk as necessary. I use PH + and PH- by Pro Team Spa to set these values. If Alk is low, I also have Alk + by Pro Team. 6. Check hardness(I use an RV drinking filter to fill the spa, so my hardness is usually on point the last 2 fills). 7. Add Pro Team Spa Gentle Spa per directions 8. Add Pro Team Spa Metal Magic per directions 9. Super Chlorinate with 1.38 TBSP of Dichlor by Pro Team Spa 10. Once my FC has dropped back down between 1 and 3, I'll insert my Frog Mineral and Chlorine cartridges. If that looks good, onto maintenance. Usually every time before I jump in, I shock with Pro Team Spa oxidizing shock, let it circulate for 15 mins or so, sit in the tub for an hour or so, then close it up. And that's about it. My Frog system typically keeps the chlorine levels in check, and I check the PH and Alk once a week. Should I be doing something else? More, Less, A-OK? As I said, I'm not chemist, but want to see if I'm doing too much, not enough, or just right. I get somewhat confused when I'm mixing different brands, or when my chlorine levels get out of whack. Or when I'm supposed to add in shock(Pro Team Oxidizing shock) vs. more dichlor if at all. I also have a few others that came with my kit such as foam fighter, blue clarifier, etc. Thanks in advance!
  3. Good evening, I'm having a major problem with my free chlorine and wanted to come here before I give up and drain the thing. I've had this hot tub for about 2 months now and I was able to easily get my water chemistry all set. History: I am using the Frog system which is built into my hot springs. I tossed in some chlorine before taking a week vacation last week and now I'm home but can't seem to level it out. I noticed that Frog had emptied at some point during vacation and there was a slight BO smell to the water, but was clear and I did not see any buildup on the walls. I first noticed that my pH and alkalinity were extremely low. So I successfully brought those up to the proper values. My current Frog is empty for the Chlorine part, so I have more on order and have been supplementing with DiChlor. 2 nights ago I did a shock treatment to get my values set before taking a dip and noticed that my FC was 0. So I added a batch of dichlor and called it a night. I also soaked my filter in a solution overnight and made sure I rinsed it well before re-installing the next day. Last night, I went to take a dip and again, noticed the FC tanked to 0. This time, I did a super Chlor and brought the FC value up to 10ppm. Tonight, I came back for a dip and again, the FC was 0. My Total Chlorine is about 3ppm, Alkalinity is around 100, pH appears to be about 7.4, and hardness is around 250. What the heck is going on? I just did a super super chlorinate and brought my FC up to 20ppm and my TC was over the scale. Anyone experience this? I failed chemistry twice in college, but I'm excellent at following directions. My spa was purchased brand new, is a Hot Springs Relay, holds 345 gallons, and I keep it around 103 degrees. What can I do to fix this chemistry without draining, or is a drain the only way? Also, maybe a newb question, but what can I do to prevent this from happening again? Do I need to shock or chlorinate after each use? My current routine right now is check chemistry every few days since I think I can trust the Frog system, and before vacation, that was working well. Every few times I'd use the tub I'd toss in a shock treatment about 20 minutes before getting in.
  4. Good morning, I just fired up my tub for the first time and have some chemistry questions. I failed chemistry in school so I am by no means a water chemist. However, I'm really good at following directions and finding the correct information and am having a little trouble finding a clear answer for my specific question. Details below. I received a couple items with the purchase of my new Hot Springs spa. I received the inline cartridges for the Frog system. I also received a startup kit for pro team spa. Talking to my dealer, they instructed me to follow the instructions for startup on the Pro team spa package, and then start the Frog system. So that's what I did, up until the Frog. I figured I'll want to get this down and understand it fully since I'll be doing this every 3 or 4 months with a water change. Here's the steps I took. Added Gentle Spa and let jets run for 20 minutes. According to description, Gentle Spa improves water condition and adds fragrance and moisturizers. Then I added Metal Magic which is supposed to remove iron, copper, silver, and excessive hardness. I let jets run for 20 minutes before moving on. The next couple steps is where I'm confused. I added a sanitizer as instructed(Di-Chlor) to my tub and waited 30 minutes. After that, it instructs me to shock the water using Multi Magic. A quick google search told me that Multi Magic is their shock treatment, but my bottle says oxidizing shock, so I added that as instructed and waited 20 minutes. After all this and before starting frog, I wanted to check my chemistry, so using a test strip, I found that my hardness, alkalinity, and ph were all good, although on the high side. My total chlorine was showing 10+ ppm and my free chlorine was showing 20+ppm. Does it sound correct that I added chlorine then right after that, shocked it? The bottle for the oxidizing shock says it's a non-chlorine shock, but I was certain that the Di-chlor I added was the correct amount. Should my chlorine numbers have jumped so high? How long does it take for those numbers to come down to a safe level? Once they're at a safe level, I'm assuming that I can put the frog system in and that will maintain my chlorine levels? Thanks in advance for the help! Short Side-bar: While the color strips are easy, I'm more of an exact number type of person. Are there any good digital testers for hottubs/pools that someone could recommend? I've seen a couple on Amazon but it looks like they get bad reviews and the readings are not consistent.
  5. Good morning, Yesterday I purchased a Hot Springs hot tub which should be delivered in the next couple weeks. I have existing wiring for the old hot tub I had removed, but the wire gauge is only 10, and my new tubs manual suggests 8ga, but I also need 4 conductors, where the old only had 3. So my question is this. My new spa requires 50a to run, so I'll be buying new breakers for that. The manual also suggests 8ga wire for 2 hots and a neutral and 10ga for ground, but I had thought 8ga copper was only rated to 40 amps. A lot of wire suppliers say that even 6ga wire is only rated to 45 amps. So am I needing 8ga, 6ga, or even 4ga?
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