SPA-NUT

My current direction is lending me to look at using the Dichlor/Bleach method although the constant testing seems like a highly impractical option for the long term. I was initially provided with the Frog system and while I liked its lesser requirements of monitoring I did not care for the crazy swings it had as a result. I know there is no silver bullet here but was wondering if there is a happy medium option when it comes to testing and adjustment, perhaps every 3 days or so. Aside from the Dichlor/Bleach method what would be the other contenders. I believe bromine is another avenue but also heard it was recently banned in Canada for health issues, so that makes me a bit nervous about it... Please enlighten me

Thankyou yes, had another thread going and the subject was raised there and he answered with the Lamotte test strips.

I was reading the sticked water maintenance approach by Nitro Here. He mentions the addition of borates into the water chemistry, to serve as a buffer for your PH against aeration in addition to how TA helps stabilize our PH, that and it adds to the silkiness effect in water, both which appeals to me. He mentioned striving for 50ppm but unless I've overlooked it I'm not sure how to test for this, it doesn't seem like your typical parameter in our test kits (I have Taylor K2006 for example). How does one test for Borates?

I was reading the stickie post on Chlorine Demand which appears to have replies locked, which if that's the case is understandable. But I still have a question concerning testing CD. That being frequecny to test it, after a baseline is established the CD will change as CYA goes up but should that be checked say once a month or ?? What's a good rule of thumb?

I see so its more of a relationship then just a singular value, interesting. Seems I'm learning all sorts of new chemistry aspects

OK one more question regarding the Nitro's Post perhaps you know the answer to. There's recommendation to add borates to a value of 50ppm to act as a buffer and make the water feel silker. This sounds appealing to me but how does one test for borates? Perhaps I missed it in the post somewhere... Borates don't seem to be a typical test parameter in kits.

Thankyou Waterbear, I was obviously missing that key point of adding 34ppm in total over time as opposed to raising it to 34ppm as a delivery method to achieve the desired CYA levels. This makes a lot more sense now, guess I was on information overload yesterday and got sideways looking at everything. 😂 Sounds like my next step is to test my water parameters again and see if my FC and CC has fallen down in level. That and to see where my FC demand is at. What is maximum FC for entering water? I've read elsewhere 5 but then also info stating at 10 it fades swimsuits, seems like in Nitro's writeup he states "The rule of thumb is, assuming CYA is 20-30 ppm, FC should normally be between 3-6, with a min of 1 and shock to 12 once a week" but also states some examples of a party needing 7ppm and 20ppm per person per hour under differing conditions. So is there a dangerous level of FC to enter the water? I follow you in these examples we are building a high level up to act as a buffer for the high demands but the comment i read elsewhere of 10ppm fading swimsuit leads me to believe there is a problem with entering the water with to high of an FC. Could you or somebody please elaborate on FC values more. Thank you all for this information on these forums

So I recently purchased a new 225g spa, it came with the Frog @Ease system. We didn't care for it / could never get dispensing to be consistent either poor water quality or harsh chemical effects. I purged the system after the freebie cartridge ran low and started anew. I've been doing my own regiment now for almost a month (9/28). After much reading I opted to go with trying the Nature2 mineral system and MPS as my oxidizer with this new fill. In the process mistakes where made... I misunderstood the relationship between the MPS and need of Chlorine. I had this understanding that you could substitute the Chlorine with a Non-Chlorine product. I quickly learned I need to activate the system with Dichlor, I was like ok that's just an activation... I then went on to use the spa with a weekly test practice and dumping my MPS as a form of shock the following week (😰). Needless to say the water quality went south quick and I knew something was off and began digging. Fast forward to now after shocking the system properly with DiChlor and getting parameters back in line I'm questioning the whole aspect of MPS vs going straight Chlorine given my false understanding. That said, In the interim I wouldn't mind giving it a fair go for a bit now that I have a better understanding (I hope :P) of things, not to mentioned already having purchased products. But what brings me to this post is my FC value, I tested it a few times today with mid day being at 12.2 and this evening being at 10.0. I was thinking that was way high given the ideal value of 2-4ppm (from Taylor K2006) but then I noticed in nitro's post HERE stating to use Dichlor to continually raise FC til 34 then swapping to Bleach, this is obviously much higher than 4ppm. My test kit's limit for FAS-DPD testing is limited in range from 0-20ppm for FC, so now I'm totally confused. I could really use some help as I feel like I'm hitting information overload and not knowing which way is up anymore. I do have the Taylor Deox Reagent for MPS testing, while it involves a good deal more drops I would like to continue to use that system a bit longer to see how it goes, maybe 4 weeks putting me at least to the 2month mark on this fill. Then or thereabouts I'd like to swap over to the Dichlor/Bleach method but I'm not sure If I would need to do a system flush early at that point to see how things are absent of MPS all together, especially on the testing side. I'm still somewhat dumbfounded by the MPS needing Chlorine and trying to wrap my head around what's the point then of it... Here are my latest test results 10/13: Temp 99d TA 90ppm Ph 7.6 FC 10.0 CC 0.4 (waiting to see if this falls further after early day shock) MC 3.0 CYA 30ppm (as of 9/28 - not retested today ) CH 140ppm (as of 9/28 - not retested today)