dashmer

Hello HTST, I see none of our forum experts seem to be around these days (@waterbear) and I still consider myself to be low on the hot tub expertise ladder, but did not want to see your request for help go unanswered. I am not familiar with using Bromine, I have been using the Dichlor then bleach method for the last 6 months with excellent results. The experts in this forum frown on the use of test strips for anything more than ball parking your water chemistry. You should invest in a taylor test kit. I use K-2006 for chlorine but I know they have one for Bromine testing as well. You will need to test your water nearly daily in the beginning until you understand how much Br you use during your daily dips and how much residual free bromine you have the next day. Hardness is important to your water balance and having too much or too little can cause adverse effects in your tub. With too little your water will attack your heater and other parts of your tub to find hardness. Too much can lead to scaling and other water problems. Your number does not look too crazy high. I keep mine lower but I think you are OK with that. Your pH is low and that might be due to your use of MPS daily, which might be overkill. MPS is an oxidizer/non chlorine shock that you would only add after high bather loads or weekly as part of your maintenance. Where your TA is on the high normal range, you should try aerating the water to see if you can bring the pH up that way. Adding pH up will raise your TA as well. I understand that enzymes can help with non living organic waste, such as body oils, etc. preventing scum rings and improving water quality. I would hold off on that for now until you get your water balance addressed. You mentioned that you are enforcing showers and rinsed suits, etc. so you may not have much of a problem anyway. There are some good sticky articles on this forum on the use of bromine and how to adjust TA and pH etc. You should have a read of those to look for good tips on water care. Hope this helps.

Bassie, Did you ever get to the bottom of this issue? I have the identical film that only appears if the air has been turned on and it dissipates several minutes after the pumps are switched off. Does not seem to be a problem other than being a bit unsightly. Thanks

In the year or so of following this forum has always been busy with lots of questions and answers. Where did everyone go?

Welcome to the forum. Best of luck with the new tub.

I have been using the dichlor then bleach method now for 5 months and am very happy with how it is going. I have found that 2.5 - 3 fl oz of 10% pool chlorine gives me the perfect residual the next day after 2 bathers in the tub for a ~ 45 min soak. On occasion with 4 bathers, I have increased to 5 - 6 fl oz. I am expecting 6 bathers this weekend and am concerned about going higher than 6 fl oz (13 ppm). Is 13 ppm CL a good place to start after the soak and then redose the next morning or should I go higher than 13? Water is balanced with: TA 65 pH 7.8 CH 160 CYA 30 BOR 40 99 degrees. UVC but no ozone 360 gal Thanks.

Sounds like dissolved air in the water from the jets....assuming you are running air with the jets.

DaveP, For comparison, I have a 360 gal tub with UV. I typically add about 3 or 3.5 fl oz of 10% pool chlorine (6.5-7 ppm) daily if my wife and I use the tub each day. We are usually in it for about 30 min or so. Temp is 99. By the time we get in the next day, residual is about 2-3 ppm. Recently, we were going on vacation and decided to change the water the week before we went. We did not use the tub that week at all and I measured our Cl demand as about 35%. Each day the residual Cl dropped by 35% of what it was the day before. I was able to have a neighbor dose the tub for me based on that CD while were were away and came back to about 2ppm as we expected. If your is dramatically worse that that, you may want to perform the decontamination process that is described in the sticky. Something is definitely consuming your chlorine. I assume your filters are clean.... Good luck.

You are doing very well to maintain a pH that low with a TA of 100. I need to keep mine at 70 in order to keep the pH at 7.8. How much and what type of bleach are you using per bather hour? Also, have you purged your tub recently?

DarylA, Sounds like you and I are on the identical path only I was where you are a couple months ago. My first water was run on beachcomber advice and chemicals. Dichlor then bleach method is working great for me. If you do go that route, get yourself a shotstigo bottle from Amazon for dosing the chlorine. Best $20 I have spent on the tub.

Thanks waterbear. Great info.

@waterbear, what PPM of FC do you recommend shocking to? I am hoping to be away for 8 or 9 days this summer and may not have anyone to dose the tub while I am away. Thanks

Going back to the problem of salt corroding the heater, is there sufficient salt buildup in 3-4 months of using the dichlor then bleach method to cause problems with an incoloy heater?

Thanks waterbear. Appreciate your experience and advice.

Thanks @waterbear. I was hoping to hear from you. Glad you corrected my belief that Carefree included MPS. They advertise it as a 4 in 1 non-chlorine oxidizer, sequestering agent, biofilm disruptor and clarifier. I was not aware that there were multiple flavors of non chlorine shock. It may be coincidence but my wife has complained about skin irritation a couple of times and now that I think about it, it may have been close to when it was treated with Carefree. I think we will stop using the product and see if her issues disappear. Do these chemicals dissipate over time? Is MPS less likely to irritate skin than the chemical in Carefree for when and if it is needed? On my first water fill and when using this product along with dichlor, I was constantly needing to raise my TA/pH so what you said makes sense. Back to the borates, are there impacts of going beyond 50ppm? And what would cause the tub to lose borate ppm other than carry out of water? The lamotte test kit you mention is in scare supply, at least from companies in Canada or elsewhere that will ship economically. I think I am close to 30 ppm by dead reckoning. Thanks again.

Hello, I have some questions about using other products I have on hand and if they are compatible with the dichlor then bleach method. First, an outline of where I am at the moment: Second hot tub water fill and first using the dichlor then bleach method. Now 1.5 weeks in. 360 gal beachcomber tub Using 10.3% sodium hypochlorite (pool bleach). TA:70, CH 160, pH 7.6 tub is used daily On fresh fill, as per manufacturer recommendation, I added dichlor, carefree (non chlorine shock plus some other properties) and 13 tablespoons of soft (boric acid). The MSDS sheets for carefree and soft are below. Carefree: Soft: With the dichlor then bleach method I know using borates and MPS are recommended/suggested. After 1 week I added 1.5 oz carefree (MPS) and am planning to continue to do this on a weekly basis. Is this good practice? With the 13 tablespoons of soft added at start up, I am thinking that I have enough borates in there now. Is there any harm in adding more? My wife likes the scent of the product. Thanks in advance.