Ok I have done some reading and got suitably freaked out about biofilm, white mould, chlorine gas inhalation etc etc! I have also run pipe cleaner through the tub, drained it and refilled it again, it’s now up to temperature and ready to start with new chemistry. I’m hopeful that we don’t need any more drastic decontamination procedures at this stage as we haven’t had any skin or health concerns and the tub is still fairly new (bought Oct 2020), with this being about our 3rd water change.
So my questions now are:
1) How do I gauge our chlorine demand when I was told not to worry about the chlorine reading because of the ozone system, and to just put in 2tsp of dichlor per week and after high usage or cloudy water? Initially we tried using extra dichlor but our CYA levels went too high. Should I add bleach instead of dichlor for this reason? Or can a different form of chlorine or bromine be used to get around this issue?
2) What are borates used for?
3) I’m confused about the relationship between TA and PH. By raising my TA to 100-150ppm as recommended, am I also increasing my PH? I have constant issues with high PH readings above 8 and am constantly adding PH Decrease only to have it shoot right back up again the next day.
Thanks!