Water Wurld

I know this is an old topic but I am researching these sponges. I'm wondering which if any are made from wood? See this info about sponges made from silylated wood. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.8b05763

Thanks for those links, I'll check them out. Stopped at Wally Wurld today and I was surprised they had all the chemicals I needed except for the bromine. Dirt cheap too. Now looking for bromine source.

Taylor K-2106 test kit and the Pentair Chlorine/Bromine Floating Dispenser have been ordered. Hot tub arrives in a few days. Can't wait to ease my aches and pains. I wonder what tastes better in a hot tub, beer or wine?

New test results on water softener...it jumped from 17 ppm to 357 ppm today. Not what I expected, but now I know I really can't fine tune my system like I thought I could. I'll adjust it back so that it works like it used to. But, I can find that sweet spot so that I'm not wasting any more salt than needed. It was set at 25 gpg and recharging at every 200 gallons. Currently at 12, so the sweet spot is somewhere in between. I'm going to guess 400 gallons may be best between recharges. But, I can live with adding CH from <= 17 ppm as my starting point. This is so very interesting.

Thanks for your excellent feedback. I will digest the information.

And the reason why? Are any of the mineral sanitizers worth installing? My local dealer has the chlorine activated copper mesh kit for sell as well, but I'm not keen on chlorine.

Thanks for the info. I plan to use bromine. Any idea if this is worth installing? https://www.spadepot.com/Spa-Frog-Floating-System-P10241

waterbear, thanks for your comments. This is all new to me, and so a big experiment. Testing daily and still waiting for change. Salt usage should drop as I am reducing the recharge intervals. Still not sure if gpg will increase or not. I turned off the clock based charge, and the regeneration is now based on usage only. I started at 600 gallons, and now down to 400 gallons before recharge. It may take a few more days before I see it recharge. Test results still showing 17ppm. Peat moss works to lower CH, but not an easy (or wallet friendly) method. If I can safely raise the CH using soft water, that is my goal. So, I'm waiting to see what, if any, fine tuning I can do with my water softener can achieve. Hot tub arrives next week, so I'm collecting as much information as I can before it arrives.

The big experiment has started. I adjusted my water softener to use less salt. I have started a spreadsheet to track the changes. I will be testing my water daily for changes over time. My starting point is now 600 gallons per charge instead of 200 gallons. That should cut my salt usage back even more. I currently add salt about every 2 to 3 months. If this works, it should save me a lot of time and money.

My current water hardness test kit calculates (if my math is correct) 620 ppm, or 35 grains/gallon, very hard water. My water softener brings it down to less than 1 grain/gallon, which is quite soft. So then I now need to decide which is the best path for treatment. Go up or down. Which is easier to treat, a tub full of hard water, or a tub full of soft water? If I can adjust my water softener so that it produces 150 ppm, i might be in the ball park and it would also save me some salt. Interesting problem.

Greetings all, I'm planning to purchase a hot tub in a week or so and I'm researching the pros and cons of using soft water. I'm on a well with liquid rock hard water. I use a water softener to make life bearable as it easily destroys laundry, dishwashers, and other appliances. I understand there are chemicals to lower hardness and to raise hardness. So, now I'm wondering which is the lesser of two evils. I have yet to find any chart or guidance as to which is better. If my well water is so high I have to invest in huge quantities of chemicals to bring it down, I could well be better off with soft water and raise the hardness with less chemicals. I will need a test kit to confirm this, but I suspect I can save money and effort if I start with soft water and raise the hardness. After all, my water softener can be programmed to produce less soft water on demand. It may take some experimenting, but it could save me time and money in the long run. Just checking here first before I go off the deep end and hoping that some folks here might have experience testing both. Suggestions appreciated. Thanks