thecanadiran

Is this foam though? They go away after we turn off the jets and the water is clear. 1) We shower before and after use 2) Just rinse the bathing suits with water. I've used small amount of defoamer and instantly bubbles go away. Is it okay to keep using the defoamer product? What is in it and are there any alternatives I can use? Is this bubbling because of soft water or low TA?

This is what I'm getting with the jets on. Here are the test results: CH: 166 TA: 60 pH: 7.5 BR: 2 Defoamer takes care of them, but they reappear next use when the jets run. Any tips? Found this video which suggests chemical imbalance. Is this a reliable source?

Following up on my post, I haven't had the past issue of pH creeping up to 8+ so that's good news. TA is around 60 and pH is around 7.4-7.6. The only issue I have is huge amount of bubbles whenever I turn on the jets. Is this foam? They go away after we turn off the jets and the water is clear. 1) We shower before and after use 2) Just rinse the bathing suits with water. I've used small amount of defoamer and instantly bubbles go away. Is it okay to keep using the defoamer product? What is in it and are there any alternatives I can use? Is this bubbling because of soft water or low TA?

Have you tried shocking with bleach to activate the existing sodium bromide?

Thanks for your post. This answered my question in my own post. Different spa stores specially the ones who offer water test suggest to keep the TA in 120-150 range. However, similar to your case, my tub's pH would drift higher in the 8.x range (even after bringing down with acid). Since reading @waterbear's post about TA and pH, I've been intentionally keeping TA in the 60-70 range and my pH is ~7.6. Lowest I've seen it was 7.2 but after a while it goes up by itself to 7.6. I occasionally take a water sample to the store where I buy chemicals and they mention that the pH and TA is too low. Makes you uneasy...

Hello all! Another Canadian here (Hi Luc @llamarche) and would like to thank this forum for all the help and great advice. I'm a new owner of a hot tub which came with our house (340 Gallon Master Spa). I've switched to @waterbear's 3 step Bromine method after discovering this forum. Before this, I drained and cleaned the tub and filters, started with sequestering product for scale, Bromine granules and Bromine tablet to build the bromide bank. Everyday after use or every 3 days, I followed what the hot tub stores told me and shocked with bromine granules. Then when I noticed the Bromine in the tub is high, I changed to shocking with MPS. Since reading the 3-step method, I've switched to shocking with bleach - first Great Value unscented non-laundry bleach which in Canada doesn't state the %, then liquid chlorine 10%. I'm using poolcalculator to balance the water. I struggled with high pH and here were my numbers: CH: 187 TA: 120 pH: 8.3 BR: 5.2 Borates: 25ppm After running calculations, added recommended volume of dry acid to bring down the pH to 7.0-7.2 and then aerate to increase pH. Here are my numbers now. (pH with calibrated pH meter, Bromine is high because of my weekly shock with bleach): CH: 166 TA: 70 pH: 7.6 BR: 10.95 Is this the right range and water balanced? According to pool calculator CSI is 0.64 (Scaling likely). I tried to play with TA and pH in the calculator but can't figure out how to get it to 0 (balanced) P.S. Do I stop listening to the hot tub stores who say the ideal range of TA is 120-150 and pH 7.2-7.6? According to them I need to add quite a bit of Alk up (baking soda) to bring the TA up and then small amount of pH decreaser (acid) to bring down the pH.