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Found 16 results

  1. I developed the below sanitizing routine over the past 16 years with my Marquis 450 gallon spa and it worked well. I am purchasing a new Sundance 980 Lisbon (370 gallon) and am planning to use the same routine (scaled down by 20% for less water) but want to corroborate with others the science behind what I've been doing. Aside from water health, my goal is to have the minimum amount of chlorine in my water. My routine: Nature 2 plus changed every 4 months Initial Fill Only: 2 tsp of sodium dichlor (3ppm) - wait an hour then add 1/2 cup of MPS Shock weekly with MPS (3/8 cup = 3oz) Add 2 tbsp of MPS mid week if heavy use. Ozonator This is my understanding of how it works and what I'd like clarification on: With the initial water fill, the chlorine binds to contaminants and is turned into chloramines. The weekly MPS shock pulls the contaminants from the chloramines and frees up the chlorine to be active again - but in a minimal amount. The Nature 2 does the rest of the job of sanitizing along with the Ozonator. The new Sundance will also have UV. As I understand it, this method is difficult to detect the level of chlorine (free or combined), so I'm going by the seat of my pants - and water clarity. I also don't understand what the MPS turns into after added to the water and what accumulates over time because of it. Other tidbits that probably have something to do with the balance, and I'm including just to make sure I've given all relevant info: My water is naturally soft (10 ppm Calcium) and I have to add a fair degree of Calcium at startup. My water was frequently basic and I had to add a small amount (1 tbsp) of dry acid to balance. Alkalinity was always low. If I tried to get above 60 ppm (using baking soda), the tub would get too basic. I chose keeping the pH balanced and occasionally added baking soda to increase alkalinity to 60 ppm. Thanks in advance for any insights.
  2. I recently emptied and refilled our hot tub and decided to use SpaBoss PH Stable for the first time. In the past our PH has bounced around and this product says it helps with that so I thought I'd give the product a try. I used it per the instructions on refilling it. After the product had been in the hot tub for more than 24 hours I tested it and found the hardness was too low so I added SpaBoss Cal-Rise. It turned the water cloudy (which the PH Stable instructions said could happen) and I kept rinsing the filter, after 12 or so hours the cloudiness went away. After I was left with a film/grit on the inside of the hot tub (also had residual calcium flakes on the bottom of the tub which I scooped out). I keep wiping it down with a rag and rinsing the filter. Now, one week later I just did the weekly shock and tested the water - hardness level is still too low, I suspect adding Cal-Rise will result the same as it did a week ago with cloudy water, flakes at the bottom, etc. What should I do?
  3. I have read a lot of info on converting a pool back to chlorine, but would like some input on whether we are headed in the right direction. After using Baquacil successfully for 19 years (I have heard this might be some kind of a record), this year when we opened the pool we had nothing but problems and were told by the pool store we had to drain or convert. We have a 21x41 above ground oval pool with a deep end. Since we knew usually Baquacil users end up switching back we decided this was our time. When we started the conversion our levels were Baquacil Shock - 0, Baquacil sanitizer - 9. We got the pH and Alkalinity adjusted and shocked with a non-chlorine shock. We then began shocking nightly with a chlorine shock. That was 10 days ago. I have read that it takes a lot of shock or bleach and a lot of time. For the past three days the FC has held till morning (shocking in the evenings) at about 3 and the complete chlorine is .5-1 in the mornings, but by evening the FC is back down to 0. We have been keeping the pH and Alk adjusted and our hardness and other parameters are ok by our tests as well as the pool store. Are we on the right track, are we close, and is there anything we can do so we can get in the pool and wipe the drool off the faces of several kids? Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. (By the way the pool went through kind of a dark greenish blue color, but for the past week has been a pretty blue, just really cloudy, but I am told this is because we can't add the stabilizer/conditioner yet).
  4. Hi all. I’ve been reading the boards for about a month now with my new softub 220. We use it about 1-3 times a week. My dealer has a very hands off approach to water chemistry. (Add a cap of dichlor after every use, keep ph in range, everything else will sort itself out). After reading the boards, you could understand I’m suspect of the dealers advice. Softub warranty prevents any shocking and they do not recommend using any MPS as the low ph causes issues with the tub liner. We’re on the first fill still, started with dichlor and transitioned to using the frog@ease. Ph has required moderate effort to keep in range by adding here and decreasing there, but TA has been very difficult to keep up. It drops to 0 in 2 days. Stabilizer has been at zero since day 1, but the dealer said don’t worry about it. Is this normal? All the boards I’ve read talk about HOW to increase/decrease TA, but I’m not seeing anything saying how OFTEN people are adjusting for TA. If my TA is so volatile, I’m sure that’s affecting my PH. At this point I can’t imagine not testing daily because things get out of hand every other day. How do you all set up your ph/TA so you can only check weekly?
  5. Hi there I have been struggling with high ph but good alkalinity levels. Alkalinity is in perfect range as is the hardness and sanitizer ( use bromine) but ph is consistently high. I lower it with ph minus and it comes down to normal but then within a day it is high again. Any recommendations on how to deal with this?
  6. Hello everyone, We bought a Caldera Geneva spa a few months ago and have been more than pleased with it. We also bought a drop test kit as recommended here. We started out on dichlor only but quickly ran into issues of high readings and potential over stabilization. As a result we switched to dichlor then bleach on our water change about 3 weeks ago. Got our CYA to 30-40ish based on measuring a fixed amount of dichlor the switch to plain 8.25% bleach. Bleach is added slowly with the the water running. Noticed today that the area where I normally add the bleach (in middle as much as possible but really over lounger) there is a rough patch. Worried I’ve damaged the shell from the bleach! I didn’t think this was possible, but maybe it settled there? Our water chemistry is as follows: CH about 100 TA: 40 pH: 7.5 and stable CYA: 40ish Any advice is welcome! I don’t want to switch back to dichlor but don’t want to risk damaging our new tub either. Thanks in advance.
  7. Good evening, I'm having a major problem with my free chlorine and wanted to come here before I give up and drain the thing. I've had this hot tub for about 2 months now and I was able to easily get my water chemistry all set. History: I am using the Frog system which is built into my hot springs. I tossed in some chlorine before taking a week vacation last week and now I'm home but can't seem to level it out. I noticed that Frog had emptied at some point during vacation and there was a slight BO smell to the water, but was clear and I did not see any buildup on the walls. I first noticed that my pH and alkalinity were extremely low. So I successfully brought those up to the proper values. My current Frog is empty for the Chlorine part, so I have more on order and have been supplementing with DiChlor. 2 nights ago I did a shock treatment to get my values set before taking a dip and noticed that my FC was 0. So I added a batch of dichlor and called it a night. I also soaked my filter in a solution overnight and made sure I rinsed it well before re-installing the next day. Last night, I went to take a dip and again, noticed the FC tanked to 0. This time, I did a super Chlor and brought the FC value up to 10ppm. Tonight, I came back for a dip and again, the FC was 0. My Total Chlorine is about 3ppm, Alkalinity is around 100, pH appears to be about 7.4, and hardness is around 250. What the heck is going on? I just did a super super chlorinate and brought my FC up to 20ppm and my TC was over the scale. Anyone experience this? I failed chemistry twice in college, but I'm excellent at following directions. My spa was purchased brand new, is a Hot Springs Relay, holds 345 gallons, and I keep it around 103 degrees. What can I do to fix this chemistry without draining, or is a drain the only way? Also, maybe a newb question, but what can I do to prevent this from happening again? Do I need to shock or chlorinate after each use? My current routine right now is check chemistry every few days since I think I can trust the Frog system, and before vacation, that was working well. Every few times I'd use the tub I'd toss in a shock treatment about 20 minutes before getting in.
  8. Hi all, first time poster. So I had a hot tub growing up, but never really took part in the maintenance being a kid (although drainage and scrubbing was all on me 👌). That led to me wanting one again as an adult. I don't have a lot of room and I rent, so I found an mspa b141 "4 person" hot tub. (quotes because I can't even figure out how 4 people can actually fit it in! Not just space wise, the water almost overflows with 3!). That is an inflatable Hot tub for those wondering. So like most people, learning how to deal with balancing and water chemistry isn't instant, but through research and trial/error, I got the hang of it. I test my water fairly religiously and everytime before I go in, and manually clean debris + adjust chemistry as needed. The tub is apparently around 700L capacity. The last week or so however, I've been having a weird issue with free chlorine spiking. I use an aquachek digital tester and a standard test kit (adding chemicals to sample and comparing colors) as backup. The readings are accurate. I use chlorine tabs that are stabilized and they have worked perfectly, and the dosage is right. My ph is usually balanced, but tends to push towards the high 6s before I treat. Without adding a different dose or changing anything, I started getting free chlorine readings in the 7-9.8 range! Ph usually between 6.9-7.7, alkalinity around 100-130. I can bring it down by removing the chlorine tab floater, adding water, leaving it open for the sun etc.... But as soon as I put the chlorine back in, it will climb to those high levels within the day. I've shocked it with non chlorine shock which does not change the behaviour, and tried to put a less than recommended dose in. So I'm at a confused point here. This is free chlorine to be clear, and the numbers are apparently correct.
  9. Good morning, I just fired up my tub for the first time and have some chemistry questions. I failed chemistry in school so I am by no means a water chemist. However, I'm really good at following directions and finding the correct information and am having a little trouble finding a clear answer for my specific question. Details below. I received a couple items with the purchase of my new Hot Springs spa. I received the inline cartridges for the Frog system. I also received a startup kit for pro team spa. Talking to my dealer, they instructed me to follow the instructions for startup on the Pro team spa package, and then start the Frog system. So that's what I did, up until the Frog. I figured I'll want to get this down and understand it fully since I'll be doing this every 3 or 4 months with a water change. Here's the steps I took. Added Gentle Spa and let jets run for 20 minutes. According to description, Gentle Spa improves water condition and adds fragrance and moisturizers. Then I added Metal Magic which is supposed to remove iron, copper, silver, and excessive hardness. I let jets run for 20 minutes before moving on. The next couple steps is where I'm confused. I added a sanitizer as instructed(Di-Chlor) to my tub and waited 30 minutes. After that, it instructs me to shock the water using Multi Magic. A quick google search told me that Multi Magic is their shock treatment, but my bottle says oxidizing shock, so I added that as instructed and waited 20 minutes. After all this and before starting frog, I wanted to check my chemistry, so using a test strip, I found that my hardness, alkalinity, and ph were all good, although on the high side. My total chlorine was showing 10+ ppm and my free chlorine was showing 20+ppm. Does it sound correct that I added chlorine then right after that, shocked it? The bottle for the oxidizing shock says it's a non-chlorine shock, but I was certain that the Di-chlor I added was the correct amount. Should my chlorine numbers have jumped so high? How long does it take for those numbers to come down to a safe level? Once they're at a safe level, I'm assuming that I can put the frog system in and that will maintain my chlorine levels? Thanks in advance for the help! Short Side-bar: While the color strips are easy, I'm more of an exact number type of person. Are there any good digital testers for hottubs/pools that someone could recommend? I've seen a couple on Amazon but it looks like they get bad reviews and the readings are not consistent.
  10. I've read alllllll of the "How To" threads, used the search function, etc. I can't seem to find this addressed in water chemistry. This is my first spa and I inherited it from the previous home owners. (Yes, I have decontaminated it.) In the winter I will keep my spa at 100 degrees, but during the warmer months I find it refreshing to keep it below 90 degrees - even 80-85. In terms of chemistry (pH, Cl, Alk, etc.) what changes with this? I know this is a broad question - I just don't know what to be more specific about. Thank you.
  11. I have my chemistry done just right, I run a brand new bromine tub.. is it normal to always have a small amount of bubbles and tiny brown/white bubble scum like floating around during your hot tub usage? Perhaps if anything my bromine is a little high at times still learning how to manage that... filter is new, cleaned every week minimum, I shock after usage.. non chlorine shock,, total hardness is good, ph and alkalinity is good... ideal... even tested from local shop weekly. I'm in it daily for 2 hours, plus sometimes for 40 minutes with my 2 year old and 4 year old... my wife and I go it it every night for at least 45 minutes.. I was hoping to have friends in it this weekend for my party, I just want to ensure I have a nice clean tub and safe tub for my guests. I just the dazzel spa products line for all my chem.. my tub us 215 gallons, Freeflow Spa, Cascina Hot Tub 4 person. Maybe I will jump in it now and try to take some pictures.. show you what I'm referring too. Ok see images here https://goo.gl/photos/27XJzLbrHigvyGLr5
  12. Hello, I have a Bullfrog X6R 291 gallon hot tub. I put 1.5 ounces of Leisure Time Sodium Bromide as an initial shock when filling. Once a week I add three Leisure Time chlorine-free Renew Tabs. I have a floating dispenser in which I use Leisure Time Brom Tabs (usually just one at a time, because otherwise the bromine level gets extremely high). I'm using Leisure Time bromine test strips. Normally, the above recipe keeps the bromine levels around the right range. However, in the past week the bromine level has plummeted. Adding an additional Brom Tab has brought it up just a little bit but not very far, and it fell back down again to almost nothing. What am I doing wrong?
  13. Hotsprings instructs users to put all chemicals only into the filter compartment. We are using bromine granules, and coincidentally?? the only time my water remained clear is after I put the bromine in the main tub area rather than filer area. Is this a coincidence? Background I have a new hotsprings Pulse spa and the water was cloudy after several days. I discovered the installer put the ozonator check valve in backwards. After many attempts with dealer to fix the chemistry, we finally drained and refilled tub, Then followed all instructions and water became cloudy after a few days, I proceeded to put in bromine 2.5 tablespoons for 380 gal tub. After 16 hours no free bromine detected. Ph 7.2 and alkalinity 122 water still cloudy Next I put in 4 tablespoons (super shock) but this time directly into tub not thru filter area (I also changed filter) Note "older" filter is only 1 month old and has been rinsed every week. Left cover off for 6 hours. Now finally water is clear. What was the problem?? Filter, putting bromine into filter area, check valve? other?? Lastly Should I switch to tablets or chlorine
  14. Hi My water is very low Alkalinity (40-50) and high pH (~7.9 or 8). I can not seem to get the TA up to 80 and the pH down to 7.6. I am using baking soda (sodium bicarb) to increase alkalinity and Spa Down (sodium bisulphate) to bring pH down. bringing pH down brings TA down, bringing TA up brings pH up. Appreciate help and suggestions. If there is an existing thread on this topic, please point me to the comments and wisdom. thanks
  15. Hello all, new to the forum, also a new pool owner. I have never had a pool and bought a house that has a salt water pool. We have only owned it for 4 days and decided to check on thepool. It seems there was some mismanagement by the prior owner. I will give you rundown of the equipment and the chemistry. I am having all sorts of issues. Pool is: 30000 gallon Gunite Saltwater chemistry Water is pretty clear Chemistry as tested at Leslie's: FAC 0 TAC 0 Salt 600 ppm CH 90 ppm CYA 0 TA 80 pH 8 Iron and Copper are both 0 Phosphates is 300 ppb Now for the equipment issues: Aquapure 1400 throws the following service codes 144 - low salinity (seems obvious given the low salt level) 172 - Flow Sensor Service 186 - Flow Salinity Sensor/temperature probe error I guess my main question is, could the lack of salt be the reason for all of the codes. My thinking is the sensors require higher salinity to function properly. It has no chlorine, so I am going to throw some acid to bring pH down and shock to get some chlorine in there. Thanks in advance for helping the new guy out.
  16. Hi all. I am new to this forum and hoping to get some feed back from real hot tub and pool users. A little over a year ago I started building a hot tub and or pool monitor in my spare time. After testing different temperature sensors, numerous pH and ORP probes, software programs, and hardware setups, I have come up with a simple and reliable design. I am in the beginning stages of publishing how to build your own monitor. You do not need electronics experiences to build one, just basic soldering skills, editing some programming and some curiosity. The project is posted here: http://openspamonitor.blogspot.com/ The Overview section and Documentation section explain the most. After reading about the project, please feel free to respond to one or all open ended questions. If you can, elaborate when possible. Don't hold back, I don't want to build something no one will use. Would this be a useful tool in your everyday life? How? What is your biggest problem when managing your pool or spa water? Has a commercial monitor like this interested you before? Did you buy or not buy and why? Do you see any advantages to building your own monitor? Other feed back and initial impressions are welcome. Anyone interested in building, discussing, starting a group in the future about this monitor please let me know. Post feed back on this forum topic or my blog. If you send me feedback, thank you in advance for taking the time. Thanks, Brian
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