New Spa Owner

[Jemill]

I've had my Caldera Niagra since the end of November and maintaining the water seems more difficult than it should be. Chlorine never lasts more than 24 hours and now I have an underwater fog going on.

I was away for five days so the water wasn't maintained. When I returned last night, the water was pretty cloudy. I shocked it and now have everything in balance and added Leisure Time Bright & Clear, but it's still cloudy.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

[B0Darc]

I've had my Caldera Niagra since the end of November and maintaining the water seems more difficult than it should be. Chlorine never lasts more than 24 hours and now I have an underwater fog going on.

I was away for five days so the water wasn't maintained. When I returned last night, the water was pretty cloudy. I shocked it and now have everything in balance and added Leisure Time Bright & Clear, but it's still cloudy.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

Welcome to the club! Water maintenance while complex at first becomes more automatic and feels simple to me now after following some of the advice immediately below in this part of the forum. Basically to oversimplify, you can easily be lead to add numerous band-aid solutions to fix individual problems which only in turn create another problem. Knowing the proper sequence of setup and maintenance makes all problems go away. Your dealer may not be the best source as he is in the business of selling chemicals and water testing, which once you have the knowledge is easily performed yourself. Once properly setup (from fresh water the first week or two) it's a breeze! and VERY inexpensive. After reading this post take some time to read down below. Everyone asks the same questions and the answers are different for each type of sanitation/filtration.

Once you have a proper test kit, you will be able to approach the *real* issues because you just won't be approaching the spa as "Cloudy" or "green" ...and yes you'll be adding chlorine each day, but I have switched to bleach and I add about 3 oz of household bleach every time I get out. when I get back in 24 hours later my water is perfect and has very little if any chlorine smell... so I *want* my chlorine to dissipate each day.

Once a week I use MPS type Shock Oxidizer and then clean my filters with a brisk blasting garden hose and a trip through my dishwasher with unscented regular Cascade on Rinse cycle only with the heat drying turned off. I have not had one complication since. ..but again I am oversimplifying. You have more to read from the pool and Spa professionals like "chem geek"! It's really not so complicated, but may be over the ability or inclination of your current source of Training... your Spa dealer. "Yeah you don't need to buy $50 worth of chemicals from me! You can just buy $3 worth of Clorox..." You've come to the right place.

[Emprov]

Yep to everything that B0Darc said. I too am a new spa owner and am just starting to get a handle on the whole chemical thing. I can be pretty confusing at first but you'll get it quickly enough. There are a few here who have been extremely helpful, Chem geek is the first to come to mind, so read the threads and try to pick up the lingo -- you'll have it down in no time.

[TinyBubbles]

I've had my Caldera Niagra since the end of November and maintaining the water seems more difficult than it should be. Chlorine never lasts more than 24 hours and now I have an underwater fog going on.

I was away for five days so the water wasn't maintained. When I returned last night, the water was pretty cloudy. I shocked it and now have everything in balance and added Leisure Time Bright & Clear, but it's still cloudy.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

The chlorine not lasting more than 24 hours is normal, especially if you are using the tub. Five days away is a long time with no sanitizer. Did you add extra before you left? I did that before a 5 day trip and everything was ok. I ran my ozonator 24 hours and had a nature2 cartridge. I got cloudy water on my 2nd refill after using fastgloss on the spa. I added bright and clear and ran jets and nothing really happened. I left the jets running for an hour and ended up with crystal clear water. I, also, rinsed the filters several times during the process. Did you shock the spa with mps or chlorine? Shocking with mps is fine for organics, but without sanitizer in the spa for 5 days, you might need a super dose of chlorine. Good luck and don't worry, you'll get the hang of it. There is definately a learning curve. Oh yeah, turn the temperature down when you leave next time. The chlorine will last longer.