Newbie Help

[quizkid22]

Hi guys/ladies-

Found this on a web search so I hope you can help. Neighbor gave me her old hot tub. 300 gallon leisure rite. Put some love into it and got it up and going. Flushed the system 3 times..once with spa system flush. Cleaned the shell...finally filled. I choose to use Cleanwater Blue...yes, I have read the other posts about it. I've done everything by the book. Including Sea Klear. Started great, of course. Almost two weeks into it now with some decent use, and my water is cloudy and I get a bubble bath. Here are the specifics:

60PPM TA....7.4 PH...copper .9PPM. I use a Zorbo foam thing as well. I use 1-2 tablespoon of non chlorine shock every time I use it. I've read the other posts on here and I have used dichlor once per week...1 teaspoon. Am I over doing it on my chemicals ?? Any ideas...hopes?? Other than ditching cleanwater blue....I'm going to give it a shot for a while.

Last night I added 2 teaspoon full of dichlor and 2 oz. of sea klear. I did not check it this morning...one more thing..I filter for 6 hours...2 hours 3 times a day.

[waterbear]

Cleanwater Blue is NOT a sanitizer (it's merely chelated copper)....MPS (non chlorine shock) is NOT a sanitizer! There are only 3 EPA registered sanitizers for hot tubs....chlorine, bromine, and biguanide! Copper can kill algae and has some bacteriostatic effects (but no action against viruses) but very slow kill times. .9 ppm copper is enough to cause staining of the spa and your hair and nails (Green!) if your pH goes high or y our chlorine actually gets to a workable shock level.

Your water is cloudy and foamy because of the bacteria and organics in it. 2 terasoons of dichlor once a week is hardly shock level. For 300 gallons 1 1/2- 2 tablespoons is more like it. This will bring the freee chlorine up to about 10 ppm and that is considered shock level. I teaspoon of dichlor is the MINIMUM I would put in before each use. This will bring your free chlorine up in the neighborhood of 2 ppm, which is the minimim safe level of chlorine that most state health departments now recommend to make sure that water borne pathgens are killed quickly. 4 ppm would be better.

If you want to continue using the cleanwater blue then I suggest that you ditch the MPS and use dichlor or sodium hypochlorite (liquid chlorine or bleach) with it. Be careful of stains, however, since they are a real possiblility. Copper and MPS will NOT keep a spa santized!

Believe it or not, chlorine is probably the easiest way to maintain a spa with the least amount of problems.

[quizkid22]

So..in a nutshell....

I should tonight use 2tbsp. of Dichlor....every time I use it 1tsp. and monitor my ph and TA then right ?? Do I still need the see klear?? What about scale reducer?? Any other opinions?? I'm open to all....I bought the cleanwater blue system...I'm looking for straight forward answers how I should take care of my tub if this is not the correct/best/cheapest/easiest way. thanks.....

[DGmarie]

So..in a nutshell....

I should tonight use 2tbsp. of Dichlor....every time I use it 1tsp. and monitor my ph and TA then right ?? Do I still need the see klear?? What about scale reducer?? Any other opinions?? I'm open to all....I bought the cleanwater blue system...I'm looking for straight forward answers how I should take care of my tub if this is not the correct/best/cheapest/easiest way. thanks.....

I am not an expert by any means. But what I'm doing is pretty simple. I shock weekly with 2 T of shock, add 1T water clarifier, and 3T of stain and scale. That's it. I don't add anything after use. I am in the spa about three times per week, no suntan lotion or anything. Our water has a high Ph, high Alk and lots of iron. When I started it fresh, I added some bromine concentrate, some Ph down over a period of a week, and stain and scale. Since then it is spa chemicals on Sunday and bromine in the floater. It's never been cloudy and only got foamy when the alk went too low after adding some Spa Silken (never again!). I do't have an onzonater or anything fancy.