Stevie Wonder Posted January 25, 2009 Report Share Posted January 25, 2009 Ok,, I finally did my first water change,, a little late,, I was told 4 to 6 months.. but its just the two of us and the water #'s were perfect,, also the last 2 month has had almost no use due to poor weather.. And haven't even used it for a while. We had an ice storm followed by several snows and the cover was just too heavy to open,, I cleared the snow but was unable to clear all the ice.. Had about 1 solid inch on the cover. I could just lift it enough to check on the water and such once a week. We had a day above freezing Friday,, 41 actually,, way better than the -17 we saw last week at night. I drained and filled the tub. I used a filter on the hose and have a whole house filter also as we do have a well. The #'s are close, ph is at 6 and hardness is 15 and total chlorine is close to the right color on the test strip. I added metal remover when I filled as I did the first time.. and added chlorine. The water has a greenish brown tint to it.. I hope it clears up soon.. any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raeven Posted February 3, 2009 Report Share Posted February 3, 2009 Hi, Stevie, I just bought a used spa, had it decontaminated before I moved it and filled it for the first time today. I am on well water and I know I have a LOT of iron in my water. The dealer for this spa told me to use Sequa Sol to bind the iron to the product and let it sit overnight before adding any other chemicals. My understanding is that adding other chemicals will affect how the Sequa Sol (metal remover) is able to bind to the iron in the water. No chlorine, or any other product, should be added until the metal remover product has been allowed to do its thing overnight. Since this is the first time I've ever filled a spa on this property with the available water, I'm sure the look on my face was priceless as I watched the water first turn a greenish color, then the color of strong urine and now a rich orange. I just hope the filters are up to this!!! I would absolutely defer to experts here on this site, but you might need to drain your spa and start again, if you added the chlorine at the same time as the metal remover product. Best of luck with it all, and I'll keep you posted how my water color changes go! All the best, Raeven Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raeven Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 Ok, I promised updates on my water chemistry capers, so here's what's going on at this point: After adding Sequa Sol and ending up with a spa that looked like it was full of tea, I started by cleaning the filters. They were orange with iron particles, so I thought I'd just let them keep doing their job. I then drained out about a quarter of the tub and refilled with soft water, so I ended with a mix of 75% hard well water and 25% soft water. After that, I balanced the Total Alkalinity. This took awhile, but after testing roughly every hour and gradually bringing down the TA, I was happy with where I landed. I brought it down to about 80 ppm. I then tested for Total Hardness, and this happened to be at an allowable amount. Finally, I began adding chlorine. I let the tub do its thing overnight, and this morning, the tea color was much reduced! I again cleaned the orange out of all the filters and tested all components of the water again. TA is still good; TH is still good. pH is good. I'm still struggling to get the right amount of chlorine, but I would venture to say that by tomorrow, there will be no color left in the water. I'll clean the filters again and hopefully not have to worry about iron again for 4 months! Hope this is of use to someone. Raeven Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevie Wonder Posted February 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Sorry I took so long to reply,, The water started to clear in a couple days and now is crystal clear and the # are spot on,,, The filter isnt even loaded up.. I think you hit the nail on the head,, I think I added chlorine too early.. I dont have too much metal in my water,, and the prefilter claims to remove 99% of it too,, but It seams that the chlorine and the metal remover react with each other.. The spa store guy told me it will make it an odd color for a few days.. and said if it lasts more than a week to drain again.. I lucked out,, about 4 days it was good,, 7 perfect.. Havent used it since tho,, just too nasty out.. had more snow and ice,, and our high today was 15 in the sun,, I need to pop a hole in the basement wall near the tub! I have too far a walk to it right now... Thanks,,, Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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