mscdman Posted June 3, 2009 Report Share Posted June 3, 2009 I was previously using a spa frog system in my spa (Br) maintaining a 5 ppm Br level with Ozonee. I recently drained, cleaned and refilled the spa water over a week ago and switched to the normal floater Br system thinkign it would be cheaper than the Spa Frog System. So I added my metal gone and added 1.5 oz of Brom Start upon start up and put in the tablets (5 or so) into this locking feeder with a SETTING OF 9! (Meaning a lot of the feeder Br is exposed) http://www.hottubworks.com/cgi-bin/commerc...amp;key=MP1973E It has now been 10 days, not even half of the Br tablets have disssolved if that and the Br level will not go above 1ppm. Any thoughts on why the tabs wont dissolve and I can't get my Br levels up? Note - I was previsouly using test strips with the spa frog and now I am using the walmart HTH drop tester. Current readings PH 8.0 Hardness 1000 ppm Br 1.0 Alkalnity 100ppm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillbilly Hot Tub Posted June 4, 2009 Report Share Posted June 4, 2009 First, your hardness is sky high and your PH is high, if you do not address this you will have major scale. Your heater may allready have some forming. this also could be why the tablets will not dissolve. On bromine at new fills, you may also have to shock more often to keep the bromine reading up for a few weeks untill you get enough ions feed into the tub. Shocking will re-establish most of the used bromine. But first and formost adjust you levels!!! If you did not add Calcium Hardness, then you need a filling filter when you fill the spa, and you will have to drain it. You should anly have between 50 and 150 for calcium Hardness in your spa. Over 400 is super high. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mscdman Posted June 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2009 First, your hardness is sky high and your PH is high, if you do not address this you will have major scale. Your heater may allready have some forming. this also could be why the tablets will not dissolve. On bromine at new fills, you may also have to shock more often to keep the bromine reading up for a few weeks untill you get enough ions feed into the tub. Shocking will re-establish most of the used bromine. But first and formost adjust you levels!!! If you did not add Calcium Hardness, then you need a filling filter when you fill the spa, and you will have to drain it. You should anly have between 50 and 150 for calcium Hardness in your spa. Over 400 is super high. Thanks Hillbilly - actually, I misstated my hardness - it was at 100 ppm not 1000 ppm. I have added calcium to the reccomended range according to the booklet of 250 ppm now. I have now also used spa down to bring down PH to 7.2. We will see if this makes a difference.. I am using the "Spa Choice" bromulating tablets....when I called the spa dealership they said that was a poor tablet and reccomended theirs. I am sure they wanted to get my business...but I wonder if there is validity to the Spa Choice tabs being of poor quality and potentially causing this issue... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feather Posted June 4, 2009 Report Share Posted June 4, 2009 This question is for Hillbilly - I'm a newbie with regards to spa...we just got a used sundance spa, and when we filled it up we also used Metal Gon...do you know if Metal Gon does lower the calcium hardness? Our water is at 260ppm hard but when we tested the spa water, it's at 80ppm...and pH is under 7. We have corrected the hardness to 180ppm using a calcium booster and then we used a pH increaser...the pH went up to high though (more than 8). We also have a whole house water filter that help with metal problems. My questions are: 1.) should we not use the metal gon again next time we fill the spa? 2.) does calcium booster affects pH level? do you think this is the reason why our pH went up so high due to adjusting the calcium first as opposed to adjusting the pH first, then adjust the calcium level.? 3.) if you need to have calcium at a certain level, why does some spa chemicals manufacturer recommends using a calcium defender? i'm confused... 3.) what is the proper start up chemicals that we should have used? your answer would be greatly appreciated...thanks!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mscdman Posted June 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2009 This question is for Hillbilly - I'm a newbie with regards to spa...we just got a used sundance spa, and when we filled it up we also used Metal Gon...do you know if Metal Gon does lower the calcium hardness? Our water is at 260ppm hard but when we tested the spa water, it's at 80ppm...and pH is under 7. We have corrected the hardness to 180ppm using a calcium booster and then we used a pH increaser...the pH went up to high though (more than 8). We also have a whole house water filter that help with metal problems. My questions are: 1.) should we not use the metal gon again next time we fill the spa? 2.) does calcium booster affects pH level? do you think this is the reason why our pH went up so high due to adjusting the calcium first as opposed to adjusting the pH first, then adjust the calcium level.? 3.) if you need to have calcium at a certain level, why does some spa chemicals manufacturer recommends using a calcium defender? i'm confused... 3.) what is the proper start up chemicals that we should have used? your answer would be greatly appreciated...thanks!! Also why do you have to add calcium booster only right at start up and not a fews after? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillbilly Hot Tub Posted June 5, 2009 Report Share Posted June 5, 2009 Calcium content of water occours naturally. As ground water comes into contact with rocks and soil containing calcium and magnesium, it dissolves these minerals in the water. Included in this process are bicarbonate, carbonate and sulfate. So yes a metal remover will remove some of the hardness(removing mannesium) in the water and it Calcium will effect the PH. Total hardness and calcium hardness are two different, but related entities. Total hardness is the sum of calcium and magnesium. The term soft water and hard water are an indcations of the calcium hardness. The calcium in spa water is measured as calcium carbonate, which when not in solution is called scale. Calcium Carbonate is a salt found in nature as chalk, calcite, aragonite or limestone. Calcium is not very soluable, and unlike other chemicals even less soluable the hotter the water and easily drops out of solution unless water balance is maintained. In spas, unless you have a gunite or plaster spa, calcium levels can be kept lower. 100-150 is great, even 50 is fine IMO. TYhe defender they are suggesting is a scale/calcium defender,(as exsplained above) so if the spa drops out of balance it will help prevent damage that the calcium/scale can do I hope this helps a bit in answering your questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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