Questions About My Leisure Time Spa Minerals Setup

[Dawill]

So, when I purchased my first hot tub ~1month ago it came with a leisure time spa minerals stick and the dealer showed me how to maintain it. Pretty much told me to ignore everything but alkalinity and ph on the 4way teststrips he gave me and said to shock it with dichlor every week or 4hrs of use, whichever came first. Said the ozonator + the spa minerals would do all the sanitazion and all I needed to worry about was oxidation.

I tried their method but I get cloudy water after ~1hrs use and it keeps getting cloudier until i shock it. After shock it clears up but I get a nice foam on top of the water, not sure if that is normal. I've gone through and read some of the different methods of dichlor + bleach and what not, but I'm not sure if I can switch to bleach with the spa minerals or not but I'm also concerned about getting my CYA to high from dichlor. Also I was told nothing about MPS for shocking, so I'm a little uncertain on what to do. First off is the spa minerals the same thing as the leisure2 stick? Can I follow their directions? The leisure time directions are worthless and just say keep ~1ppm free chlorine and shock as needed. Everytime I have checked my spa my FC is pretty much zero unless I recently shocked it and then it will be 10+.

Also should I invest in a test kit instead of these strips? How often should I be testing my water and is it normal for having ph drift up over time? I use ~2tsp of spa down in my 450 gallon tub a week but still haven't opened the spa up container.

[waterbear]

So, when I purchased my first hot tub ~1month ago it came with a leisure time spa minerals stick and the dealer showed me how to maintain it.

Pretty much told me to ignore everything but alkalinity and ph on the 4way teststrips he gave me and said to shock it with dichlor every week or 4hrs of use, whichever came first. Said the ozonator + the spa minerals would do all the sanitazion and all I needed to worry about was oxidation.

Spa dealers do things like this to close a sale way too often instead of actually teaching how to care for a spa, which is not hard. Then again, there are many dealers who really are clueless about spa water maintenance. (Before this starts a flame war, there are a number of well educated spa dealers but, like their cousins the pool builders, they are in the minority and are more interested in their bottom line which is maiximum sales and not the owners bank account.)

I tried their method but I get cloudy water after ~1hrs use and it keeps getting cloudier until i shock it. After shock it clears up but I get a nice foam on top of the water, not sure if that is normal.

Unfortunately it is often very normal for this method, which is not very good IMHO. Spa dealers like to emphasize how easy it is to care for a spa to close the sale. That is not the reality much of the time.

I've gone through and read some of the different methods of dichlor + bleach and what not, but I'm not sure if I can switch to bleach with the spa minerals or not

Yes, you can

but I'm also concerned about getting my CYA to high from dichlor. Also I was told nothing about MPS for shocking, so I'm a little uncertain on what to do. First off is the spa minerals the same thing as the leisure2 stick?

They are basically methods for adding metals to your water, usually silver, zinc, and/or copper. These can be added by 'mineral sticks', liquids (Silspa, Pristine Blue, etc.), erosIon feeders (Nature2, SpaFrog), "pills", or expensive electronic ionizer units but the result is exactly the same, metals in your water.

Can I follow their directions? The leisure time directions are worthless and just say keep ~1ppm free chlorine and shock as needed. Everytime I have checked my spa my FC is pretty much zero unless I recently shocked it and then it will be 10+.

Probably the 'best' of these systems is the Nature2 from Zodiac, and I am not a fan of that one either!

Also should I invest in a test kit instead of these strips?

Yes, get a Taylor K-2006 (not the K-2005)

How often should I be testing my water and is it normal for having ph drift up over time? I use ~2tsp of spa down in my 450 gallon tub a week but still haven't opened the spa up container.

Many spas drift up in pH. It's fairly normal with chlorine spas. It's from the outgassing of carbon dioxide because of the aeration of the water from the jets and blowers. What is your TA? Lowering the TA to around 60-80 ppm can help minimize this.