Spa Crazy

[mommaj]

I have a new spa with 340 gal of water. I have already had to change the water once. I can't seem to get it to stay balanced. It gets mass foamy after a few people get in. It has an Ionizer and yet I am having to add mass amounts of bromine and other stuff just to get it somewhat balanced. We have had the spa a week and I am having to work with it everyday and am scared that the ph is off. I have the test strips and the drops and both tell me different answers. I don't want to wreck the heater or anything else, because the water is messed up. I am about to shut it down...

I took a water sample into the pool store and it is still way off. What am I doing wrong?

[Nick_D]

I have a new spa with 340 gal of water. I have already had to change the water once. I can't seem to get it to stay balanced. It gets mass foamy after a few people get in. It has an Ionizer and yet I am having to add mass amounts of bromine and other stuff just to get it somewhat balanced. We have had the spa a week and I am having to work with it everyday and am scared that the ph is off. I have the test strips and the drops and both tell me different answers. I don't want to wreck the heater or anything else, because the water is messed up. I am about to shut it down...

I took a water sample into the pool store and it is still way off. What am I doing wrong?

If I am not mistaken, most pool places that you take your water to for analysis will tell you exactly what you need to do and add to the water to get the chemistry flowing so to speak. Did the place you took yours too recommend anything?

[mommaj]

I have a new spa with 340 gal of water. I have already had to change the water once. I can't seem to get it to stay balanced. It gets mass foamy after a few people get in. It has an Ionizer and yet I am having to add mass amounts of bromine and other stuff just to get it somewhat balanced. We have had the spa a week and I am having to work with it everyday and am scared that the ph is off. I have the test strips and the drops and both tell me different answers. I don't want to wreck the heater or anything else, because the water is messed up. I am about to shut it down...

I took a water sample into the pool store and it is still way off. What am I doing wrong?

If I am not mistaken, most pool places that you take your water to for analysis will tell you exactly what you need to do and add to the water to get the chemistry flowing so to speak. Did the place you took yours too recommend anything?

[mommaj]

I did take it in and they did test it. They sold me a whole bunch of stuff. I did what the paper said and now my pool has mass amounts of foam on top. They pool place sold me $180.00 dollars worth of stuff, and still the bromine level wont stay.

It was a kid who was helping us. She didn't even know what an ozonator is... So now I am really not trusting what i was sold.

I have also read that bromine is not the preferred spa stuff. I also have read that the drops and test strips (That the pool place sold me) are bunk. Sorry about sounding so negitive. I just added double the bromine that the spa requires and it still isn't registering with the drops or the strips. Can they both be wrong?

[simonc]

I'm sorry to hear that you are having so much trouble with your spa. It doesn't have to be this way. I can't comment on a bromine spa ... I run a chlorine based spa. It's actually pretty easy and relatively inexpensive. I use the Diclor then bleach method. It's very simple

1. Start with a new refill - fresh water.

2. Balance the water (more on this later)

3. Add Diclor for about a week or two.

4. Then switch to regular (unscented) chlorox bleach.

5. Test the water and adjust things as necessary.

This method is explained in this rather long post, but it's worth reading. At first it might seem overwhelming, but the key points are in the summary section. Get yourself a good test kit (as recommended in the post) and you can get started. The post tells how to balance your water and why it is important.

There are a lot of people on this forum that use the Diclor then bleach method. It's simply the cheapest and probably as easy as most methods. Give it a try: Diclor then bleach method.

Good luck,

- Simon

[waterbear]

Bromine is easy if done right! Most people do not understand the chemistry and do it wrong, including many dealers!

First, turn off the ionizer and don't use it unless you want green hair. Ionizers add copper and copper turns hair green, Period. End of story! Copper is NOT a primary residual sanitizer so you still need chlorine or bromine with an ionizer. Ionizers also require a low pH which can damage heaters over a period of time

When testing water do NOT use strips, get a good drop based test kit. Your best bet for Bromine is the Taylor k-2106 and for chlorine the K-2006 (NOT the K-2005)

On to bromine:

1. refill the spa and balance the water:

2,adjust TA to about 100 ppm (search the forum for how to lower TA by using acid and aeration, raise TA with baking soda, it;s the same chemical sold as TA increaser for much less money!

3. Once TA is adjusted then adjust pH to between 7.4 and 7.8 Use dry acid to lower pH if too high, Use borax from the laundry aisle to raise it if too low. Do NOT use pH up because it will make your TA go too high!!!!!!!! pH up is sodium carbonate, also known as washing soda and raises both pH AND TA!

3. IF you calcium hardness is below 130 ppm raise it to 130-150. If it is above 400 then add an anti stain and scale or calcium reducer to the spa weekly. If it is between 130-400 you are fine.

4. Add 1/2 oz of sodium bromide per 100 gallons of water to create your bromide reserve in the water. This is the MOST important step with a bromine spa and the one most people ignore. If you omit this step you will not have a bromine spa for several weeks until enough tablets dissolve in the water to create the bromide bank and you will not have sanitized water! Sodium Bromide is available in packets and jars from several companies. You will need to re add it on each drain and fill.

5. Shock the spa to 'activate' (oxidize) the sodium bromide into hypobromous acid (this is your 'bromine' sanitizer that you test for with your strips or test kit.) You can use MPS to shock but chlorine works just as well if not better and is much less expensive. One of the best sources of chlorine you can use with a bromine spa is sodium hypochlorite and that can also be found in the laundry aisle. It is ordinary liquid chlorine bleach. You want the regular, unscented bleach, not a thickened or scented one. It will come in either 5.25% or 6%. Read the label to see which you have. Use 2.5 oz (5 tablespoons) of the 5.25% or 2 oz (4 tablespoons) of the 6% per 100 gallons of spa water to shock. Your bromine will go very high. Uncover the spa and circulate until the bromine drops below 10 ppm before you use the spa.

6. Put in the floater with your bromine tabs (which usually contain BOTH bromine and chlorine to activate the bromine, btw) and adjust the floater to maintain your bromine at about 4-6 ppm. this can take a bit of trial and error. Check your pH and bromine before you go ineach time and if bromine is low add a few tablespoons of bleach and retest until it is above 4 but below 10 ppm. It really only takes seconds for the chlorine to oxidize your bromide reserve into bromine sanitizer. If pH is not between 7.2 and 8.0 then you should adjust it before entering the spa and wait abot 30 minutes then retest it to make sure it is in the proper range. If both are off then adjust pH first then the bromine. If your bromine is always low open the floater a bit more. If high then close it down a bit. If it is above 10 then take out the floater and open the spa until the bromine level drops below 10 before entering the water and close the floater down a bit. Once you get the floater adjusted the bromne level will stay pretty constant and it becomes much easier! Remember to keep tablets in the floater at all times!

You are done!

Weekly test pH, Keep pH between 7.2 -8.0 and then when you have finished adjusting shock the spa with bleach just like when you added the sodium bromide but you do not need more sodium bromide. Add anti scale or calcium reducer if your calcium tested above 400 ppm.

Monthly check and adjust TA and calcium before you adjust pH and shock.

Every 3-4 months drain, refill, balance the water, add the sodium bromide, shock, and put the bromine tablets back in.

Actually pretty easy!

Hope this helps.

Chlorne is a bit cheaper than bromine but it really does require daily attention. Bromine (and what I described above is known as 3 step bromine and is the most forgiving) is not as fussy (acceptable pH range is wider and water balance is easier) and really only needs attention once or twice a week after you get it set up, besides checking sanitizer level and pH before you enter the spa each time.