New Spa And Pool Owner

[xandrew245x]

Hello everyone, I am a new spa and pool owner. I bought the spa used for a great deal. I had to replace 1 union nut on it, but other than cleaning it, everything else is in great shape. I brought a spa it from spa depot, it is spa choice brand. I also bought a bottle of bottle of clean out.

I cleaned the hot tub then filled it. Made sure everything worked and put it through its paces. Once I knew everything worked fine, I put the bottle of clean out in it and ran all the equipment for the recommended time, I was amazed at the amount of junk that came out. I drained it, cleaned everything up again and refilled it.

Once filled I started adding chemicals, I balanced my TA and Ph, calcium and then moved on to bromine. I added 3 bromine tablets into my floater and placed it in the hot tub. I added the recommended amount of bromide booster and at this point I noticed my water started to have a green tint. After that I got a low amount of bromine reading, and I went ahead and shocked it with a non chlorine shock. After this my water got really cloudy. I tried using a clarifier and after a few days it did clear up, but wasn't crystal clear.

Monday I retested and noticed my TA was low and bromine was non existent. The water was also cloudy a little again. I balanced again, and I had to add triple the amount of bromide booster to even get a bromine reading. I shocked it again (it was about a week between shocking) and the water turned extremely cloudy, I can still barley see the bottom. I tried clarifier again with no avail. Anyone have any suggestions. I am having a party fourth of july, so if its not cleared up by Saturday I am draining it and trying again. Just a little more info my girlfriend and I only used it twice since filling it, and I have well water. Thanks in advance.

[Spanky]

Ok first things first, welcome to the Forum.

Now for your problem:

You mentioned your tub is "used", yes you cleaned it with a flush product (We strongly recommend Ahh Some) but you made no mention of "Decontamination"

Do yourself a big favour and read the "Stickys" at the top of this forum for Decontamination and read Waterbear's 3 step Bromine for Beginners.

Essentially your tub is consuming Br at a rapid rate. But I also don't see where you built a "Bromine Bank". Just adding 3 tabs to the floater will not build the required "Bank" it could take weeks, you have to add Sodium Bromide then "activate" it with either "Chlorine" (Bleach) or Non-Chlorine Shock (MPS).

Please read the suggested articles and feel free to ask any questions you have. The members of this forum are great people and are always willing to help.

[xandrew245x]

Spanky thanks for the reply, right after mentioning adding bromine tablets I said I added bromide, I had to add 3 times the required amount to get it to even show up. I then shocked with a non chlorine shock which caused all of this.

In the decontamination guide, can I use just regular household clorox to disinfect?

[Spanky]

Yes use regular Clorox. Just make sure it's not any kind of "Specialty" bleach like "Splashless" etc..

Read up on the posts I mentioned, and one serious piece of advice: GET A PROPER TEST KIT!!!!! for Bromine it's a TAYLOR K-2106 but I also noticed you have a pool which I presume will be Chlorine? In which case you use a K-2006 and just multiply your Chlorine test result by 2.25 when measuring Bromine. I have both a Pool and a Spa. I ran the Spa on Bromine but converted to Dichlor /Bleach after installing the pool. You might want to consider that option too.

***NOTE*** When I read your post I saw you added "Bromine Booster" double-check what that product actually is. I suspect that it is MPS which activates Bromine (So does Chlorine Bleach) but may not contain any Sodium Bromide.

[xandrew245x]

Spanky, I read all of the decontamination post and some of the bromine post. I think for now I am going to stick with bromine, but maybe once I am more comfortable with water chemistry I will try switching over to dichlor/bleach.

The test kit you mentioned looks a lot like the one I bought for my pool, except it only has 1 bottle for ph and one for bromine/chlorine. I can however use it to check bromine as well I just remembered.

The bromine booster is sodium bromide.

[Spanky]

1 bottle for pH and one for Cl/Br sounds to me like an OTO type kit. I actually have one and find it useful for a quick pH / Cl check, more of a Go/No-GO test. I don't consider it accurate enough to make any adjustments with. For any adjustments, I use the K-2006.

One major feature of the K-2006 is the acid/base demand test which gives you precise data to make pH adjustments. This is very important for a spa, because of the small water volume. A pool is more forgiving simply due to it's large volume. Secondly. the FAS-DPD method is extremely accurate.

How are you measuring TA and CH?

OTO type kits have no TA/CH capability and "Test Strips" are inherently inaccurate!! Often referred to ,on this forum, as "Guess Strips".

Follow Waterbear's 3 step Bromine for beginners, It's a proven and well thought out system. The only thing you eventually need to change is to use a lower TA and add 50ppm Borates but that is a more advanced topic. To start out, just monitor and adjust the pH ( it most likely will drift up ) and let the TA fall naturally. Once you gain confidence and experience, you can add borates and reduce your TA.

[xandrew245x]

Spanky. I followed the deconmanation guide to a tee, (except for the chlorine part). Refilled, balanced TA, PH and Calcium. Added 2 TBS of shock and tested for bromine. I had 11 ppm of bromine at this time. I put my floater in open to 5 with 4 tabs in it. The next day I retested for bromine and I had 0 again. I checked ph and Ta and they were in the appropriate ranges (sorry cant remember specifics). Fourth of july came, and I shocked it to boost the bromine level, a few hours later me and 3 friends were in it for about an hour. My bromine level was 5 ppm at this time, and the water was crystal clear.

The next day the water was slightly cloudy and my bromine dropped again. What is going on?

Forgot to mention, I bought the taylor k-2106 test kit as well.

[Spanky]

In my experience, using MPS to activate Bromine tends to end up with cloudy water. Use bleach instead!

Was the Br 5ppm before or after 4 adults soaked for 1 hour? if before then the 0 makes sense.

You have to deal with the large instant bather demand by adding about 2oz of bleach/person/hour. After a bit of experimenting you'll find the correct amount for your tub and bather load.

Do you have an Ozonator?, they can help with high bather load with Bromine.

Try a simple experiment, shock the tub to about 15ppm Br (use Bleach NOT MPS), wait 24 hrs. then recheck the Br. If it's low, you still have a high sanitizer demand, most likely Biofilm. Best way to deal with Biofilm is to flush with "Ahh Some". Most other "Flush" products are somewhat ineffective in dealing with Biofilm. Once the biofilm is gone, decontaminate with Chlorine (bleach) to about 100ppm.

It's not uncommon for a used tub to require more than 1 round of decontamination but if I had to guess, I'd say the Flush product you used was ineffective. SeaKlear Spa System Flush works, but AhhSome works the best.

Don't give up you will get it working properly. I'd ditch the MPS and use Bleach, It's more effective, IMHO, and a h*ll of a lot cheaper!!!

Waterbear, Chem Geek - can you guys think of anything I've missed?

[xandrew245x]

Thanks spanky! you have been a great help. I will try out the bleach instead and see if it makes any difference. If I have the same issue then I know what I have to do again. I appreciate the help.