Germann Posted April 8, 2015 Report Share Posted April 8, 2015 Wish we would have found this site sooner. Long story - I will not bore you with details. While I have found answers to many questions, I am still wondering about "Metal Protect" We are going to do a new fill and will do a Spa System Flush and a decon following instructions here. We are going to follow Bromine 3 Step process. Our retailer has us using a Metal Protect right now. I don't know what it is for or if we need it. We are on a rural water system (lake water) and we have a water softener. We have been bypassing the water softener on fills. Do we need to? Our tub does have an ozonator and we are also using the Spa Frog (Bromine). What other information do you need to help us determine if we should be using the Metal Protect? Karla Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chem geek Posted April 9, 2015 Report Share Posted April 9, 2015 We no longer recommend Spa System Flush nor Swirl Away. Instead for biofilm/grease removal we recommend Ahh-Some. The Metal Protect helps prevent metal staining from the iron that is often in well water. Not sure if your lake water would have sufficient iron in it to worry about. You could have a lake water sample tested for metals to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Germann Posted April 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2015 Should we be bypassing the water softener? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chem geek Posted April 11, 2015 Report Share Posted April 11, 2015 If your Calcium Hardness (CH) of the fill water is high then you should not be bypassing the water softener. You don't want your CH to be above around 150 ppm. If you have iron in your fill water, then there are metal trap filters you can use when filling the spa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlleno Posted May 11, 2015 Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 just an additional comment -- before i started using borates as a pH buffer, I found it was not uncommon for pH to spike up to 8.0 or even higher -- due to lots of water agitation, ozone, and when using bleach -- even with TA down at 35-40ppm. I found that a little insurance doesn't hurt, so I would treat with a stain and scale control product (I used BioGuard stain and scale control). YOu can use the pool calculator to see, based on your CA, how close you might be to preciptating calcium in the event of an unwanted upward spike in pH, and you can decide if you might want to mitigate the risk chemically. Since experimenting in this area, I've taken to using borates and find the pH control to be wonderful, and especially beneficial under these circumstances . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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