Please Help With Low Ta

[dean.whu]

Hello all,

I really appreciate this forum and where it has got me so far but I am starting to have issues that I know I am only keeping in check with a lot of chemicals and need to understand how to break this vicious cycle.

Background:

Bought a new house and inherited a 350 gallon Beachcomber only about 18 months old. Was surprised how good the condition was and also surprised that when going through the decontamination process and using Ahh-Some how little biofilm buildup there was. It does seem that the previous owner was looking after it very well.

Anyway after the water change and the above I was surprised at how nearly perfect the numbers were initially. I wasn't quite sure how the Bromine Total was correct so soon, (I switched from a chlorine setup to a 3-part bromine). I didn't understand without adding bromide salts how the bromine level has been fine. I presume just from the Brominating pucks?

For the first few weeks everything seemed good, I was shocking with Spa Boss Spa-Shock that I got at the hot tub store, and then switched to bleach.

Ultimately I wanted to use Bromide salts and Borates as well, but have not been able to find a reliable source for this in Canada, or at least maybe 100% understand which product I am looking for.

Now in the past month my TA crashes and my PH goes above 8. It takes a good few hours and a lot of Alka-Rise (I have nearly finished the container), then PH-reducer to get everything back in sync. Throughout this I never have any issues bit the Total Bromine., except I do feel that the pucks are getting used up quicker that I would expect, maybe the floater is too open and causing an issue? This scenario is happening once a week and I just cant seem to keep TA up.

One other thing to add is that I have been using it up until more recently about twice a day because I work from home and I have back issues. Shocking I suppose 3 times a week because of the increased bather load.

So my questions:

1) Do you think the only way out off this is another decontamination and water change? I was hoping to avoid this as the water is clear, the filter appears to be working well, and there is no nasty smell. However, over the last couple of weeks there is definitely more foaming when the blowers are on full, but I don't really use the blowers that much at all.

2) Any ideas where I can get the Sodium Bromide from in Canada? Also the Borates, and do you think this will help control my PH?

3) Instead of using the SpaBoss branded Alka-rise can I switch to just using Baking Soda?

I have read this and other forums t death but I cannot quite find out how to get this under control. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Dean

[chem geek]

Bromine tabs add bromine to the water right away. You don't need sodium bromide initially to get bromine in that case. The purpose of the bromide bank is that you can add an oxidizer such as chlorine or non-chlorine shock (MPS) to create more bromine quickly, especially after a soak.

Usually the TA would only drop by adding something net acidic. SpaBoss Spa Shock is MPS and that is an acidic product unless they added something else to it to make it more pH neutral (I couldn't find an MSDS for it). So that probably explains why the TA dropped over time. When you were using bleach as your oxidizer, the TA should stay about the same or very slowly rise until you add acid for controlling pH. Basically acid is what lowers TA, whether that be pure acid or an acidic product such as MPS.

As for sodium bromide, you can get it in solution in this product in Canada or you can get a granular mixture of sodium bromide and Dichlor chlorine in this product which is typically called brominating granules, but that will produce bromine. So the first product would be better to just create a bromide bank without generating bromine right away. OR you could just use the latter product which over time will build up a bromide bank. As I wrote above, the tabs also increase the bromide bank since the bromine when it is used converts to bromide.

Yes, to raise TA you can just use baking soda. If you look at the ingredients of Alka-Rise or Alkalinity Up products, they are just sodium bicarbonate (or sodium hydrogen carbonate) which is the same as baking soda.

[dean.whu]

Hello,

thank you for your reply.

However, I am finding that even with having just used the bleach, that I just cannot keep the TA up at a reasonable level. It plummets, the PH level rises, and I am using a load of the Alka-rise. Is there anything else I can do that avoids a water change right now?

Thanks...

[chem geek]

Well something doesn't make sense. If you use chlorine to create more bromine from the bromide bank and you don't add other products, the TA will not drop.

A water change is unlikely to fix the problem since it is likely related to some acidic chemical you are adding to the spa. Of course, you can change the water if you want, but you really should figure out what you are adding that drops the TA -- it HAS to be something acidic. MPS is quite acidic. Bleach is not.