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Chlorine Demand


diggerdan4

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I have been recently having some skin problems (Eczema) and hear that taking Bleach baths can actually help eczema, so on January 27th I drained our tub which has been a Bromine Tub.  I flushed the tub (which I always do every water change)refilled, balanced and shocked our 550 gal tub with 1.2oz of Di-Chlor.  I then let it run for 30 min and took a reading and was zero ppm.  At this point I shocked again with another 1oz and after 30 min got a reading of 3ppm.  Shocked again with 1oz more and brought up to 14ppm so at this point I let it sit for 16 hours checked and was back down to .5ppm or 96%CD.   The next shock I gave it 1.8oz of dichlor which raised it to 14ppm checked 24 hours later and was back to .8ppm or 94%CD.  At this point my CYA should be around 35ppm so I quit with the Dichlor.  Yesterday I thought I would give it a good dose of MPS (3TBS) waited about 7 hours, then added 7.5oz of bleach (8.25%) and got a reading of 15ppm last night after running the bleach for 30 min.  Today when I check it has been sitting for 14 hours so far and was at 7ppm or 47%CD.  I will check again tonight at the 24 hour mark, but gonna guess it will be almost depleted again.   We have not sat in the tub yet, trying to establish a Baseline first.  Our tub is a Caldera Cantabria which does have an ozonator that  runs 24/7 along with the recirc. pump.  Not sure if I can unhook the ozonator or not or if this is what is causing my problems?  I am looking for any advice at this point????  When we bought the tub new a year ago I made sure we flushed with awsome flush and shocked to 30ppm and left over night.  We have always been very picky about our tub so would be surprised if its dirty, we have  flushed every water change.   I did also add 50ppm borates (boric acid) this time around yesterday morning gonna give it a try if I can get the tub up and going.  Please let me know any advice you may have for me.       

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I'm not a dermatologist, but I know that chlorine causes skin irritation, I've never heard of it helping skin problems.   It will also bleach your jets, pillows and cover, and cause the plastic on the jets to become brittle leading to premature jet failure. 

I've not heard of ozone causing skin problems, but I can tell you that ozone has a very short life, so it's doubtful that you could ever build up a concentration of ozone.  "With your tub a year old, the ozonator may not be working, or only working at a reduced capacity.

An ozonator is a passive accessory, it just converts oxygen to ozone and it gets sucked into the water line by venturi action.  Unhooking the ozonator will have no effect on the tub itself.  Just power down the spa and disconnect the ozonator from the pack and you're good to go.  Air will still be pulled through the lines, it just won't have ozone in it.

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 I know it seems wierd, but if you google it, bleach baths are being recomended by dermotolgist and the Mayo Clinic.  I have never tried it so cant say one way or the other.  Not saying the Ozonator is causing skin problems, thinking it may be depleting the Chlorine levels more rapidly causing the higher CD.  Its been 24hours now since I shocked to 15ppm so I checked chlorine level and is now at 4.4ppm or 71% CD.  Still very High CD but seems to be getting better.  Do you think this will keep improving?     

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I suspect you have biofilm in your plumbing that is creating the high demand of sanitizer.

You said you used Ahh-Some when you got the tub. Only one treatment? Have you used it since then?

One treatment may not be enough if the film is well established. I would do another treatment and be sure that all the foam is pure white and has no contaminates in it. If not, more treatments are in order.

16 hours ago, diggerdan4 said:

...we have  flushed every water change.    

 

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So it seems to be improving every night.  I still have not sat in tub yet, trying to get a good baseline on the CD, Maybe tomorrow night!  Last night I shocked and checked 30 minutes later and got a reading of 11ppm.  Tonight I checked and got a reading of 7ppm which is 34% CD.  Should I try to be shocking again tonight adding another 3ppm and bring it back up to 10ppm or just let it ride and check again tomorrow to see where it ends up and calc CD from there?  If all 5 of my family members are gonna sit in it tomorrow night for 30-45 minutes how many ppm do I want to shoot for when entering the spa?

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