PinkFloydEffect Posted December 31, 2017 Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Some things in my manual do not make sense to me and I could use some clarification. For starters the manual says to fill my spa with a "clean screen" prefilter but not only did it never come with one but the sales person never informed us of it or used one during initial filling of the spa. Says it removes metals, sounds like a reverse osmosis type of thing. I need to fill my tub tomorrow and I do not have one on hand, but I have some metal neutralizing solution to add...which is what they used upon setup. It says to adjust my alkalinity to 80ppm with the window range of 40-120ppm, however seems everyone on the forums runs their spas on the lower side at 50ppm? The manual covers calcium hardness, alkalinity, pH, sanitation, but fails to mention anything about stabilizer/CYA. I know from my research it should stay around 30ppm and to keep it below 50ppm. Furthermore the manual says if I am going to use chlorine do not use liquid chlorine or it can damage the spa, and to use granulated DICHLOR....which is stabilized chlorine. Says nothing about stopping the use of dichlor after a certain ppm reading of stabilizer/CYA which really surprises me because that is exactly how I got into the situation I am in now....continuous use of dichlor shot the stabilizer/CYA over 300ppm before I realized it was not good to have levels even close to that high. I planned on skipping the dichlor this time all together, using pool stabilizer, then liquid chlorine as my main sanitation method. I just got my Taylor K-2006C kit today so I can really do this right. Am I good to fill? I will be testing my tap calcium hardness with the K-2006 tonight. I think I am ready to do this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
castletonia Posted December 31, 2017 Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Clean screen pre-filter is nice if you have rust/iron or other metals in the water. It is not necessary though. I only include it for my customers on well water. Everyone has their own opinion on total alkalinity. Generally speaking, 80-120ppm is considered in range. Bioguard, whom I sell, prefers 125-150ppm. Others have said the pH is more stable with lower alkalinity. As for cyanuric acid. Di-Chlor is basically the only form of chlorine approved by really any hot tub manufacturer. If you go the stabilizer then bleach method, just be careful on the dosing of bleach and keep an eye on your pH. Bleach has a pH of 13. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinkFloydEffect Posted December 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Thank you, I thought bleach and liquid chlorine have a different pH? Bleach always smells, where chlorine does not...from my understanding this is because bleach has cloramites right out of the bottle (reactions already taking place within the bottle). As in other words there is already combined chlorine within bleach? I would love to just use dichlor but I can not be refilling my tub every month due to high CYA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
castletonia Posted December 31, 2017 Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 I’m not aware of bleach and liquid chlorine being chemically any different other than concentration. Maybe I am wrong, but I was told bleach and pool shock were the same chemical just that bleach was about 4% chlorine and pool shock is 12.5%. I would imagine that even if slightly different, both would have a similar pH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinkFloydEffect Posted January 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2018 I made it easy on myself and went with 80ppm for both calcium and alkalinity, the tub calls for 50-150ppm calcium and I figured the less the better so the water feels great. I hit the CYA cap after only a few days using dichlor though not sure why it is recommended at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinkFloydEffect Posted January 8, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2018 The manual says not to exceed 150 on the calcium....will 200 be okay?? I need it higher for balancing reasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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