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Suggestions for chlorine reading zero every day


orellius

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Sorry one more comment, my final what I am looking at then is:

  • 3-part
  • Beachcomber Ultra Start to create the reserve
  • Add floater (already have) with Bromo Discs
  • do NOT get their MPS to activate, instead use pool chlorine I already have. Just confirming then, this would be a daily, or a weekly thing
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12 hours ago, orellius said:

Sorry one more comment, my final what I am looking at then is:

  • 3-part
  • Beachcomber Ultra Start to create the reserve
  • Add floater (already have) with Bromo Discs
  • do NOT get their MPS to activate, instead use pool chlorine I already have. Just confirming then, this would be a daily, or a weekly thing

create your bromide reserve with ultra start. shock with the chlorine and then test bromine level. YOu want to get it to around 10 -12 ppm. In 1000 L tub I would start with about 1 oz (30 ml)  of chlorine and test. If it's too high  (hard to tell with DPD since it can bleach out and read low) you might want to pick up a cheap 2 way kit (sanitizer and pH) with OTO (comparator blocks are yellow instead of red) OTO won't bleach out but the comparator probably one goes to about 5 ppm. You want a deeper yellow color than the deepest block but not orange  or brown and you are in the ballpark. IF the sanitizer is still low add another 30 ml and test. Once you see how much you need to shock to about 10-12 ppm put in the floater and adjust it to maintain a 3-5 ppm bromine level. I like to take out the floater while I'm soaking and put it back in afterwards. Shock once a week with the amount of chlorine you determined will bring you to about 10-12 ppm Check sanitizer and pH daily and other parameters (TA and CH weekly and you are good to go.

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12 hours ago, waterbear said:

create your bromide reserve with ultra start. shock with the chlorine and then test bromine level. YOu want to get it to around 10 -12 ppm. In 1000 L tub I would start with about 1 oz (30 ml)  of chlorine and test. If it's too high  (hard to tell with DPD since it can bleach out and read low) you might want to pick up a cheap 2 way kit (sanitizer and pH) with OTO (comparator blocks are yellow instead of red) OTO won't bleach out but the comparator probably one goes to about 5 ppm. You want a deeper yellow color than the deepest block but not orange  or brown and you are in the ballpark. IF the sanitizer is still low add another 30 ml and test. Once you see how much you need to shock to about 10-12 ppm put in the floater and adjust it to maintain a 3-5 ppm bromine level. I like to take out the floater while I'm soaking and put it back in afterwards. Shock once a week with the amount of chlorine you determined will bring you to about 10-12 ppm Check sanitizer and pH daily and other parameters (TA and CH weekly and you are good to go.

Thanks again! Working on this now. I actually did (anticipating what you would say) pick up the Ultra Start and pucks yesterday. They actually had the OTO Pentair test kits, I believe I saw, at this store yesterday. I'll get that, and I'm also going to get a water sample in to them to test, and I'll use the same water sample and test with my ColorQ 2X, and the Pentair test, and my test strips. Will be interesting. 

I know that I'll be able to use other chemicals and pucks from say my local/closer to home Canadian Tire, but I'm going to this leisure store, which sells games and Beachcomber tubs, because they test my water free and I can use that as a verification. Once I am fully confident in my water skillz, hopefully by summer, I'll not need them anymore. Honestly the lady there is really dumb, and any time I ask her anything she just doesn't have a clue, and basically only knows how to run the machine. 

I asked yesterday if they know if it automatically deals with MPS interference, if they had an additive for that, she had no clue what MPS was, just pointed me to their 2 step chemicals and said use that. I said that's just MPS, I already have some from Canadian Tire and don't want to use it anymore, nor theirs. She said theirs is different and I can't use other stuff. I argued, it's the same. The ingredients are literally that, MPS. So I just disregard anything they say, it's been like that for months whenever I go there. So I just give them water samples and wait for the report. Once a month. 

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hello @waterbear would you mind reviewing this report? Got my water tested at the store just for fun today. So last night I had actually put in the Ultra Start. Exactly 125ml as the bottle suggested for 1000L tub. PH was 7.5. TA was 90. Then I shocked with 10.3% pool chlorine. About 90 ml total i believe (edit: over a couple doses, see following post). And I had the bromine reading as about 9.0 when I went to bed. Checked in my ColorQ and test strips. 
 

this morning I tested again and bromine was 0.28 I think (they read 0.3 at the store). Firstly. Why? I guess I had hoped it would stay active until the morning. I put the floater in with the bromine pucks but I did not open it, I guess I wanted to see if it would stay high and didn’t want to risk having it super high overnight with the floater open. I will open it when I get home today, and shock with a little chlorine to 4+ ppm.
 

the pool store analysis is attached. They tested and said TDS is over 1500. They want me to drain the pool. I’m like, I just filled it 1.5 months ago. They thought that was weird it was so high and had no explanation. It specifically states that it’s “1500 over initial levels”. I asked what that means, as I did NOT get the water tested there when I filled it fresh (Halloween day). So what initial levels are they comparing to that they know it went 1500 over? She had no idea what I was talking about. She offered to test tap water as a comparison. but actually didn’t, and she said it would not be zero but would be some lower number than 1500. I’m like "ok so I’m 1500 over what exactly?" she did not know.
 

should I really worry about their TDS report? Reading on these forums in other threads about TDS, I'm guessing this is a non-issue and just the store telling me what a machine says
 

they also tested bromine to be the same levels I did. PH and ALK and CH are similar to what my machine and strips showed. 
 

I picked up the OTO test kit for $20. Will try next test session later today. But at this time it seems my strips and ColorQ match their test machine. I’d just have to go back and do another test with a higher bromine reading in the water to confirm it reads the same. 

based on their TDS reading. Do I have a major problem that is causing the chlorine (previously) and now Bromine to not last overnight? Or is this drop overnight expected, and I should just have opened the damn floater and stop experimenting?...

Biofilm? I asked two of them at the store and they had no clue what biofilm was. 
 

She also wrote a phosphates value of 2655 on the sheet. I asked her what that meant and she had no idea, literally. She just said it isn’t in the standard report, so she writes it on. She had no clue if it’s high, low, what the range should be, or any info at all when I asked her about it.  

 

This was post edited a few times...

81A9A436-0CD4-4F35-999A-D248FEB1AF73.jpeg

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@waterbear Sorry I should add that last night I actually did 40ml chlorine almost exactly as you suggested  I did some calculations and came to that before you even posted it,  it only measured BR 4.0,  that’s how I ended up putting some more in until I got it to 9. I stopped at 9 because it was late and it was pretty close to 10.
 

and the only things I’ve been adding to my water since this fill just over 5 weeks ago, is dichlor to get to CYA30. SHC pool chlorine. TA decreaser a few doses (liquid form). Calcium at initial fill. And a few jugs of RO water to top it up when it gets low. I believe that’s about it.   

Oh and the water stinks now. Not sure how to describe the smell. It’s pretty pungent after opening the lid even when BR read zero this morning. 

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10 hours ago, orellius said:

 asked yesterday if they know if it automatically deals with MPS interference, if they had an additive for that, she had no clue what MPS was, just pointed me to their 2 step chemicals and said use that. I said that's just MPS, I already have some from Canadian Tire and don't want to use it anymore, nor theirs. She said theirs is different and I can't use other stuff. I argued, it's the same. The ingredients are literally that, MPS. So I just disregard anything they say, it's been like that for months whenever I go there. So I just give them water samples and wait for the report. Once a month. 

That is called being 'pool stored' (with a nod to Ben Powell and his Pool forum, the first forum that taught how to use common household chemicals to care for pools and spas such as bleach, baking soda, and borax instead of "liquid chlorine, total alkalinity increaser, and such products as pH up --borax is better since it has a much smaller impact on Total Alkalinity and specialty borate produces like Gentle Spa, Optimizer, and Supreme, which are all basically borax). They want to sell you as much as they can to maximize profits, will swear that their expen$ive total alkalinity increaser is different than plain baking soda from the grocer because theirs is sodium hydrogen carbonate and not sodium bicarbonate, which are just two different names for the same chemical, and will not really know how to properly test water and depend on a machine and a computer program to print out a report of what to do because they have no clue as to the chemistry of your water! Beware and learn yourself, test your water yourself. It's not hard!

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On 12/8/2020 at 3:08 PM, orellius said:

this morning I tested again and bromine was 0.28 I think (they read 0.3 at the store). Firstly. Why? I guess I had hoped it would stay active until the morning. I put the floater in with the bromine pucks but I did not open it, I guess I wanted to see if it would stay high and didn’t want to risk having it super high overnight with the floater open. I will open it when I get home today, and shock with a little chlorine to 4+ ppm.
Open the floater! It might take a week or two to adjust it correctly but open it a littie and wais a day or two and test and continue until your sanitizer is holding at the desired level (3-5 ppm for bromine)

the pool store analysis is attached. They tested and said TDS is over 1500. They want me to drain the pool. I’m like, I just filled it 1.5 months ago. They thought that was weird it was so high and had no explanation. It specifically states that it’s “1500 over initial levels”. I asked what that means, as I did NOT get the water tested there when I filled it fresh (Halloween day). So what initial levels are they comparing to that they know it went 1500 over? She had no idea what I was talking about. She offered to test tap water as a comparison. but actually didn’t, and she said it would not be zero but would be some lower number than 1500. I’m like "ok so I’m 1500 over what exactly?" she did not know.
TDS is a bogus measurement! IF TDS mattered then every pool or spa using a salt generator would not work since the salt level is normally between 2000 to 6000 ppm, depending on the make and model. TDS would be higher than the salt level since it would also include the levels of calcium, bicarbonate (TA), cyanuric acid (chlorine stabilizer) or hydantoin (stabilizer in in bromine tabs), and other ionic species in the water.

should I really worry about their TDS report? No Reading on these forums in other threads about TDS, I'm guessing this is a non-issue and just the store telling me what a machine says Pretty much
 

they also tested bromine to be the same levels I did. PH and ALK and CH are similar to what my machine and strips showed. 
Why type of reagents are they using? Liqiud, Powder or tablet, strips, no reagents but just using electrodes in the sample? I couldn't find that much information on the Tethys system for pool/spa use. My guess is that they have a UV300 model with chlorine, TDS, and pH probes. From what I can find out this system is not optimized for pool/spa use so it much be interfacing with custom software from a different manufacturer, most likely the manufacturer of the pool/spa products that the printout is trying to sell you. Just about every meter system on the market for pool store use is designed to sell you as much product as it can, including things you don't need and often have you dosing two products at the same time that should be put in separately with several hours between dosing or  an unwanted reaction could occur, such as adding TA increaser (baking soda) and CH increaser (calcium chloride, either anhydrous or dihydrate) at the same time which only results in the precipitation of calcium carbonate out of solution andpssibly making your water cloudy and does not have the desired effect of raising either TA or CH. They can then sell you a clarifier for the water and more TA an CH increaser since your levels are still too low!

I picked up the OTO test kit for $20. Will try next test session later today. But at this time it seems my strips and ColorQ match their test machine. I’d just have to go back and do another test with a higher bromine reading in the water to confirm it reads the same. 

Once again, both the strips and ColorQ can bleach out. IF their machine is using a chlorine probe how accurate a reading depends on the age of the probe and how often they replace it(they wear out and my guess is they don't replace it) and how often it is calibrated (my guess is not very often)

based on their TDS reading. Do I have a major problem that is causing the chlorine (previously) and now Bromine to not last overnight? Or is this drop overnight expected, and I should just have opened the damn floater and stop experimenting?...
TDS is bogus, open the damn floater!


Biofilm? I asked two of them at the store and they had no clue what biofilm was. 
Are you really surprised?

She also wrote a phosphates value of 2655 on the sheet. I asked her what that meant and she had no idea, literally. She just said it isn’t in the standard report, so she writes it on. She had no clue if it’s high, low, what the range should be, or any info at all when I asked her about it.  

Phosphate and phosphate removers are a great money maker for pool stores. Phosphate is algae food and the theory is that phosphate removers will prevent algae since the phosphate remover removed the algae food and phosphate levels are easy to test. The problem is that this only works if phosphate is the limiting factor in algae growth and it usually ise not. Nitrate is also algae food and removing phosphate will have no real effect on algae growth if nitrate is present, and isy usually is if you a plagued by algae blooms. Nitrate  isnot normally tested in pool water. Then there is the fact that chlorine or bromine is the BEST algaecide and if you want to keep algae in check you can also add 30-50 ppm borate to the water or use a 60% Polyquat algacide (the only kind I would recommend using). Phosphate removers work by adding a Lanthanum salt to the water which causes the phosphate to precipitate out as Lanthanum Phosphate, causing the water to go cloudy for a few days until it is filtered out by your filter, which is now clogged and needs to be cleaned or replaced. There are a very few cases where phospahte remover can be beneficial but I would only recommend them as a last resort when all other ways of controlling algae have failed.

 

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@waterbear Again thanks for the continued support. I need to email you a beer gift certificate or something for all the help (can be arranged!).

I am in kind of a panic situation now. Panicking that I will have to dump the tub again after only like 6 weeks. It's frickin cold up here, and the $200 water truck thing, not ideal! I'll try to keep it short, but that's not easy, and am still hoping this is not a biofilm issue.

Firstly, they are using a tester that looks like this (pictured), I can't find the brand, and couldn't see the name from my angle when I was there. It uses these discs (in the photo). It's probably irrelevant, as I may just have water issues. 

Ok so I did already open the floater that day of course. I have the floater shown below, Beachcomber one. 

I opened it to about 2 slots showing, which was about what I had to open it to with the chlorine pucks this summer. I also boosted the chlorine and read I believe 3.0 BR. Wednesday morning it tested at about 0.5 BR again. I opened the floater some more, boosted it with SHC chlorine (50-75 ml, I forget, reading was about 4 BR). 10-12 hours later after work, I tested 0.5 BR. WTF. I tested similar results with that OTO test you recommended. I then opened the floater a bit more, boosted it a bit with chlorine so it made a reading and left it overnight. Forget what the actual reading was. 

Wednesday morning it read around 0.5 BR again opened the floater even more. I put in a little more chlorine to boost it, and tested half hour later, on both tests got about 4.0 BR, great!

After work Wednesday (yesterday), 0-0.5 BR again. I opened it a couple more slots (seemed crazy how much I opened it to), and boosted again, a little higher this time, I read 8.0 BR on both tests.  

I then used the tub last night for 15 min a couple hours later, just me, cause hey I wanted to see what it was like to sit in bromine, lol. That was the only use, nobody has gone in it since I added the bromine on Monday night. 

This morning it was 0.5 again. WTF again. I did not boost with chlorine this morning, but I did open the damn floater ALL THE WAY. It is completely full of pucks, and fully extended. It seems crazy, but what is the alternative? I needed to let it sit all day so I can test tonight, and see SOME KIND OF RESULT. With all my previous floater openings, nothing was happening. Will be interesting to see when I get home. 

One thing I noticed is the Ultra Start from Beachcomber label says 125ml to start and get the reserve (per 1000L, which is my tub size so pretty hard to screw that up), then it says add 30 ml weekly. The guides I see on these forums do not mention a weekly dose, it's more of a set and forget thing, upon filling with water. So is there an issue with the level of reserve they recommend to start with, and I need more?

Do I need to do a much higher shock with the chlorine? again my initial one only read about 9.0 after the bromine reserve was put in, and chlorine added. 

The circulation is on a 3 hour, 4 times a day setup as recommended by the people who sold it to us. Every time I open the lid, the floater is freely moving about and not stuck at the suction/filter intake. 

Our tub has a microchip inside of it so the heater can go past 104. It's a 5 degree mod chip of sorts, installed at factory. So it really goes up to 109F. We have it set to 101, which is 106, confirmed with digital thermometers. 106 Because it's cold up here, and we want it hotter as we only go in 15 min at a time. Hoping temperature is not affecting it. Apparently the chip is a Canada thing, everyone gets it on these RotoSpas.

 

Water Care | Beachcomber Edmonton

 

image.png.6cc8224d1fd2a511e07676b744f047c1.png

 

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1 hour ago, orellius said:

Firstly, they are using a tester that looks like this (pictured), I can't find the brand, and couldn't see the name from my angle when I was there. It uses these discs (in the photo). It's probably irrelevant, as I may just have water issues. 

LaMotte Spin Disc, a more accurate and precise version of the ColorQ that costs about 10 times as much with the same limitations but they are not using the LaMotte Waterlink Software based on your printout.

Ok so I did already open the floater that day of course. I have the floater shown below, Beachcomber one. 

Looks like a rebranded Pentair floater, in which case it's the best one you can get, IMHO.

 

 

Quote

I opened it to about 2 slots showing, which was about what I had to open it to with the chlorine pucks this summer. I also boosted the chlorine and read I believe 3.0 BR. Wednesday morning it tested at about 0.5 BR again. I opened the floater some more, boosted it with SHC chlorine (50-75 ml, I forget, reading was about 4 BR). 10-12 hours later after work, I tested 0.5 BR. WTF. I tested similar results with that OTO test you recommended. I then opened the floater a bit more, boosted it a bit with chlorine so it made a reading and left it overnight. Forget what the actual reading was. 

Wednesday morning it read around 0.5 BR again opened the floater even more. I put in a little more chlorine to boost it, and tested half hour later, on both tests got about 4.0 BR, great!

After work Wednesday (yesterday), 0-0.5 BR again. I opened it a couple more slots (seemed crazy how much I opened it to), and boosted again, a little higher this time, I read 8.0 BR on both tests.  

I then used the tub last night for 15 min a couple hours later, just me, cause hey I wanted to see what it was like to sit in bromine, lol. That was the only use, nobody has gone in it since I added the bromine on Monday night. 

This morning it was 0.5 again. WTF again. I did not boost with chlorine this morning, but I did open the damn floater ALL THE WAY. It is completely full of pucks, and fully extended. It seems crazy, but what is the alternative? I needed to let it sit all day so I can test tonight, and see SOME KIND OF RESULT. With all my previous floater openings, nothing was happening. Will be interesting to see when I get home. 

Let me know. It probably means you need to purge but before you do and drain and refill let me  give you an alternative to try (nuking the tub with Chlorine to about 20-30 ppm and letting it run uncovered until sanitizer level drops to a normal range. IF you do this you MUST est with OTO.) I will give you complete directions if you still can't get bromine to hold. Sometimes this is enough to "clean out the pipes'.

One thing I noticed is the Ultra Start from Beachcomber label says 125ml to start and get the reserve (per 1000L, which is my tub size so pretty hard to screw that up), then it says add 30 ml weekly. The guides I see on these forums do not mention a weekly dose, it's more of a set and forget thing, upon filling with water. So is there an issue with the level of reserve they recommend to start with, and I need more?

Probably not. I never add more sodium bromine until I drain and refill but some people do. As long as you are using a floater and bromine is stable just shock with chlorine weekly. IF shocking and the floater doesn't maintain the level then you can try adding more. Remember that the bromine tabs are also adding bromide to the water and should be maintaining your reserve. If you are doing 2 step without the tabs then the weekly addition might (notice I said might) be useful. 

Do I need to do a much higher shock with the chlorine? again my initial one only read about 9.0 after the bromine reserve was put in, and chlorine added. 

12-15 ppm, definitely greater than 10 ppm

The circulation is on a 3 hour, 4 times a day setup as recommended by the people who sold it to us. Every time I open the lid, the floater is freely moving about and not stuck at the suction/filter intake. 

You could try adding an hour to each cycle to see if that helps. Also, you are spreading them out every 6 hours? I used to run a 4 hour cycle every 8 hours when I had stand alone tubs with bromine. See what works best but give it at least a week before you change settings.

Our tub has a microchip inside of it so the heater can go past 104. It's a 5 degree mod chip of sorts, installed at factory. So it really goes up to 109F. We have it set to 101, which is 106, confirmed with digital thermometers. 106 Because it's cold up here, and we want it hotter as we only go in 15 min at a time. Hoping temperature is not affecting it. Apparently the chip is a Canada thing, everyone gets it on these RotoSpas.

Won't affect sanitation but it has been demonstrated that there are negative health effects on hot tub water hotter than 100 degrees.

"Water temperature

The temperature of a hot tub should never be hotter than 40°C (104°F) (or 38.9°C (102.0 F) if you are pregnant). Sitting in hot water for a long time can cause severe heat-related illnesses, such as nausea, dizziness or fainting, and even death. Avoid staying in the hot tub for more than 10 minutes at one time. Have a clock visible nearby to keep track of time."

https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthlinkbc-files/hot-tub-pool-safety

"Hot Tub Temperatures -- CPSC knows of several deaths from extremely hot water (approximately 110 degrees Fahrenheit) in a spa. High temperatures can cause drowsi-ness which may lead to unconsciousness, resulting in drowning. In addition, raised body temperature can lead to heat stroke and death. In 1987, CPSC helped develop requirements for temperature controls to make sure that spa water temperatures never exceed 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Pregnant women and young children should not use a spa before consulting with a physician. "

http://www.linkshoa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/3-Hot-Tub-Dangers.pdf

There are a lot ofother links on the net from various hot tub dealers and health agencies that say the same thing, in addition to alcohol use in a hot tub and children in a hot tub.

I need to email you some beer or something for all the help.

Pay it forward and help someone that needs help in your field of expertise! ;)

 

 

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@waterbear(not sure if I need to keep doing that, ha). Yes it makes sense that it is a Pentair one, and I already saw a post you did, this morning, you may have posted years ago, telling someone the Pentair one was best, and it looked like mine so I assumed I had one! Felt good to have one thing right. And the same store sells rebranded (as Beachcomber) Pentair OTO test kits, thats the one I got the other day. So it makes sense, Beachcomber is in bed with Pentair. I'm wanting to return it actually, the yellow scale on the left is all the same, there is literally no visible difference in all the colors. I have excellent vision and I'm not color blind, and I got 2 others to look and they can't see a difference. So I just think it's a piece of sh!t. Yellow, the same shade of yellow, and some more yellow of the same shade...

And my area of expertise is commercial grade surveying drones and laser scanning. I teach courses on it. I pay it back every day! :)

Oh and I got fixed so if my wife is pregnant I have bigger problems than water chemistry. 

I guess it's time for a super shock. Just not sure how to measure it properly when the scale on that tester is such ass. Might have to go find another one. Is testing with this kit what you wanted to give me directions on? Just a guess, but a diluted sample of some sort, and multiplying the results?

Edit: you wrote: You could try adding an hour to each cycle to see if that helps. Also, you are spreading them out every 6 hours? I used to run a 4 hour cycle every 8 hours when I had stand alone tubs with bromine. See what works best but give it at least a week before you change settings.

I don't have control over that, I can just set the D (duration) and F (frequency). It must split them up evenly over a 24 hour period

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Sorry one more. I’m actually leVing work early to go and try to shock this thing so I can try and get it back down before bed time and not leave it open all night. So if you had any tips on the test would be great. Not sure how to know if I’m getting 30ppm. I’m guessing I’d probably need like 2 cups to get up there. Or more. 
 

again I’m using Aquarius SHC. 10%

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11 hours ago, orellius said:

Not sure how to know if I’m getting 30ppm

Assuming you have an adequate bromide bank built up then:

235 ml of 6% unscented liquid chlorine laundry bleach without thickeners, additives, detergents, etc. House brand is fine, Clorox works too but costs more.

265 ml of 5.25% bleach

145 ml of 10% liquid pool chlorine

115 ml of 12.5% liquid pool chlorine

(all of the above are sodium hypochlorite in different concentrations)

or

27 grams dichlor

All will raise your bromine  by  approx. 30 ppm. You want to run the spa uncovered continuously until sanitizer drops to below 10 ppm. I would try this before purging. It often takes care of the problem except in severe cases. Use OTO for testing! DPD WILL bleach out!

The attached chart by Ben Powell of The Pool Forum shows approximate OTO colors for high chlorine levels. To convert the chart to bromine multiply the ppm shown for each color by 2.25 (multiplying by 2 is close enough!) You are looking for a deep yellow to almost orange color or a FC level of around 15 ppm to equal a total bromine level of about 30 ppm (actually the 13 ppm color on the chard is what you want to aim for, a very deep yellow leaning toward the orange slightly. Don't worry about trying to be exact here, we are just trying to get into the ballpark.

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php/23549-Interpreting-OTO-results

OTO-rev 01.jpg

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12 hours ago, orellius said:

he yellow scale on the left is all the same, there is literally no visible difference in all the colors.

Yeah, Pentair only goes to 3 ppm ( 6 ppm bromine)  and the colors are close. Taylor K-1000 goes to 5 ppm (10 ppm bromine)  as do some of the other cheap oto test kits like HTH.  Not a fan of the Pentair kits. Here is a Taylor comparator so you can see the difference

3075.jpg

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On 12/11/2020 at 7:52 PM, waterbear said:

Not quite what I meant by nuking the tub!

@waterbear

Well. Good things appear to be happening. Admittedly I used a bit more chlorine than suggested (200ml), you know, go big or go home right?  I got some colors on the range I was looking for with the OTO test, and circulated the water for several hours with the lid open until it dropped to around 10 ppm, adjusted my PH (which had climbed to 8.6 with the jets going), got it back to 7.7. Closed the lid and let it sit overnight.

The following day I had 1.0 BR on tests, I boosted it to 3.0 with a bit of SHC, put in the floater again, and the following morning (yesterday) it was still at 3.0. Me and wife used the tub for 15 min, and I did not put anything in it afterward. Opened the floater one more notch, and this morning it was at 4.0. 

Fantastic! The floater seems to be wider than I'd think it should be, it's half way open. But I'll take it. Recall, previous to the nuking, I had it fully extended and still no BR after 24 hours. So having it half open and maintaining a reserve is great. I'll keep an eye on it, hopefully now I can just shock it with SHC once a week and the floater keeps it in line. I'll probably try to close it a bit and get it around 2-3ppm instead. 

I am now getting consistent readings across test strips, my Lamotte ColorQ, and what the OTO reads (with the shitty color scale I can still approximate it).

Many, many thanks! I will definitely be buying Ahh-Some and doing that before draining, in a couple months. 

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One bit of advice. You CANNOT test pH when the sanitizer is high. For Taylor that means over 10 ppm, For Lamotte it's really 5 ppm even thought they say 10 ppm. For cheap kits like the Pentair, it's over about 3 ppm! Phenol Red (pH indicator) will react with high levels of both chlorine and bromine and either give a false high reading or turn a purple color that's not on the comparator at all.

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 12/3/2020 at 11:19 PM, RDspaguy said:

I'm saying it's ok if you have an ozone generator, as ozone burns off chlorine. That is not the same as chlorine demand. In a covered spa, you are the main (virtually only) source of contamination. If you add chlorine after you use the spa, about enough to establish a 2-3ppm per person (plus a little extra to be sure), you will sanitize the water. You close your cover, and soon have a 50% or higher cc (which would normally require a high ppm shock to eliminate) but nothing else is getting in there. Meanwhile, your ozone is burning off your cc, then your remaining fc down to .5ppm or so.

I also am starting to suspect a biofilm issue in my tub with what seems to be excessive sanitizer consumption without bathing, but I want to clarify this comment. Does ozone also destroy FC in a short timespan? Same for bromine? I'm assuming this is resulting in inactive chlorites/chorates and bromites/bromates but I thought that would be a slower process.

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