kelclsub Posted February 22 Report Share Posted February 22 For the past few months, I've really been struggling with my spa. I have an Artesian Margarita Elite. I haven't gotten in the tub in MANY months because I'm constantly fighting the water chemistry, and am always worried it's not safe. I didn't use to have this issue, water chemistry was relatively easy to maintain. I've done a full deep clean overnight with Ahhsome, refilled, had the same issue. I've done another deep clean a few months later with Oh Yuk. Now, this time, I did the Oh Yuk again overnight, rinsed very well, filled with clean water, dumped again, and refilled. I'm keeping a spreadsheet now so I can follow the numbers and what I'm adding to get help from someone. I'm even doing the digital test and strip test each time (strips are so hard to read, but I'm worried the digital isn't super accurate). Again, my alkalinity stays low, my pH goes high, and my chlorine disappears. I've attached the excel spreadsheet in hopes that it helps someone tell me what I'm doing wrong. PLEASE HELP!!!!!! Hot Tub.xlsx Hot Tub.xlsx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterbear Posted February 22 Report Share Posted February 22 your spreadsheets are unavailable and without the numbers it's impossible to say what's going on. Exactly how are you testing? What digital tester are you using and what test strips? Test strips, while precise (give the same results on multiple tests on the same sample) are not really accurate (giving results that represent the actual water parameters). Post the numbers and how they were obtained, perhaps cut and paste, instead of trying to up load spreadsheets, and we can take it from there. What is your chlorine source? Are you by any chance using dichlor exclusively? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelclsub Posted February 22 Author Report Share Posted February 22 I just pasted it in, sorry! Using SpaBoss Chlor-Aid, but have used Leisure as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterbear Posted February 22 Report Share Posted February 22 First of all, you also need to test for cyanuric acid if you are using chlorine,. This is chlorine stabilizer and dichlor (the form of chlorine you are using) adds 9 ppm cyanuric acid for every 10 ppm free chlorine added. This can quickly lead to overstabilizerd water (the chlorine is chemically bound to the stabilizer and is not available for sanittation. Strips are useless for measuring total alkalinity since they do not have the precisoin needed. The scale is too big. You need a precision of +/- 10 ppm. I would suggest in investing in a Taylor Technoligies K-2006 (FAS-DPD chlorine test method) test kit. It uses liquid reagents and is worth every penny! (Don't get the K-2005 (DPD chlorine test method), it uses a different chlorine testing method that is not as good and has several drawback. The test is is easy to use and Taylor Technologies has videos on their website explaining how to use the kit. Your low sanitizer levels might be low sanitizer or it might be bleachout of the strips because of high sanitizer. This is another drawback of strips and also of the DPD testing method. You want to keep your TA (alkalinity) between 50 to 70 ppm for best pH stability. These posts might help explain what TA is and how it works: https://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?/topic/52522-some-truths-about-ph-and-ta/ https://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?/topic/28846-lowering-total-alkalinity-howto/ IF and when you do need to raise TA don't use commercial product$ such as your Alkarise. It is nothing more than plain baking soda (sodium bicarbonate or sodium hydrogen carbonate, same thing). It's MUCH cheaper to get it at the grocery store. Finally, NEVER test pH when your sanitizer is above 10 ppm (strips or liquid reagents except for the Taylor pH reagent, which is good up to about 15 ppm sanitizer) because of an interference between high santizer and the phenol red indicator used to test pH. It will convert to chlorophenol red, which gives the same color changes at a much lower pH range which means that your test results might indicate the pH is 7.8 or even higher but in reality all we know is that it is above 6.8 (the highest pH chlorophenol red can test). Some inexpensive test kits will give wrong pH results if the sanitizer is above 3 - 5 ppm! Finally, if you are going to use chlorine, read about the dichlor bleach method, where dichlor is used to bring the cynaruic acid level to 20 -30 ppm and then switching to liquid chlorine or plain, unscented chlorine bleach (same thing, different strengths) since bleach (sodium hypochlorite) does not add cyaunric acid. Some of the informaton in these posts is either out of date or wrong but for the most part they are good guides. https://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?/topic/23090-dichlorbleach-method-in-a-nutshell/ https://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?/topic/13634-nitros-approach-to-water-maintaince/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelclsub Posted February 22 Author Report Share Posted February 22 1 hour ago, waterbear said: Finally, if you are going to use chlorine, read about the dichlor bleach method, where dichlor is used to bring the cynaruic acid level to 20 -30 ppm and then switching to liquid chlorine or plain, unscented chlorine bleach (same thing, different strengths) since bleach (sodium hypochlorite) does not add cyaunric acid. Some of the informaton in these posts is either out of date or wrong but for the most part they are good guides. https://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?/topic/23090-dichlorbleach-method-in-a-nutshell/ https://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?/topic/13634-nitros-approach-to-water-maintaince/ My accuchek has "ppm Stabilizer" and it's reading very low, "0." Is that the cynauric acid? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterbear Posted February 27 Report Share Posted February 27 yes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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