I have a new (last year) fiberglass spa and when I purchased it the dealer gave me the 'Spa Frog' system. I have been using it as stated but I don't sem to have water that is quite as clear as my old bromine tab spa. What are the thoughts of this mineral based system? What are the guidelines for maintaining chemistry with these?
Spa Frog
- Thread starter kgriggs
- Start date
I'm not a fan of the Frog in general, but some use them in spas with more success than pools. You still have to maintain proper levels tho. Can you post a full set of results from the spa? How are you testing?
You can read about mineral ionizers here:
http://www.troublefreepool.com/alternative-sanitizers-and-chemical-free-pools-the-truth-t3025.html
You can read about mineral ionizers here:
http://www.troublefreepool.com/alternative-sanitizers-and-chemical-free-pools-the-truth-t3025.html
I was told that I would need to maintain very little bromine if I used the frog. Lately I have been maintaining normal levels with the floater and basically treating it like a bromine dispenser. I'm thinking when I use up my CASE of bromine cartridges I will let the frog leap on out of the spa.
And I am testing with a Leslies/Taylors kit, a DPD kit. I will test tomorrow and post my results. Still trying to get the hang of all this teating and chemical stuff for the pool and the spa. UGH!
kgriggs said:
We were all "told" alot of things. Most of it is pure hogwash.
I'd ditch the frog - it's expensive to replace the mineral cartridge and honestly - you don't need it.
Today's test:
Taylor's drop test:
Total Bromine 4
pH 7.8
TA 90
Dip tests:
Hardness 180-250 (2 tests)
CYA 30
TDS 500
Taylor's drop test:
Total Bromine 4
pH 7.8
TA 90
Dip tests:
Hardness 180-250 (2 tests)
CYA 30
TDS 500
Using Bromine in a Spa
Using Chlorine in a Spa
Your numbers look good. Read the bromine link above for more info. It didn't sound like you initially created a sodium bromide bank and just started with bromine tabs so you might not be able to create enough bromine by shocking with chlorine or MPS at least at first. So if you skipped that initial step, you could add some sodium bromide to the water to be sure you have enough. Just remember that the floating feeder isn't going to give you enough sanitizer/oxidizer to handle your bather waste. It's designed to handle the times when you aren't using the spa. You need to add chlorine or MPS after your soak to handle your bather waste. A rough rule-of-thumb is that every person-hour of soaking in a hot (104ºF) spa needs around 5 fluid ounces of 6% bleach or 7 teaspoons of MPS. This assumes that you don't have an ozonator. With an ozonator, the amounts that are needed are roughly half. These are just guidelines and you should use your test kit as a guide to whether you are adding enough.
Using Chlorine in a Spa
Your numbers look good. Read the bromine link above for more info. It didn't sound like you initially created a sodium bromide bank and just started with bromine tabs so you might not be able to create enough bromine by shocking with chlorine or MPS at least at first. So if you skipped that initial step, you could add some sodium bromide to the water to be sure you have enough. Just remember that the floating feeder isn't going to give you enough sanitizer/oxidizer to handle your bather waste. It's designed to handle the times when you aren't using the spa. You need to add chlorine or MPS after your soak to handle your bather waste. A rough rule-of-thumb is that every person-hour of soaking in a hot (104ºF) spa needs around 5 fluid ounces of 6% bleach or 7 teaspoons of MPS. This assumes that you don't have an ozonator. With an ozonator, the amounts that are needed are roughly half. These are just guidelines and you should use your test kit as a guide to whether you are adding enough.