after routine spa water change, do I need to SLAM

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3dogowner

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LifeTime Supporter
Oct 11, 2014
47
Seattle, WA
Hit the 4 month mark on my chlorine based spa after conversion from Baquacil - using the methods from TFP with great success. I was having only a 20-25% over night FC loss at 98-100F, great water clarity, no foaming. Decided to go ahead and change the water in spite of it being in great condition b/c I had the time, needed to replace the weir and now have some Ahh-some. Did 2 treatments with minimal, then almost no gunk on the second round. Finished out by emptying, wiping down, rinsing, emptying as much as possible, then refilling.

After adding my calcium, baking soda, leftover Gentle Spa and muriatic acid per PM, then finally bleach I have the following:
CH is 140
TA 50
pH 7.2
Borates 30-50
FC 10.5 and CC 0
CYA was added to attain 30, but I won't test the level for another 10-14 days.
I'm also going to wait on retesting the Borate for a few days before making any further adjustments.

Two questions:
1: do I have to SLAM now? If I understood some earlier threads, SLAMing doesn't hold for spas.....should I just see if I'm 20-25% or less in my over night FC loss and call it good?
2: did I need to shock after the refill... I shocked cause I thought it was what I was supposed to do, but now what? Could I have just added enough bleach to get to 5-6 and stopped there? instead of the shock level of 10 (assume zero dissolved CYA)? I haven't been shocking at all the last 4 months......just using maintenance 3.5oz 8.25% bleach per 1 person hr, dropping the temp when OOT, and testing and using PM when needed.

Water is sparkly beautiful!
 
You don't need to SLAM. Just see if your 24-hour loss is good (it's not overnight since spas are covered and not exposed to sunlight). The 25% loss (or less) would be with no ozonator. With an ozonator the loss is higher because ozone reacts with chlorine.

You should not need to shock your spa. You don't need to do that in a pool either. If you properly maintain the chlorine level that the spa will be in good shape. You do need to add enough chlorine after each soak to oxidize the bather waste. You shouldn't need to use MPS (potassium monopersulfate -- I presume that's what you meant by PM) with a proper chlorine regimen though if you already have some and want to use it to oxidize some of the bather waste you can.
 
chem geek said:
You don't need to SLAM. Just see if your 24-hour loss is good (it's not overnight since spas are covered and not exposed to sunlight). The 25% loss (or less) would be with no ozonator. With an ozonator the loss is higher because ozone reacts with chlorine.

You should not need to shock your spa. You don't need to do that in a pool either. If you properly maintain the chlorine level that the spa will be in good shape. You do need to add enough chlorine after each soak to oxidize the bather waste. You shouldn't need to use MPS (potassium monopersulfate -- I presume that's what you meant by PM) with a proper chlorine regimen though if you already have some and want to use it to oxidize some of the bather waste you can.
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Thank you very much, thats exactly the kind of help and advice im looking for.
 
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