I've been a hot tub owner for 2 months and have been struggling with maintaining my Bromine at acceptable levels - based on test strips. I've learned a lot from this site regarding water chemistry (e.g. I had not been using any MPS nor bleach after a soak).
So, yesterday I tried something different. Before I got in the tub I tested it and the Bromine read 2 on the strip. After a 20 minute soak I added 1oz of 8.25% bleach - read it later in the day and the strip indicated the Bromine at 5 ppm - sweet! This morning I decided to compare the strip vs the Taylor kit. The strip indicated 0-1 Bromine - baah! Tested it with the kit and it indicated 4 ppm - that's more like it.
Anyway, the kit proved itself more accurate than the strips (as it should) and leads me to the following question....
- I did a test Monday with the new kit (didn't check Bromine) and got a Saturation reading of 0.2 on the Taylor Watergram. So, going forward, if I toss in a shot of beach after every use how often should I be testing the water? I'd like to think that I could just do a once a week check with the kit and not worry about using the strips every day like I have been doing. My ph kept getting on the low side too but I had been using MPS periodically to try to keep the Bromine up (based on strips) and now I understand that MPS tends to lower the ph.
Any advice is appreciated!
Thanks
So, yesterday I tried something different. Before I got in the tub I tested it and the Bromine read 2 on the strip. After a 20 minute soak I added 1oz of 8.25% bleach - read it later in the day and the strip indicated the Bromine at 5 ppm - sweet! This morning I decided to compare the strip vs the Taylor kit. The strip indicated 0-1 Bromine - baah! Tested it with the kit and it indicated 4 ppm - that's more like it.
Anyway, the kit proved itself more accurate than the strips (as it should) and leads me to the following question....
- I did a test Monday with the new kit (didn't check Bromine) and got a Saturation reading of 0.2 on the Taylor Watergram. So, going forward, if I toss in a shot of beach after every use how often should I be testing the water? I'd like to think that I could just do a once a week check with the kit and not worry about using the strips every day like I have been doing. My ph kept getting on the low side too but I had been using MPS periodically to try to keep the Bromine up (based on strips) and now I understand that MPS tends to lower the ph.
Any advice is appreciated!
Thanks