Refill and using Aqua Clarity/Ahhsome

Jump to latest Follow Reply
M

mayberry32

Silver Supporter
Jun 24, 2019
226
Watkinsville, GA
I’ve had my hot tub about four months and used Ahhsome about a month into owning it. Figured it was about time for a refill and had time today. Also wanted to get some of my chemistry in better balance. My calcium was a little high and I’ve itched a little the last few times I’ve used the tub. I’ve been using aqua clarity weekly since I refilled 3 months ago. I had a tub of Ahhsome already, so I went ahead and ran it before draining, to get a really good second purge out of it. Almost nothing came out of the pipes this time at all. So, the Aqua Clarity was doing its job.

My question is do I automatically run aqua clarity when I refill, or do I wait a week and then start the cycle over?
 
Shock granules might be dichlor.

If you purged with Ahh-Some! there are some experts here who will tell you less is better yet condone using Aqua Clarity. My opinion is clean is clean and if you are doing everything else right you dont need Aqua Clarity.

Maybe it can't hurt anything and it's a good insurance policy? I still believe less is more.

To answer your question, your second Ahh-Some purge being non-producive for the most part is an excellent indicator you didn't need to do it. Once every six months to a year is likely sufficient.

Your comments on CH and mention of itching demand my attention 😉

Do you have a drop test kit to measure CH? What is it?

Getting itchy from using the hot tub usually means you don't have sufficient sanitizer. That's REALLY bad. Have you read the sticky pinned to the top of this forum?

Link

To start use the dichlor and keep track of how much so you can aim for about 30 ppm using the web based calculator (link is below, Old PoolMath Webpage). Not all at once of course!

Oh, almost forgot to ask, are you cleaning your filter(s) every week or two?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mdragger88
I phrased that wrong. I overshot my calcium hardness on the last fill, and it took a while to get it back down. I know that has nothing to do with the itching. I also overshot on the CYA last time, and it finally got it back down to the 20–30 range, where it is supposed to be.

I clean my filters every couple of weeks and I do have the TFT drop kit that I also use for my pool.

I’m not sure exactly how much the aqua clarity does, but I will say when I use it, the water is extra clear.
 
mayberry32 said:
I phrased that wrong. I overshot my calcium hardness on the last fill, and it took a while to get it back down. I know that has nothing to do with the itching. I also overshot on the CYA last time, and it finally got it back down to the 20–30 range, where it is supposed to be.

I clean my filters every couple of weeks and I do have the TFT drop kit that I also use for my pool.

I’m not sure exactly how much the aqua clarity does, but I will say when I use it, the water is extra clear.
Click to expand...

I looked up your startup thread. It appeared you were shy on good levels of CHL from the onset - I'm going to repeat myself ... if you were itchy it's almost certain your water did not contain sufficient CHL levels to maintain sanitation.

This chart shows the minimum needed. For a CYA of 30 it should never be allowed to go below 2, with suggested target of 4 to 6. If you have any difficulty maintaining that it's probably best to check CC.

Were your "shock granules" dichlor? I would not put anything in your water without being sure what it is first... I hope you had a chance to read the sticky. There's a link called pool school that has a lot of good info too.

Edit: I hope you'll forgive me if I came off preachy!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mdragger88
Not at all. I’m just now getting it back up to 90°, where I can start adding chemistry for start up. This is the Dichlor that I have.

I felt like everything was off, and I had to get it in check after start up last time. Also tried to use the frog @ease system again last month when we went out Of town. Never will I try that again.

Without anything added to the water, right now my pH is 7.5, my CH is 25, my alkalinity is 30 and chlorine, of course, zero. About to add Dichlor to get FC up and get the alkalinity up to 50.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    273.1 KB · Views: 7
Yes, that's dichlor. You mentioned dichlor or shock granules? Did you mean a second product?

Alkalinity measurement is a little tricky, add drops until there's no further color change and subtract the last one. A reading of 40 is good too, and maybe 30 but if it's really 30 I've seen warnings not to try and push it lower than 40 or you risk crashing it (no idea what that means but it don't sound good).

I started with enough dichlor to begin around 4 or 5 FC so I could measure it. Just add as needed to keep it there until you hit 30 CYA and switch to CHL. The old Poolmath link at the bottom of this page can calculate that, but I just do the math.

CH can help keep foaming at bay, but if you refill frequently foaming may not even happen. One of our expert contributors suggests changing water every couple months. (Link)

Aqua-Clarity? No clue, to me it represents an unknown.
 
I definitely have some foam with this fresh fill. pH is 7.6. CH is 100, FC is holding steady at 4. Alkalinity is 50. Aerating with everything in it and bring temp up. It’s at 95°right now. Hopefully, the foam dies down
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    404.5 KB · Views: 5

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Could the foam be Ahh-Some! or Aqua Clarity? What's in there besides dichlor? I'm puzzled why you have foam because mine takes months just to begin to foam a little bit.

Most folk here add (only) dichlor or straight CYA, chlorine, muriatic acid, and maybe boric acid.
 
I will say, after purging, draining, cleaning, refilling and balancing water, I’m about 8 hours In to get the water up to temp and chemistry pretty well balanced . Not overly difficult, but definitely time consuming. And that was using a sump pump to drain it. I’ll be converting to saltwater simply to stretch out hot often I have to do this. Calling to order the Hot Springs conversion kit tomorrow morning.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Methuselah
With or without a swg you should purge, drain, & refill every 4- 6 months.
The only reason you would need to do it sooner is because of not maintaining adequate fc at all times for your cya level or having an extremely high bather load. A swg may make that fc maintenance easier to accomplish but it is possible to do so with just dichlor & bleach as well.
If you plan to add the hot springs freshwater swg do not increase ch - they require you to maintain a low ch level to prevent fouling the expensive disposable cells.

The system can be expensive to maintain as the cells don’t always last their advertised time so many opt for a drape over unit instead (saltron mini or controlomatic unit) that can often be hidden in the filter compartment.

About your Ahhsome question-
I always wait until the following week or a few days to add Aqua Clarity incase there’s still some residual Ahhsome that may cause foaming.
 
mayberry32 said:
I definitely have some foam with this fresh fill. pH is 7.6. CH is 100, FC is holding steady at 4. Alkalinity is 50. Aerating with everything in it and bring temp up. It’s at 95°right now. Hopefully, the foam dies down
Click to expand...

Oh!

Sorry I missed that. Aerating.

Normally when you are aerating, it's to push PH upwards after using acid.

Hopefully it's all good now. Feel free to post your numbers if you want but I suspect you are good.

I’ve added Dichlor, some pH Down, calcium hardness increaser and alkalinity increaser. That’s it. Water seems balanced very well.
Click to expand...

Odd combination, but if it works it works.

I like a low(er) TA because aeration in the hot tub will drive PH upwards more slowly. Lowering TA with mercuric acid also lowers PH, aeration will bring it back up. I suppose at some point if I've got TA as low as I want to go and PH was too high, I'd have to forgo the acid and figure out what to use. That hasn't happened yet.

Once you get the hang of all this and decide on a set of numbers to shoot for, the web page calculator also makes suggestions :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply