chemical readings of new setup - don't know what to do

[Bethel]

Hi All -
We just moved into a house that has a hot tub on the deck. As part of our agreement, we asked that they have the tub serviced, clean, and ready to go. The tub has(we were told has, at least) freshly filled water. But it looks a bit cloudy, and foams a lot when we run it. We have well water. They used bromine. I got a test kit, and here are the readings:

TC/TB - 0
pH - 8.6
TA - 1200
TH - 1600

I've read about the relationship between TA and pH, but with the TA being so high, will the overall chemistry work out ok if I keep adding acid, and running it until it goes down? And what do I add/do about the TH? Will adding bleach to reactivate the bromine matter or interact with all my #s being so high? Is is ok to use it with these #s and not get some disease?

I used info from this forum when I had one of the blow up donut pools, and you all are so helpful. I appreciate it so much!!!!

Beth L.

 

[Bethel]

ok, as some of you may have guessed, I made a mistake with my #s.

TA is 120 and TH is 160 (yes Beth, times by 10 not 100!!)

Ok so those #s are ok, and a lot of my concern in the last post is not applicable, but if you don't have anything better to do and still want to reply, that would be nice!

Beth

 

[Ohm_Boy]

I won't claim to be knowledgeable with hot tubs in general, and bromine in particular, but I'm pretty sure that a TC/TB level of zero is too low. You need a sanitizer. I *think* that bromine tabs may be somewhat slow-dissolving, so you may have tabs in a floater or other feeder which isn't registering yet, but if not, you will want to add some to raise the level - someone will correct me, but I am thinking a bromine reading around 3-5 should be good.

I would also suggest checking the pool calculator for the necessary additions to lower the ph a few points, maybe targeting 7.4-7.6

 

[JasonLion]

You should start by reading this post on using bromine in a spa, if you haven't already.

 

[Guest]

Also, you need to get rid of the test STRIPS you are using and get a decent test kit. For a bromine spa I would recommend a Taylor K-2106. You will probably have to order it from the internet since most dealers don't stock it. (The tip off that you are using strips was Total Hardness. Strips don't test for calcium hardness, which is what you are interested in. Total hardness is pretty much a meaningless test. The other possibility is that you are using one of the inexpensive Pentair test kits that tests total hardness...once again I say, get a good test kit!)

Without good (and trustable) test results you will never get the water balanced. Also, I seriously doubt that your TA and TH are as high as you state. I suspect you added an extra zero on to the numbers.