My husband and I purchased a used 2007 DE providence 2 (370 gal) that was in excellent shape. Before getting the hot tub up and going we spent hours looking up cleaning procedures and how to add chemicals. I felt like we had a good understanding of how to get our water balanced just right but now that we have it up and running I feel more lost than ever! I read waterbear's sticky on starting up a bromine spa. We filled the hot tub using a prefilter as we have some rather nasty well water. We let it get up to temp and tested before we added chemicals. TA and Ph were both high. We added about 2oz of broma-start and then added 2oz of spa gaurd shock-oxidizer. We waited a few hours and tested again. Bromine levels showed 0, and ph and ta were both still high. So we added 2.4 oz of spa essentials ph decreaser, waited 30 minutes and no change. So we added another 2.4 oz and still no change. The next day after work I decided to add 1oz of shock to see if bromine levels would rise, nothing! I added another 2.4 oz of ph decreaser as well and waited, tested again and still no change! We have 2 different brands of test strips and both are showing the same results bromine- 0, ph- 8.4, and ta- 240. We do have a floater with bromine tabs in as well but from what I've read they can take a while before they start to work in the water. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. Sorry to ramble, any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!
New spa, COMPLETLY lost on water chemistry
- Thread starter Veysma
- Start date
I'm sorry no one has been able to answer your questions. I keep my hot tub up with chlorine, so know bupkis about bromine.
You've read this, right??....
How do I use Bromine in my spa (or pool)?
You've read this, right??....
How do I use Bromine in my spa (or pool)?
When you did the "cleaning procedures", did you use Ahh-Some? With a used spa I'd be particularly worried with what has built up in the piping and possibly filter. That could explain an unusually high bromine demand.
Have you tried testing with an OTO test kit just to make sure that you don't actually have too high a bromine level bleaching out a DPD test?
You could take a bucket of spa water and add enough oxidizer to produce 10 ppm FC which would be 22.5 ppm Bromine just to see. If it shows OK then there may be a problem elsewhere in the spa but not in the water itself (so again, could be bacterial biofilm, grease, etc. in the piping).
Have you tried testing with an OTO test kit just to make sure that you don't actually have too high a bromine level bleaching out a DPD test?
You could take a bucket of spa water and add enough oxidizer to produce 10 ppm FC which would be 22.5 ppm Bromine just to see. If it shows OK then there may be a problem elsewhere in the spa but not in the water itself (so again, could be bacterial biofilm, grease, etc. in the piping).
We did use ahh-some, although we didn't see much gunk at all after cleaning with it. The previous owner said he had cleaned it prior to us having it delivered but we wanted to be sure so we did a second cleaning ourselves. He also gave us 2 filters, one used and one new. Yesterday I decided to take a water sample in for testing. The test also showed our bromine levels at 0, and TA at over 8.8 (the highest their equipment reads). I was instructed to add 2tbs. of ph decreaser per day for 17 days to bring the number down to the acceptable range. They told me that the high levels of TA and PH were "masking" our bromine reading and that once the TA/PH levels normalize we should start seeing a bromine reading when we test. Im not sure how accurate that is but I guess I will find out soon enough. I think I will go ahead and take your advice and see if I can get a reading with a bucket of spa water and some oxidizer. Cant hurt to try.
You meant pH over 8.8, not TA.
High TA and pH shouldn't be masking the bromine reading, but since you need to lower the pH anyway you can certainly see what happens.
High TA and pH shouldn't be masking the bromine reading, but since you need to lower the pH anyway you can certainly see what happens.
I use chlorine as well. What kind of filter do you have?
But I found out that I need to change the settings if the chem. is off. So I have a setting: F2 - Full Continue. If my water is off (due to men in long swimgear which has been washed with way too much soap) I need to set it to FC in order to get the water through the filter enough to clean it. It usually takes a few days. Meanwhile you need to check the chemistry daily. That's all the advice I can offer.
But I found out that I need to change the settings if the chem. is off. So I have a setting: F2 - Full Continue. If my water is off (due to men in long swimgear which has been washed with way too much soap) I need to set it to FC in order to get the water through the filter enough to clean it. It usually takes a few days. Meanwhile you need to check the chemistry daily. That's all the advice I can offer.