Hi all from a hot tub newbie!

[Nymike]

Michael here, from hot and sunny (though not last night) Las Vegas, Nevada! My wife and I just bought our first house and by default inherited the above ground spa that was here. It's made by LA Spas and we've no idea on the exact volume. We estimate about 400 gal. based on the dimensions of 8.5' x 7.5' x 3'.

Also by default we inherited the previous owners bucket of chemicals and test kit. Pretty much everything we needed, but I went and bought a Taylor K-2006C so I can keep track of the CYA and CH. We're known for incredibly hard water here in Vegas, in the top 2% of the U.S. (mine tested at 17 gpg.) So when tested yesterday our CH came in at 275.

I'm pretty comfortable with reagents and testing as I had a strong chemistry foundation in H.S and College, so I want to be an expert in this eventually.
We did a fresh fill about 10 days ago and I've been pretty good at getting the TA between 80-100 on a regular basis along with testing the pH between 7.2 and 7.8 I add pH+ or pH- to get the pH to 7.4-7.6.

i look forward to learning as much as I can here! Thanks everyone for assisting me in my journey!

 

[BoDarville]

Welcome to TFP!

Yes, I heard about that storm in Vegas last night. Although Vegas doesn't get much rain statistically, it seems like it floods whenever it does rain.

 

[pooldv]

Welcome to TFP!

 

[Nymike]

Welcome to TFP!

Yes, I heard about that storm in Vegas last night. Although Vegas doesn't get much rain statistically, it seems like it floods whenever it does rain.

Yep, and we had another major storm tonight. This one was really bad. The reason it floods so badly here is the desert valley we live in used to be an inland sea millions of years ago, and so our ground surface is compacted very tightly. We do not have soil. We have what is called caliché. It's similar to a hard plaster or cement. As such, it doesn't absorb water much at all so water runs right through and over. As the valley floor slopes west to east, the floods on the east side are much worse... It's a very interesting dynamic.
its also one of the main reasons only 3% of houses have basements. And those were built generally before the mid-80's.