New Hot Tub - More to Learn

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ohana4

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Aug 14, 2017
109
Englewood, FL
We've had our IG pool for about 3 weeks now, and I feel like I can control at least the pH now, and I've been lucky enough that the rest of the chemistry in my pool has been gracious and not terribly out of normal range.

My new problem: We bought a Bullfrog Hot Tub (separate stand-alone spa) and have just filled it a few days ago. I am religiously reading up on how to use the magic of TFP ways on my spa because the @Ease ball that they gave us with the spa has done absolutely nothing to stabilize my water, and my FC/CC, pH and TA are OUT OF CONTROL! I read the pool school directions for chlorine spas and then headed to Pinch-a-Penny to get my Dichlor, Gentle Spa and Calcium Stabilizer. They had the Calcium Booster. They never heard of Gentle Spa (or Borates). And they had no idea what Dichlor was. So when I explained to them that it was chlorine with some CYA, they gave me a chlorine tablet. But I think it is Trichlor because it says Trichloroisocyanuric Acid Dry. Can I use Trichlor in my spa or should I toss this thing and find someone who has Dichlor? Not sure what the difference is between Di and Tri chlor.

For now, I will work on my Muriatic Acid additions to the spa.

Thank you all!
 
Find a 1 lb bag of dichlor and do not use the trichlor tab. You should be able to find a small quantity of dichlor at a large hardware store or pool supply. It will not take much dichlor to get your CYA to 30-40ppm and a 1lb bag will last for many fills. If your stand alone tub is fiberglass then you may not need to push your calcium levels so high.
 
Oly said:
Find a 1 lb bag of dichlor and do not use the trichlor tab. You should be able to find a small quantity of dichlor at a large hardware store or pool supply. It will not take much dichlor to get your CYA to 30-40ppm and a 1lb bag will last for many fills. If your stand alone tub is fiberglass then you may not need to push your calcium levels so high.
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Thank you, Oly! I will toss the trichlor tab. The hot tub is fiberglass I'm guessing, or acrylic. My CH is naturally 110 from the hose. Should I leave it at that, or increase to 130-150?
I just read up on the @Ease ball that came with the tub and it prides itself on keeping the FC between 0.5 and 1. at all times. I almost flipped out! Today, my FC is 0.4 and my CC is a ridiculous 12.6! This has to be fixed!
 
Ok. They had some Dichlor 99% at Walmart. Now I have to go and reread all the chemistry I learned on Nitro's Spa page and get my hot tub levels in full control. I will be master of my pool AND my hot tub, not the other way around. :)

Thank you, Afton and Oly for your help! Wish me luck!
 
AftonJeeper said:
Not sure what "Nitro's Spa page" is but everything you need to know about maintianing proper chemistry in a hot tub can be found right here: How do I use Chlorine in my Spa (or pool)?)
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Yup. That's what I used. Nitro wrote that I think. At least that's what the first post says. :)

Ok. I have my TA down to between 40-50 with a pH of 7.6 now. All using MA (the liquid). I ended up having to use 7 oz.

Now, in order to fix my FC/CC problem, how long do I have to wait to start up the Dichlor process after doing the MA? I have learned on here that chlorine and MA are not nice to each other. Do I have to wait another day? Or a few hours?

Also, after I got the pH to 7.6 and the TA down, I turned off all the jets because I had them running for about 1.5 hrs. Is that ok? Or should I keep running the jets? I didn't want to skyrocket my pH again with all the aeration.

Thank you!
 
A few hours.

Get your FC up ASAP using the dichlor only. Monitor your CYA until you get your 30-40ppm then follow the CYA/FC chart to keep you sanitation in the zone relative to your spa usage.

What are you using to test your water?

Don't fixate on a pH number rater keep it in the range 7.2 - 7.8. Guessing your fill water is high in sodium bicarbonate and has a high TA. Test your fill water. You know the effect on pH of using aeration and topping off the tub will move it also.

Do a search in here for opinions on your frog ball and think twice about relying on that system.
 
Oly said:
A few hours.

Get your FC up ASAP using the dichlor only. Monitor your CYA until you get your 30-40ppm then follow the CYA/FC chart to keep you sanitation in the zone relative to your spa usage.

What are you using to test your water?

Don't fixate on a pH number rater keep it in the range 7.2 - 7.8. Guessing your fill water is high in sodium bicarbonate and has a high TA. Test your fill water. You know the effect on pH of using aeration and topping off the tub will move it also.

Do a search in here for opinions on your frog ball and think twice about relying on that system.
Click to expand...

I will wait until maybe this evening then to start the Dichlor process. I finished the MA process at about 4.

I'm using a Taylor K2006c for the tub. Same as I use for the pool.

My fill water:

FC: 0.8
CC: 0.2
pH: 7.6
TA: 120
CH: 110

My current spa water:

FC: 0.4
CC: 12.6
pH: 7.6
TA: 40-50
CH: 110
CYA: 0 (haven't started Dichlor yet)

I have already pulled out my frog ball from the spa and will not be using it if I am using the TFP method. I didn't like the idea of having a consistent FC of only 0.5-1. That just doesn't sound like enough.

Taking care of the spa seems a lot more complicated though than taking care of my pool. This is going to take a lot more learning, and probably trial and error before I figure things out. I hope the hot tub is a forgiving environment. :study:
 

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Yes things can get sideways fast because it is a much small volume of water and at a perfect temp for biological growth compared to your pool.

I would be concerned about the very high CC number and that may require you to drain and refill. Do you notice a strong chlorine smell when you open the cover?
 
Yes, it's a pretty strong chlorine smell. But not unbearable. Just smells like a hot tub at a hotel or something. But it's just my husband and I in there, and we only stay in about 30 min every 2 out of 3 nights or so, having used that ball. We aren't going to use it tonight as I am trying to get a handle on it first. Is the high CC something to do with having the cover on it? We left it open all day today just to get the sun to suck some out of it. But I guess it didn't do a good job.
 
Yes the cover will keep the CC in the water. Removing the cover and exposing the water to sunlight will lower the CC as will aerating the water with the cover off. I've read ozone will also reduce CC. My experiment with this was a reduction of 0.5ppm CC after an hour of cover removed during the day with the aeration, from 3.0 ppm to 2.5 ppm CC. I have read that driving FC very high will remove the CC but I expect the cover will have to be off regardless for success. I opted for a drain, clean and refill but my water was already in over two months and is only 250 gals.
 
I think I will elect to fix the FC/CC problem tomorrow, as it is getting pretty cold outside to be messing with water (60 degrees, but still, that's cold for me!). I'll try to get my FC up in the 10 range and see if I can fix this thing. My water has only been in since Friday, so it better work. My spa has 440 gallons, so it's a little more water than I want to dump just yet. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

I appreciate your sharing your knowledge with me!
 
I had a pool and then got a hot tub and only 2 things that are really different for me. 1. After each soak add 1 oz of chlorine for each person for each hour. Need to do this in addition to daily testing and adding chlorine. 2. Have to test cya every 2 weeks. Cya can go from 40 to 20 in 2 weeks in a hot tub. Other then that, everything else has been just like the pool.
 
Alwayswantedapool said:
I had a pool and then got a hot tub and only 2 things that are really different for me. 1. After each soak add 1 oz of chlorine for each person for each hour. Need to do this in addition to daily testing and adding chlorine. 2. Have to test cya every 2 weeks. Cya can go from 40 to 20 in 2 weeks in a hot tub. Other then that, everything else has been just like the pool.
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Writing this down in my spa care book! Thank you for the advice. :whoot:

jseyfert3 said:
58% dichlor or 58% available chlorine? I'm guessing the latter. My 99% dichlor is 56% available chlorine.
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It said 58% Dichlor and like 30-something % "Other ingredients" I didn't want to take the risk of getting other strange chemicals in my pool, so I didn't get it. I did find the correct one at Walmart though! It's Spa Selections and it is 99% dichlor, like the Home Depot one in the above link. So I went with that.
 
On using the Dichlor, I never could hit my target for CYA using it. I have only done this once so far but it worked the one time. That is, I bought a gallon of liquid CYA and have used it to get my CYA were I want it and then just keep on doing my chlorine as usual. You just have to make sure the liquid CYA is mixed really good.
 
We had a three day break from doing any hot tub fixes because they came to put sealant on my pavers and we weren’t allowed to walk on them. So this morning I finally was able to check my water and wasn’t really surprised at initial results. I added MA a few days ago, so my pH and TA were good. Today is the day to fix my ridiculous chlorine levels. So you know what I’m working with, here are this morning’s test results.
FC 0.4
CC 7
pH 7.7
TA 40
CH 110
CYA 0

i added 10ppm dichlor and got FC 4.8 and CC 16 so I added another 10ppm dichlor. Waiting a few more minutes before checking levels again. How long do you wait to check this? I waited about 15 min the first time. Did I add too much? I haven’t hit the 34ppm yet, as I just started this, so my CYA should be fine. But how do I get rid of my CC? I thought it would go down when FC was increased, but nope.

Thank you you for any help!
 

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