Just got a 2004 calspas tub from a friend. Up until a week ago the spa had been hooked up and in use in his yard but he has to move out and is turning the house into a rental and wanted it out. I had a perfect spot in my yard that's been waiting for a good deal on a spa so it all worked out.
Yesterday we finally got it wired in and I started the decontamination process Nitro outlined. I gave it enough dichlor to bring the pH up to 10ppm initially and let it heat to 100 degrees. Then added a full container of Leslies spa purge, ran the jets for half an hour and am now letting it sit for 24 before draining and refilling.
Just out of curiosity I checked the TC and pH this morning with some strips (I have a HTH 6 way kit and will be ordering a TF-100 soon) and the TC was down to around 2.5. Not sure if the spa purge will throw that off or if it's just the chlorine demand is that high. The spa was pretty funky so I'm guessing it really could be the CD is that high. The previous owner basically just tossed some broken up pool pucks into a floater and that was it. No clue what kind of pucks or anything else. But I do know there are only about 2 jets I don't have to repair or replace because whatever he was doing basically all of the jet diffusers have flaked away. Thankfully he saved most of the jets as they fell out so most of them I should be able to just replace the diffusers. But bottom line is there's no way I'd be getting into this thing or letting my family into it without a full decontamination based on what I know about how it's been maintained.
Alright, enough background. Let's get on with my questions
Once I'm done with the decontamination I have a general idea what to do to balance the water and maintain things starting with dichlor and then switching over to bleach once I've built up the CYA level. But the specifics of balancing my water are where I could use some pointers. So here's what I get testing my water right from the hose with the HTH drop kit:
TC: .5
pH: 7.5
TA: 170
CH: 380
I've always known we had hard water here but never realized just HOW hard until now! The tub does have an ozonator, but it does not appear to be functioning right now (can't see the light even in the dark.) based on what I've read here I'm thinking fixing the ozonator would be more work than it's worth...but I'm open to feedback on that. Playing around with the pool calculator it looks like I want to aim for:
FC 3
pH 7.5
TA 55
CH 380
CYA 25
Borates 50
Temp 104
Which should give me a CSI of 0.01
Which leaves me with 3 big questions:
1) Does that sound like a good plan and target?
2) I need to bring the TA down which means adding acid and then aerating to bring the pH back up...but adding the borax will apparently also bring the pH back up. Would it be best to add the borax first and then focus on the TA/pH or should I get the TA/pH dealt with first and then add the borax and rebalance?
3) When adjusting the TA would dry acid or muriatic be better in this case? What's the pros/cons of each?
I've got a day or two while I do this decontamination and without any help I'll just end up overthinking and driving myself crazy. So any help or advice is very much welcomed!
Yesterday we finally got it wired in and I started the decontamination process Nitro outlined. I gave it enough dichlor to bring the pH up to 10ppm initially and let it heat to 100 degrees. Then added a full container of Leslies spa purge, ran the jets for half an hour and am now letting it sit for 24 before draining and refilling.
Just out of curiosity I checked the TC and pH this morning with some strips (I have a HTH 6 way kit and will be ordering a TF-100 soon) and the TC was down to around 2.5. Not sure if the spa purge will throw that off or if it's just the chlorine demand is that high. The spa was pretty funky so I'm guessing it really could be the CD is that high. The previous owner basically just tossed some broken up pool pucks into a floater and that was it. No clue what kind of pucks or anything else. But I do know there are only about 2 jets I don't have to repair or replace because whatever he was doing basically all of the jet diffusers have flaked away. Thankfully he saved most of the jets as they fell out so most of them I should be able to just replace the diffusers. But bottom line is there's no way I'd be getting into this thing or letting my family into it without a full decontamination based on what I know about how it's been maintained.
Alright, enough background. Let's get on with my questions
Once I'm done with the decontamination I have a general idea what to do to balance the water and maintain things starting with dichlor and then switching over to bleach once I've built up the CYA level. But the specifics of balancing my water are where I could use some pointers. So here's what I get testing my water right from the hose with the HTH drop kit:
TC: .5
pH: 7.5
TA: 170
CH: 380
I've always known we had hard water here but never realized just HOW hard until now! The tub does have an ozonator, but it does not appear to be functioning right now (can't see the light even in the dark.) based on what I've read here I'm thinking fixing the ozonator would be more work than it's worth...but I'm open to feedback on that. Playing around with the pool calculator it looks like I want to aim for:
FC 3
pH 7.5
TA 55
CH 380
CYA 25
Borates 50
Temp 104
Which should give me a CSI of 0.01
Which leaves me with 3 big questions:
1) Does that sound like a good plan and target?
2) I need to bring the TA down which means adding acid and then aerating to bring the pH back up...but adding the borax will apparently also bring the pH back up. Would it be best to add the borax first and then focus on the TA/pH or should I get the TA/pH dealt with first and then add the borax and rebalance?
3) When adjusting the TA would dry acid or muriatic be better in this case? What's the pros/cons of each?
I've got a day or two while I do this decontamination and without any help I'll just end up overthinking and driving myself crazy. So any help or advice is very much welcomed!
