First Spa Drain/Fill

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dunginhawk

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Jul 10, 2018
486
CLIVE/IA
So after roughly 4 months today was nice enough to get out and do a drain/fill.
Ahhsome did its thing, however after 4 months and almost daily use, I expected a LOT more than was produced... Ive def seen worse pictures haha https://photos.app.goo.gl/DP8iwFPieVY5BXYQ7

This exercise doubled as a frost melter. Pool needs to be installed soon and the frost is not out yet, so 500 gallons of 104 degree water should speed things along.

So right now im in the process of lowering the TA to about 40, which is the sweet spot for my tub. Unfortunately its .6 oz at a time over a LONG period. I really wish I could just put in more lol.
Once that is done ill add the salt, shock it to 12 and be off and running :) (after more CYA of course).

I cant possibly thank you guys/gals enough for all your help getting this thing going. I know i was a PITA but your patience paid off. I am now a very confident tub owner (pool soon) who is living proof that 1. Idiots can learn water chemistry, and 2. TFP absolutely works. After owning this for 5 months the last 2 months were effortless. I maybe checked PH once a week. Rarely checked FC because the SWG was working. Nothing else got out of whack and it was just a painless experience. After 4 months on one fill the water was still crystal clear with no odor.
I finally figured out my CC issue. The prozone unit in my tub apparently only really helps if the aeration is on for pump 1. SEems obvious now, but I didnt know... I always turned the aeration off during the last half of my soak just to chill.
Well after I made sure to leave that one, the prozone got my CC down to .5 within a few weeks (from 2).

So again... things just worked... Couldnt be happier... Thanks again
 
So a few things that are coming up on the fill.
1. I couldnt get my PH in line by the time i had to go to sleep last night.. tub was only 50 degrees at the time as well.
2. Morning I got the PH in line and started with the other pieces.
3. Added 6 lb of salt (recommended pool math was 9lb to get to 2800 for my SWG) that took it to 2000.
4. Added .5oz of dichlor to get to 5ppm FC
5. Tested 15 minutes later it was at 4ppm.. So thats ok... I didnt want to shock it right away if i dont have to (id like to use it today).
6. Added CYA
7. Added 3 lb more salt to get to 2800.

After all of that.. my PH has dropped to 7.1-7.2 Im tryin to aerate it up, but seems to be stuck down there.
Im not sure if the likes of Dichlor and CYA and Salt should lower PH, I didnt think so, but it has...
Now I was riding the line of TA/PH being in perfect harmony so perhaps I was right on the line and I need to add a little baking soda.

Last thing is there is some (maybe a decent amount ) of gunk coming out still After my Ahhsome flush... Ahhsome clean got a lot, but not a ton. I know the salt clouded the water a lot while mixing, a lot of it is that. It just keeps accumulating and I keep wiping it off :) Hope this is normal.
My hot tub is weird where if the water can flow in to the filter housing easily (water level is low enough to get in there) then the Pump #1 labors like its starved for water once in a while. Very strange. but its a fine line to straddle.
 
Great to hear that you didn't get a lot of junk out. Your pictures looked a lot like mine when I did an awesome flush the first time. After flushing mine I filled it back up and ran it for thirty minutes with a filter in it to get all the residual junk out of the lines then drained and refilled. After that I still had a little bit of junk coming out and had some scum on the water line. I finally pulled the filter and recleaned it and it was as good as gold after that. So long story short it is normal to have some junk still coming out that was loosened. Pull the filter and reclean it in the next day or so. Also don't be surprised if chlorine demand is slightly elevated for the next day or two.
 
So very strange... but my PH is still very low and ive added about .6oz of baking soda. after I filled the tub i got my PH in line, and stable. It wasnt until after I added salt, dichlor and CYA did the PH drop and not yet recover... So something there has caused it to remain low to the point that I am having a tough time getting it back to 7.6.
 
CYA and Dichlor are acidic. The pool calc will tell you how much they will lower your PH and AK. I always have to account for this during a new fill. You may find after you run your air for 30 min or so it will rise. Be careful not to over shoot it. It's best to move slow at this stage. What is your current AK? It will likely need to be between 40 and 50 to get a stable PH.
 
Last tub was 40 to get a stable PH.. so that was my target this time around... I think next time I am going to do dichlor and salt before I dial in the PH. I know thats not what the guide says, but im not going through this again. (unless I just use my calcs for what I did, which is add about 1oz of baking soda after the other stuff)
 
I've switched to using stabilizer instead of dichlor for CYA. I add it once at fill and use liquid chlorine. The constant PH fluctuation from dichlor was driving me nuts. It's actually pretty acidic. Now I get the PH set the first couple of days after the fill and I'm set with CYA and PH.
 
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