New hot tub owner here, bought the house two months ago and started with the TFP method almost right away. Tub is in a sun room detached from the house, covered, so the only sunlight that hits the water is if I open the cover during the day, and no leaves are falling in though the occasional fly or spider finds its way for a drink. Bought a TF-100 (and the speedstir, which I love). On 9/24 I did an Ahh-Some treatment, drained and cleaned the inside and vacuumed the jets to try to get everything out, swapped the filter with one of the spares, refilled from the hose and started adjusting. Eventually got TA down to 70 with pH 7.5, added Dichlor to bring CYA up to around 40, then adjusted with 8.25% bleach to get FC around 6 or so. For quite a while after that, things went... swimmingly. I would add bleach every other day, usually seeing FC down around 2-3 before I do, and I would check after my wife and I had a soak and add then even if I had done it the day before or earlier that evening.
Once or twice I would register TC using the K-1000 as .5 or even 0, and I'd add bleach to bring it up immediately realizing that I'd messed up. But things still seemed OK - water was clear, and when I'd do a weekly full test I'd see FC where I'd expect and CC between .5 and 1.5. One fateful day my wife used a different swimsuit, forgetting to run it through an extra rinse or two in the washer, and we started getting soap foam on the surface. Well, lesson learned we thought, and we'll be more careful, but meanwhile we might put in a tsp of antifoam before we get in to keep it down. But then we noticed a couple other things, like a slight smell, and realizing that when I read all the care posts on here I didn't do a weekly shock before I thought I should SLAM to make sure whatever is in there gets gone. I brought FC up to 16, my wife tested with a strip the next day and it came up at 3 (I've found these strips, while not as precise as a drop test, to agree in accuracy) and I told her how much to add to bring it back to 16. Next day it was 13.5 and 2.0 CC and I thought maybe I was getting somewhere, brought it back to 16. Then the next evening it was 9.0, added again. Then 10.0, added again. Yesterday it was 13.0, I added again and tested it at 19 because I overshot the graduated cylinder a bit. This morning it was 11, I added what should have been enough to take it to 16 but I tested it at 14, then added more and tested at 19.5.
I don't really have the time to devote to doing a drain and refill right now, though I will over Thanksgiving. But I'm starting to wonder, should I keep trying to SLAM this since I haven't been doing it quite right (only testing/adding once per day, I now see I should be doing at least twice or more if possible) or should I punt, keep the heater running so it doesn't freeze, and hit it with Ahh-Some/drain/clean/refill over the holiday? I'm also thinking I should invest in a SWG to help keep the balance better when I'm not next to the tub, because I bet the couple times the FC slipped was the original cause of all this (and this way I don't have to pay someone to come over daily if I go on vacation).
Once or twice I would register TC using the K-1000 as .5 or even 0, and I'd add bleach to bring it up immediately realizing that I'd messed up. But things still seemed OK - water was clear, and when I'd do a weekly full test I'd see FC where I'd expect and CC between .5 and 1.5. One fateful day my wife used a different swimsuit, forgetting to run it through an extra rinse or two in the washer, and we started getting soap foam on the surface. Well, lesson learned we thought, and we'll be more careful, but meanwhile we might put in a tsp of antifoam before we get in to keep it down. But then we noticed a couple other things, like a slight smell, and realizing that when I read all the care posts on here I didn't do a weekly shock before I thought I should SLAM to make sure whatever is in there gets gone. I brought FC up to 16, my wife tested with a strip the next day and it came up at 3 (I've found these strips, while not as precise as a drop test, to agree in accuracy) and I told her how much to add to bring it back to 16. Next day it was 13.5 and 2.0 CC and I thought maybe I was getting somewhere, brought it back to 16. Then the next evening it was 9.0, added again. Then 10.0, added again. Yesterday it was 13.0, I added again and tested it at 19 because I overshot the graduated cylinder a bit. This morning it was 11, I added what should have been enough to take it to 16 but I tested it at 14, then added more and tested at 19.5.
I don't really have the time to devote to doing a drain and refill right now, though I will over Thanksgiving. But I'm starting to wonder, should I keep trying to SLAM this since I haven't been doing it quite right (only testing/adding once per day, I now see I should be doing at least twice or more if possible) or should I punt, keep the heater running so it doesn't freeze, and hit it with Ahh-Some/drain/clean/refill over the holiday? I'm also thinking I should invest in a SWG to help keep the balance better when I'm not next to the tub, because I bet the couple times the FC slipped was the original cause of all this (and this way I don't have to pay someone to come over daily if I go on vacation).
