New hot tub owner, how’s my readings?

[OzoneDepletion]

Hello!
I’m a new hot tub owner! We’ve had a HotSpring Grandee for 4 weeks now. There’s 5 of us that use it nearly every night, 3 children & 2 adults.
I’ve been wrestling with balancing the water with my ColorQ Pro7 telling me the TA was around 12, so I added quite a bit of pH/Alk upper...and it sent my pH to above 8.
I took my water sample to 2 pool stores and got vastly differing test results from the same sample...
I found this site & picked up the TF-100 & made adjustments per my readings & the Pool Math app, I’m wondering if I’m on track or where I should adjust with your help!
I don’t trust the pool stores or my ColorQ 7 Pro, at least I believe the ALK reagent to be faulty

TF-100
PH 7.5/MFG Spec 7.2-7.8
FCL 2.5/MFG Spec 1-5ppm
CC 1
TC 3.5
TA 70/ MFG Spec 40-120ppm
CH 100 ppm/ MFG Spec 25-75ppm
CYA 80 ppm
Salt 2200 ppm/MFG Spec 1500-2000ppm

And thank you for your time! I’m here to learn!

 

[poolnoobgrandma]

I like CC under .5. I'd raise the chlorine to the higher end of the recommended range until CC goes down. Either increase the runtime or SWG chlorine generation percentage.
Good luck!!!

 

[ajw22]

Your spa indoor or outdoors? Your spa water get any sun UV rays to burn off CCs?

Overall your chemistry looks good except your CYA is high for an indoor or covered spa. CYA 20-30 is all you need to buffer the chlorine harshness. I would not do anything now but on your next water fill use less stabilizer.

With a CYA of 80 you want your FC to be around 5. So up your SWG output or run it longer or add some liquid chlorine. See FC/CYA Levels

 

[OzoneDepletion]

It’s an outdoor tub that has a cover on it. We use it at night time so there’s very little water sun exposer.
the SWG hasn’t been able to keep up the FC on its own, so I’ve been adding chlorinating granules “Sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione dihydrate” that the hot tub supplier gave with the hot tub.
perhaps that’s also been increasing my CYA and I should switch to liquid chlorine?

 

[ajw22]

For every 1 oz of Dichlor you raise the FC by 9.2, CYA by 8.4, and lowers pH by 0.35. Basically 1:1 between FC and CYA. You either need to be dumping water regularly or using liquid chlorine to keep the CYA manageable.

Given your FC and CYA situation I think you have some algae in the water which is consuming your chlorine and that is why your SWG can’t keep up.

I suggest you read ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry and start with fresh water and keep your CYA lower and FC higher following the FC/CYA Levels

You may find stuff here useful...

Hot Tub Basics - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com