New Spa - Lot's of Research - Still Alot of Questions

[urville]

I have read the sticky here:
https://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/9670-How-do-I-use-Chlorine-in-my-Spa-(or-pool)

Questions I still have:
1. Do I need to wait to test water until it hits temperature?
2. Do I need to wait until it hits temperature to add chemicals?
3. How often is gradual on changing parameters via chems?
4. How long between different chems/parameters?


At this point I have not added any chemicals, I need to up my CH a tad. My Alk a bit. I need to add Borate which is currently 0. I need to add Dichor to get CYA to 30.
I started the filter and heater at 55 degrees out of the hose around 9pm mountain time. It is now 61 degrees.

I bought Leisure Time Products for:
Dichlor (Spa56)
Sodium Bisulfate (Spa Down)
Calcium Carbonate (Calcium Booster)


I also bought the following:
Boric Acid Anhydrous
Baking Soda
8.25% Bleach

 

[MPurcell]

Welcome to Trouble Free Pool.

1. 2. You can test the water while it is ambient temperature. In fact, high temperatures throw the tests off. The Tech guy from Taylor Industries told me to let the sample water cool down to below 90 deg F before testing. You can balance the water chemistry at ambient temperature and then heat the water after if you want. Some recommend that as the proper sequence.

3. 4. You should make changes in small increments, testing between additions, just to make sure you don't overshoot. Especially in the beginning, it's best not to use the full amount from PoolMath on the first addition. Later, when you get some experience, you will know how much to add at once from previous experience. When you first start, you may test every day, or quite frequently. As you get some experience and can predict what your tub will do, you will probably test less often. I've had my tub for about five months, and I still test for bromine every day or two, for pH about twice a week, but TA about once a month, and calcium hardness, once set at the desired level, won't change much so you won't need to test it again till the next fill.

 

[urville]

1. 2. Dang, good to know.

3. 4. I added dichlor earlier. It's granulated. I used the solid numbers. It dilutes into water fast. I added gradually. It definitely took my chlorine way up, but I have not yet quite reached my CYA numbers before death happened. Poolmath, as I read elsewhere, isnt always 100% due to the variety of variables to each tub.

I had the test kit out and through a series of unfortunate events, most of it was thrown away by someone else.

I wondered so I had emailed Taylor about water temp because no where does it state anything about temp in the instructions on the box and the kit clearly says pool and spa.

I believed that the kit was sold locally, it isnt. I'm Amazon priming a new Taylor 2006 kit today, hoping I can just hold the tub where it is for now. As far as I understand the chlorine will go down from the initial dichlor spike over the next couple of days. We'll just have to wait a couple more days to use it. Than I can test and add then. I was going to go ahead and add the Boric Acid. Everything else I only have dip test for now and I dont see chancing it on them.

 

[MPurcell]

You may have misinterpreted the Dichlor/Bleach method instructions. The recommended sequence is to add enough dichlor to bring the FC level up to about 3 ppm initially, and then continue adding dichlor daily to keep the FC level at 3. Over the span of two or three weeks you will build up to a CYA level of about 30 ppm, and then you switch over to bleach to bring the FC level up to 4 ppm and stop adding dichlor. If you wanted to bring the CYA up immediately after fill to 30 ppm, you could get straight CYA granules, usually sold as Stabilizer. It contains no chlorine, does not dissolve so quickly, and the usual recommendation is to put it in a sock in front of a jet until it is dissolved. If you go that way, once the CYA is dissolved, you can start using bleach immediately to add FC at the correct level for 30 ppm CYA which should be maintained in the range of 4-6 ppm.

You can add the boric acid any time. I have roughly 50 ppm borates in my tub, but I do not have test strips for borates. I just added the amount of granulated boric acid that the calculation said would bring me up to 50 ppm. It's probably quite a bit less than that now, due to water carryout. On the next fill, I'll probably add more than 50 ppm.

 

[urville]

I certainly did. I also was in a bit of a panic that morning what with the test kit fiasco and not wanting to have things growing in there!


I'll go ahead and add the Boric Acid.


After I reread it and it said "shock to 10ppm", I hoped that because the granulated I have does not really work with PoolMath, what I added was not "death".


I'm trying to figure the math off the bottle for the granulated dichlor, its a bit vague in that it says:

Add a 1/2oz (i'm assuming by volume) to 500 gallons, wait 5 minutes and check residual chlorine. Residual chlorine must read 2 to 3 ppm. If it does not add more material until it does.

I contacted the company and they told me that:

It takes 0.12 dry ounces to raise the chlorine level by 1 ppm in 500 gallons of water. That's about 3/4 of a teaspoon.


1ppm in 210 gallons is roughly 1/3 teaspoon.

I figured from that conversation that:

500 gallons / 210 gallons gives me a factor of 2.38 which matched their numbers.
500 / 210 = 2.38
.12 oz / 2.38 = .05 oz = .3 tsp = 1.479 ml to raise 1ppm in 210 gallons

So the other day I added .8 oz by weight which was 20ml or .676 ounces by volume.


.676 / .05 = 13.52 ppm free chlorine

For every 10 ppm of Dichlor you add to your tub, you add 9 ppm CYA.

So with 13.52 ppm chlorine I now have 12.168 CYA.


Can anyone confirm? That would put my mind at ease.

 

[MPurcell]

Is your tub made by Bestway or Intex, or someone else? My tub is made by Bestway. It has lines on the inside for max and min. By calculation it is 230 gallons at the max line, and 210 gallons at the min line.

Use PoolMath to answer your question. It is a tremendous resource. It is pretty darn accurate when computing chlorine. It's the pH computations that can be approximate depending on the range of the calculation.

Put 210 gallons into the edit box on the top line, then go down to the very bottom where it says "Effects of adding chemicals." Put 0.8 in the first edit box, oz in the second edit box, and select dichlor from the dropdown. This calculation uses "by weight" values. Since you used 0.8 oz by weight of dichlor, you should get an exact answer here.

The answer on my pool math calculator: raised FC by 16 ppm, raised CYA by 14 ppm, lowered pH by 0.6 and raised salt by 13 ppm.

You can get required amounts for FC from the top yellow section just below the line with the number of gallons of water. For example, put 0 in the first edit box and 3 in the second edit box. For dichlor, read from the second line. Select dichlor in the dropdown box. To raise the FC level from 0 ppm to 3 ppm, add 0.2 oz by weight or 0.1 oz by volume of dichlor. Remember that this calculation is designed for pools and not small hot tubs, and the results are rounded to the nearest tenth, so with such a small volume of water the numbers are approximate.

You can do the same thing with bleach. On numerous occasions I have used the PoolMath calculator to get values and then had the tub test out to the exact value that PoolMath calculated.

 

[urville]

Tub is Intex. Indeed, min and max lines confirmed. I'm in the middle of the lines.


I had no idea there was more stuff below the main form at the top of PoolMath! Sigh. Bloody heck, man!


Ah, "by weight" ok. Noted.