Refill or treat?

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Dump the yellow pH meter. It gets inaccurate as the battery wears down and becomes a waste of time. If you want to use a pH meter spend more and get a higher quality one like the apera pH meters.
 
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Ph will rise daily in a spa - the more aeration, the faster this will happen. As you check it & adjust it daily the alk will lower & so will the rise. If the test shows 8.2 it may be higher so keep dosing to 7.6 or so until you get it down then check it daily. When ta gets 40- 50 & ph is in the 7’s you can add 50ppm of boric acid to help buffer ph rise. This is a one time add as borates do not leave the water except through water exchange.

Also be sure the jets are off when not using the spa. Some spas have adjustable pump/filter cycles - you may need to decrease yours to help combat the ph rise.
 
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I don't have any liquid bleach, but need some to sanitize my domestic water piping lines, having just installed a UV light to take care of our coliform problem in the well water. Is anyone familiar with diluting dichlor to "make bleach"? Any idea of the ratio and whether this is safe?
 
Not sure about your sanitizing method for your well - I think most people use chlorine tablets which would then subsequently sanitize the lines.
Dichlor should net the same effect & should dissolve readily in the well- however, dichlor is much more expensive than bleach - so it may be easier to just make a trip to the store & grab some bleach.
I assume u can use PoolMath to determine how much to get your desired fc ppm based on your well’s bladder volume.
I have never had a well so i’m not exactly sure how to go about it.
@JoyfulNoise can probably elaborate on the science of it w/ coliforms & all being involved.
 
Do not use Dichlor in a well. It’s highly acidic and could damage the well pump. Also it contains cyanuric acid which will stabilize the chlorine and reduce it’s effectiveness. Cyanuric acid should not be used in potable water supplies.

To make bleach solutions you want to use calcium hypochlorite. That’s why it used to be called “laundry bleaching powder” … it was used exclusively as the main source of laundry bleach early last century. You can create a “bleach solution” using cal-hypo and add that to the well for sanitation.
 
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I am having trouble raising the chlorine level. This is after CYA is up to 60. Been using the tub every couple of weeks and raising pH and chlorine as needed. Switched to using 6% bleach when CYA hit this level. We don't leave the tub open in sunshine (or ever) and use it primarily at night. But when I add bleach in the last couple of weeks, I'm not getting the chlorine increase I used to get. Ideas?
 

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This time around stop using dichlor when cya gets about 30ppm - this only takes 3 or 4 rounds of raising to 10 ppm w/ the dichlor. Then every couple weeks you may want to use a little to replenish cya from splashout & degradation. Otherwise use bleach daily. If you do this & ALWAYS maintain fc above minimum for your cya you will be able to go longer between purge/refills. I purge & refill every 5-6months. We use our tub daily.
 
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I
Mdragger88 said:
This time around stop using dichlor when cya gets about 30ppm - this only takes 3 or 4 rounds of raising to 10 ppm w/ the dichlor. Then every couple weeks you may want to use a little to replenish cya from splashout & degradation. Otherwise use bleach daily. If you do this & ALWAYS maintain fc above minimum for your cya you will be able to go longer between purge/refills. I purge & refill every 5-6months. We use our tub daily.
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I was aware of the switchover point of 30 CYA but overshot... Didn't realize it would rise that fast!

Regarding splashout, when many people use the tub at once, it obviously overflows and then the water level is even below the top jets. Should I worry about this, and top off the water level, or just let it be?

When you say to always keep fc "above minimum for your cya" - do you mean continuously, so that chlorine level *never* ever drops below that level? Or simply to keep raising it above the minimum each time I test?

Love this forum. Thanks again for the advice!
 
For every ppm of fc dichlor adds it also raises cya by roughly that amount.
This can happen quickly so keep tabs on it.
Your jets should be submerged- so yes, top off the water periodically. You don’t want your pump sucking air.
& yes, I mean never, ever drop below minimum fc level for your cya. This allows nasties to proliferate rapidly. A spa is people soup!
If you are having a long soak/ high bather load situation top off the chlorine - quick break & a few minutes of mixing & you’re back in business.
Be sure you dose after use with enough for fc to allow for bather waste & still remain above minimum until your next test/dose.
 
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Jonathankpa said:
When you say to always keep fc "above minimum for your cya" - do you mean continuously, so that chlorine level *never* ever drops below that level?
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Correct. The term minimum sounds way too ok-ish for me. The lower side of target range is your hopeful 'minimum'. That allows you some wiggle room to minimum on the chart. Minimum FC on the chart is a one way ticket to nasty bacteria and whatnot in a 100+ degree hot tub. They usually don't go green like a pool would with algae because there us usually no sunlight on them, but the stuffs you can't see are downright scary. 'Hot tub rash' for one. You need antibiotic cream from the Dr to get rid of it.
 
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I'm new to hot tubs and did my first purge and refill about a week back. The only regret I have is not doing it sooner. I am using half the amount of chlorine to sanitize and it doesn't drop as quickly, and the tub feels better on my skin. You are doing the right things :)

I let CYA get ahead of me on the first fill, it can rise fast with dichlor. Spa shop hands these chems to new owners and next thing is out of whack chemistry. Shows a bit of incompetency to give a spa owner spa shock (dichlor) and a frog system (which wants zero CYA). But that is what they do!

Keep the water a few inches above skimmer level which llkely lines up above top jets.
 
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