We've had our Arctic Ocean series 5,500L swim spa for almost a year. During this time, I've learned alot about water care for hot tubs, and enough to realize that using the TFPC method is how I want to maintain the water. We run our unit year round, live in Canada and during the winter months, we transform the spa into a hot tub maintaining a water temp of 102F. During the summer, we run it around 94F. We are not avid swimmers but enjoy the large body of water, and entertain family and friends regularly. The whole "how to properly" sanitize to make it safe for everyone is something I take seriously. Prior to the switch to TFPC we were using a Dichlor tab floater. Weekly maintenance consisted of topping up, checking TA, pH, adding good doses of MPS to oxidize waste. Once a month I swap dirty filters with clean ones. To clean the filters I soak them for 48 hrs in a 5 gallon pail with a mixture of 1/2C TSP and 1C Cascade dishwasher detergent, followed by 12 hr soak in chlorinated water. The water was inconsistent at best. It sometimes had "musty" smells and sometimes got cloudy. CYA was through the roof as was the TDS. I've read the BBB / TFPC method over and over, and we are now going to maintain our water this way. However, I am only three weeks in and have some questions.
Here are the steps I have taken to date;
1. Decontamination
I super chlorinated to about 15ppm for 24 hrs. Following that I added 4 oz of Ahhh-some. I thought this process was going to be super gross, but it was not as bad as I thought. After about 3 hrs, all of the "gick" had come out of the spa. The "gick" was captured the Ahhh-some did its thing. I then drained over night. The next day I got inside and super-cleaned the entire shell, removed all the jets and cleaned them. Rinsed everything really well, disposed of old filters, replace with brand new and then begin the fill.
2. Refill
With two 5/8" garden hoses, the fill (5,500L) took 3 1/2 hours. While refilling, I had a dealer test the fill sample. They use the Lamotte Spin Test Lab. I was given these results,
FC – 0.88
CC – 0.23
pH - 7.4
TA - 72
CH - 101
CYA - 2
I based my initial dosing amounts against the readings above. I use The Pool Calculator for all dosage amounts.
The city's waterworks website showed these results.
FC – 0.83
CC – 0.21
pH - 7.45
TA - 66
CH - 81
CYA - n/a
Interestingly, the fill water had a slight green tint to it. I'm not exactly sure why. I had pre-filters on each garden hose.
3. Brought the Spa up to 80F
The source water was 38F. It took 21 hours to get to 80F.
4. Added / Adjust TA, CH, Borates and Dichlor as follows;
1. Baking Soda (may not do that next time) as it drove pH up a bit from the fill, which was a perfect pH. Goal was to increase TA to 80ppm from 72ppm.
2. Muriatic Acid 2 oz to bring pH down. Only got it down to 7.8-ish
3. Waited 1 hr…tested again. pH was at 7.7 to 7.8
4. Added Calcium to increase hardness in two doses. Waited 3 hrs between doses. I added enough to bring up to 150
5. Waited 3 hrs after last Calcium dose
6. Added Dichlor
7. Waited 1 hr
8. Added Borates in 4 doses one after the other
§ Targetted 38 on pool calculator
· Each dose had 8 oz muriatic acid and 460g of 20 Mule Team Borax; therefore total of 32 oz MA and 1840g Borax
Here’s where things are at today;
The water looks and feels amazing, and is so fresh.
Home Testing with Taylor K2006:
Dealer testing with Lamotte Spin Test Lab:
My questions….
Whose numbers do I trust?
My maintenance Chlorine amount to add daily (if no one has used the spa in a 24hr period) is 7 oz Clorox. Does this sound reasonable? My math is based on the starting pre-soak FC (target is 2ppm) and the 24 hr chlorine decay of 3.2 ppm.
If we are to trust my Taylor numbers, is there anything I should be doing? I’m feeling like I should address pH, but have resisted pending feedback I receive from this post.
If I were to have family over on the weekend, and there will be 6 people hanging out for upwards to an hour (total), my math tells me that I would add about 28.4 oz Clorox after the party is over. Would I not want to add some Clorox before the party so I don’t run out? How much and how do I calculate this and then calculate what to add post-soak taking into account what was added before. I’m not sure what to do here.
Sorry for the long post, but thanks for reading. I look forward to your replies.
Here are the steps I have taken to date;
1. Decontamination
I super chlorinated to about 15ppm for 24 hrs. Following that I added 4 oz of Ahhh-some. I thought this process was going to be super gross, but it was not as bad as I thought. After about 3 hrs, all of the "gick" had come out of the spa. The "gick" was captured the Ahhh-some did its thing. I then drained over night. The next day I got inside and super-cleaned the entire shell, removed all the jets and cleaned them. Rinsed everything really well, disposed of old filters, replace with brand new and then begin the fill.
2. Refill
With two 5/8" garden hoses, the fill (5,500L) took 3 1/2 hours. While refilling, I had a dealer test the fill sample. They use the Lamotte Spin Test Lab. I was given these results,
FC – 0.88
CC – 0.23
pH - 7.4
TA - 72
CH - 101
CYA - 2
I based my initial dosing amounts against the readings above. I use The Pool Calculator for all dosage amounts.
The city's waterworks website showed these results.
FC – 0.83
CC – 0.21
pH - 7.45
TA - 66
CH - 81
CYA - n/a
Interestingly, the fill water had a slight green tint to it. I'm not exactly sure why. I had pre-filters on each garden hose.
3. Brought the Spa up to 80F
The source water was 38F. It took 21 hours to get to 80F.
4. Added / Adjust TA, CH, Borates and Dichlor as follows;
1. Baking Soda (may not do that next time) as it drove pH up a bit from the fill, which was a perfect pH. Goal was to increase TA to 80ppm from 72ppm.
2. Muriatic Acid 2 oz to bring pH down. Only got it down to 7.8-ish
3. Waited 1 hr…tested again. pH was at 7.7 to 7.8
4. Added Calcium to increase hardness in two doses. Waited 3 hrs between doses. I added enough to bring up to 150
5. Waited 3 hrs after last Calcium dose
6. Added Dichlor
7. Waited 1 hr
8. Added Borates in 4 doses one after the other
§ Targetted 38 on pool calculator
· Each dose had 8 oz muriatic acid and 460g of 20 Mule Team Borax; therefore total of 32 oz MA and 1840g Borax
Here’s where things are at today;
The water looks and feels amazing, and is so fresh.
OCLT is <2ppm FC
Today I tested and used the same sample water for each test.
Home Testing with Taylor K2006:
FC – 2.5
CC – <0.5 (I use the 0.5ppm 10 ml test)
pH - 7.7 (Its hard to discern exactly, but for sure it is not in the 8.0 range. So I did an acid demand test. Two drops showed 7.5, therefore I deduce 7.7 as my result)
TA - 70
CH - 180
CYA – 30 (calc’d based on the amount of Dichlor added to date…I’ve just recently switched to Clorox 8.25%)
Borates – 38 (Est’d based on dosage)
CC – <0.5 (I use the 0.5ppm 10 ml test)
pH - 7.7 (Its hard to discern exactly, but for sure it is not in the 8.0 range. So I did an acid demand test. Two drops showed 7.5, therefore I deduce 7.7 as my result)
TA - 70
CH - 180
CYA – 30 (calc’d based on the amount of Dichlor added to date…I’ve just recently switched to Clorox 8.25%)
Borates – 38 (Est’d based on dosage)
Dealer testing with Lamotte Spin Test Lab:
FC – 1.64
CC – 0.28
pH – 8.1
TA - 42
CH - 171
CYA - 29
CC – 0.28
pH – 8.1
TA - 42
CH - 171
CYA - 29
My questions….
Whose numbers do I trust?
There is a big difference between the pH and TA numbers.
Should I be concerned with the CC numbers, noting that the original fill water had a non-zero value to start with. My .5ppm FC tests show the very, very slightest pink when adding R-003. One drop of R-0871 produces a clear result practically as it hits the test sample.
Should I be concerned with the CC numbers, noting that the original fill water had a non-zero value to start with. My .5ppm FC tests show the very, very slightest pink when adding R-003. One drop of R-0871 produces a clear result practically as it hits the test sample.
My maintenance Chlorine amount to add daily (if no one has used the spa in a 24hr period) is 7 oz Clorox. Does this sound reasonable? My math is based on the starting pre-soak FC (target is 2ppm) and the 24 hr chlorine decay of 3.2 ppm.
If we are to trust my Taylor numbers, is there anything I should be doing? I’m feeling like I should address pH, but have resisted pending feedback I receive from this post.
If I were to have family over on the weekend, and there will be 6 people hanging out for upwards to an hour (total), my math tells me that I would add about 28.4 oz Clorox after the party is over. Would I not want to add some Clorox before the party so I don’t run out? How much and how do I calculate this and then calculate what to add post-soak taking into account what was added before. I’m not sure what to do here.
Sorry for the long post, but thanks for reading. I look forward to your replies.
