Help with Chemicals

[Ben]

I am the guy that asked for help in picking a tub.  Thanks to input here I bought the Bengal Tiger River and am VERY HAPPY.  But with the old Jacuzzi, I just added bromide and baking soda and had clear water.  This tub is very high tech - I have the ozone bubbler and the silver in the filter- plus a box of chems the dealer gave me.  So when they installed the tub they took a water sample before any chemicals.  They called back and said the water was very low on alkalinity - soft water.  I let it go for several weeks and just enjoyed the tub plus my nice clear water.  So last weekend went to the dealer and he gave me a bottle of "Calcium Hardness Increaser"  with instructions to put 6 cap fulls (about 3/4 tbls each cap) for 3 straight days.  He said if I put all in at once the water would get cloudy.  So after 2 days and 12 cap fulls, I have very cloudy water.  I miss my clear water- why did I have to do this?  Can't I just screw all these chems and go back to my Arm and Hammer baking soda? Don't want to call the dealer cause I lost confidence.  Any help out there?

[Spiderman]

What is your santizer routine and how much do you add?  

[Renee]

Baking soda would have successfully increased your alkalinity without all those other chems.  Not sure if shocking it would fix it, but might be worth a try.    I have an ozonator, N2 (silver cartridge), and use 1-1/2 to 2  teaspoons of dichlor after each soak.  I shock once per week.  If my alkalinity gets low, I add baking soda, and it fixes it right up.  I can now tell by the smell of the water if my alkalinity is low.  You don't need all those fancy chemicals, in my opinion.  My water is always crystal clear (unless someone gets in with a swimsuit washed in lots of detergent!)  Good luck....

[hottubdan]

Hardness increaser does not effect alkalinity.

You can go back to what worked for you in the past.

Just so you know, the use of any tablets "may" void your warranty.

Not sure what the cause of the cloudiness is.  I suspect coincidence.  Not enough sanitizer.  As Spiderman said, what is your sanitizer routine?

[Ben]

Sorry for late response-have been out of town.  I have the ozone bubler on 24/7.  I put a tbls of Chlorine in Wed and Sat and "shocker" a tbls every other day which is what the dealer said.  I'm thinking of getting my old floater dispenser and buying some chlorine tablets and just constantly have the chlorine.

[Vanguard]

You don't want to put chlorine tablets in a floater in your spa.  That is a bit overkill.  Simply use the Dichlor granules for sanitizing and the MPS for shocking and you'll be fine.   It really is very simple.  Not sure why your water is still cloudy, but that is usually because of low chlorine, low circulation or poor filtration.  Since the spa is new, I doubt it is the latter two.  Take more water into your dealer and let him know it is cloudy.  He should be able to get you fixed up.  

As far as calcium hardness goes, it is a good idea to keep that level up.

[Richs100]

As Hottubdan said, water hardness and alk levels are two different things.  I use softened water in my tub since my raw well water is so bad.  When I change the water, I use the Calcium Increaser to bring the Calcium level up.  I usually do this in a three stage series over several hours or from night to morning.  

I have low pH and low alk out of the tap, so I adjust my alk up to about 100 or 120 with baking soda.  This usually also brings the pH up.  If it comes up too much, I wait a day and bring it down with some pH decreaser.  With this method, I get my pH in line and the alk stays at about 80.  Thereafter, my pH and alk don't move much at all during the life of the fill.

After my pH and alk are lined up, I shock the water using dichlor (six teaspoons for a 450 gal tub is usually enough to get it over 10ppm).  I found that if I shocked the water first, it seemed to mess up my alk and pH readings.   I used to use MetalGon, and when I did, I always held off on installing the N2 cartridge for a few days since the MetalGon could mess up the cartridge.  

Once my pH and alk are balanced, they generally stay that way.  Thereafter, I use  2 teaspoons of dichlor after each soak and shock the tub about once every two weeks.  I always have good luck with this system.  I really can't say how long its been since I have had a cloudy water day.  I realize that everyone has different water, but I thought this method might help a bit.

I used bromine in my old tub for years, but I like this system much better.  No bromine smell on you when you get out of the tub!

Rich