Brilliance vs. SpaGuard

[LStoner]

You're giving me hope. So, first thing I'll ask is what's the difference between total chlorine and free chlorine? Second, the only chlorine in there is from the shock and my dealer told me that there isn't a test for that. I can tell you though that on my old bromine strips, the color is off the charts. She told me to shock with a full ounce (app. 300 gallon hot tub), every day  because I told her our family of 5 has been in and out of it a lot since filling it. Sounds like a lot to me. I can tell you this much, one of my brand new towels is ruined from the water.

As far as the filter, I opened it all up and lifted the filter out, but I don't know what valve you are talking about. I don't have low or high either. Only off and on. Oh, while looking around at the "guts" of my hot tub, I discovered that I have a Hurricane heater and control box. So, I'm assuming the whole thing is made by Hurricane.

The water smells better today. It looks clear when it's standing still. My whole thing is, when you turn the jets on, it doesn't have that sparkly look like when you first put water in. And then when you shut off the jets, you can see some sort of residue on the surface that takes several minutes to go away. And yesterday I discovered a brown gooey line around the waterline. Yuck.

I think I'm going to order some of that non-chlorine Cense shock that is made to go with the Nature2 cartridge and then use the SpaGuard Enhanced Shock only once a week. What do you think?

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

Enhanced Shock™
This multi-purpose oxidizer is perfectly formulated for spas. Each ingredient in this blended product performs an important role:

The non-chlorine oxidizer breaks apart chloramines and bromamines.
The dichloro super oxidizes the water and removes odors and irritating undesirable compounds.
The flocculent/clarifier helps filter out particles which don't oxidize easily.
The pH buffer prevents drastic changes in the pH balance.

This is what I found is in Spa guard, It is a mix of chemicals, Your dealer is confusing me since they said you could not use a clarifier but this has one in it, testing it is a bit more difficult since the oxidizer in it will effect the chlorine reading. Your bromine test strips will not read right. What is the PH and alk reading in the tub?

Total chlorine is the reading you get from avaiable chlorine and the chloramines in the tub. Chloramines are the used up stuff and what cause the smell. Free chlorine is the amount of chlorine left in the tub that is able to do the work sanitizing. It the total chlorine is higher or close to the free chlorine level it means you need to shock the spa to eliminate the chloramines. I like shocking with non-chlorine shock. The product you have has both, that has its pros and cons, its easy to have one item to throw in the tub, but harder to control what you want to add.

If you add a smaller amount of the product after each persons use, rather than all at once, it may help or add it at the end of the day so it works overnight, as long as the chlorine level does not drop to zero within the day. I would use the chlorine test strips and bear in mind not to test right after throwing the product in, wait a few hours. This will help get a more accurate chlorine level without the MPS effecting it as bad.

You will need a large amount of the product because of the use the spa gets. You are in the very heavy use bracket. It also means you will have to drain the water more often now because you are adding CYA everytime you use this product. Once the CYA gets high, chlorine becomes ineffective.

With the spa use you have, I would personally and professionally suggest at the next water change to go back to bromine. I would look into the chlorine free bromine system that Brilliance offers (did you look at the link I sent?) Your dealer should be able to get those products, but see how it goes with the spa guard first.

If you go the route of using cense, you will have to use the spa guard more frequently than weekly or your chlorine level will drop. You need to keep a slight risdual of chlorine even with Nature 2.

The residue you see is risdual soaps ect, the brown is an indicator that you have metals in the water (iron) are you on a well? The goo is also risduals in the water.

See what happens until you next water change maybe it will go better. You may have to rinse your filter evry week also, blast all the yuck off it. Check for that bypass too.

[LStoner]

That's interesting about the Enhanced Shock. I will take your suggestion about switching to a chlorine free bromine system, after these products I bought are used up and we drain the tub. I did not receive a link from you. Did you try to send it through a private message?

I was trying to find test strips that read the free and total chlorine, but couldn't find any except for ones that say they are for aquariums. What test strips do you recommend?

Oh, I took out the filter yesterday and rinsed it with a pressurized nozzle on my garden hose. I was shocked out how dirty it was already! And remember, this is a brand new filter I just put in on the 30th of September. I rinsed for a good 10 minutes before the water ran clean. It made me think that if we just stay aggressive with cleaning the filter off, maybe the quality of the water will improve and then stay nicer. It will be a pain, but if that helps part of our problem, I'm willing to do it. I'm thinking that as dirty as the filter was, there probably isn't a problem with the bypass valve.

Unfortunately, our tub does not have any sort of constant filtration. That would probably help too. When the heater kicks on it filters, but the heater only stay on a few seconds at a time. If I turn the jets on and then turn the dial down to the lowest setting, it would always be filtering, but I wonder about the electricity usage and what our power bill would be then.

Anyway, thanks again for all the help. And let me know about your test strip preference for the chlorine so I can get a better handle on that.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

www.brillianceforspas.com

It was in a previous post. Insta test and Auqa check both have them, I like the performance and readability better in the aqua check, the ones you need are called aqua check select. They have a web site also  www.aquacheck.com.

You say the tub only filters when it is heating? They is no way to set a filter cycle on it? What kind/year of tub is it? If you could set a filter cycle it would help a lot. Being indorrs it is not coming on to heat enogh to get proper filtration. Does it have time clocks under the cabinet?

Also if the filter was that dirty, get on the users of the tub to try to be a little cleaner before jumping in. Even if you take a wash rag and wipe your body down with hot water it may help without adding showers in all the time. Just a thought.

Good luck

[LStoner]

Thanks for the links.

You know what, I just went and checked the hot tub by putting my hand by the jets while the heater was not on, and there is some water flow. I never noticed it before. So, guess it it filtering some.

I did get on my girls about washing off lotions, etc. And I explained to them why. I don't think they put two and two together before and realized I told them that because it hurts the water. I also told them again, to stop wearing a clean bathing suit every usage and just hang suits in the bathroom to re-use.

Thanks and I'll probably watch the water for a week or so to see how this new routine works out. Off to get some test strips.

[LStoner]

Just came back again to say I checked out the Brilliance website and the non-chlorine system sounds good. What is that Mermaid thing all about though? Is it the same thing as the bromine just in a pre-filled packed? Sounds easy.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

The mermaid is the same thing, but it is much more costly, no worth the convience IMO. The feeder is very easy to use for much less money, but they both do the same thing.

[LStoner]

Oy, I hate to keep bothering you. I have just had a new thought. I discovered 2 Magic Plastics Uni-Body valves in the plumbing of the spa. Are these supposed to be in or out? They are currently out. Could this be restricting the flow of water to the filter?

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

I am guessing these are gate valves.... The handles should be up all the way if thats what they are. If they are partially down they block water flow, all the way down would stop the water flow.

My other thought...have you ever used swirl away or some sort of plumbing cleaner. If not I would suggest this on you next drain. It will help clean up build up that is in the lines of the tub.

[LStoner]

No, I've never heard of Swirl Away. We used something called Purge when we first moved here. I'll put Swirl Away on a list of things to get.