Nature 2

[Mac960]

   Has anyone had any skin reactions to the the silver ion in the nature 2 water treatment system? I'm not sure if it's the water or something else. Waters clear, PH is good....any feed back would be great...thanks   P.S.. It makes my lower legs itchy but everything else seems fine...oh, I shock my 300 gallon tub once a week (one table spoon)with chlorine granules and use a table spoon of non-chlorine shock upon weekly use...

[chem geek]

If you are only adding chlorine and non-chlorine shock once a week, then you may be running out of sanitizer during the week and that might be allowing bacteria to grow in between soaks.  Try testing your water before your soak to see if you measure any MPS on the test strips.  If not, then that may be your problem.  See the Nature² Owner's Manual where it explicitly says that you need to add enough to consistently measure an MPS level.  I presume you are shocking and adding chemicals after your soak.  If you are adding them before your soak, then you may be using too much before the soak (MPS can be irritating, though usually the silver ions break down the irritating component, but that takes a little time to occur).

[Mac960]

   I'm sorry....what I meant to say was that once a week I would toss in a table spoon of chlorine granules to shock my tub but after every use during the week I would toss in a table spoon of non chlorine shock and run a 10 minute cycle to activate the silver ions. That's what I had been told to do. Does this sound correct to you?    Thanks again......Mac

[chem geek]

OK, thanks for clarifying.  I misunderstood.  What you are doing basically sounds correct except I'd still check the MPS level before your soak and if it's very low then you need to add more MPS after your soak so you register at least a small amount before your next soak.  If there is a way for you to check to make sure the Nature2 cartridge is working and dissolving silver ions into the water, then do that because without the silver ions a minor component in MPS can be irritating.

The itchiness might just be a reaction to hot water.  You could try taking a very hot bath and seeing if it causes the same problem.  You might need to slightly lower the temperature of the hot tub to avoid the problem.

[Chas]

I would add this:

To 'shock' a tub you need to put in your measured amount of chlorine (I add 2 dry ounces per 500 gallons) and run the jets with the lid open to let it gas off and not harm your cover.

BUT - you need to test the chlorine level again some time later to be SURE that you have accomplished your goal. For example, if you don't add as much as I do, OR if there is something alive in your tub besides you - you may come back six hours later, test, and find that there is NO measurable amount of chlorine in the water. That means you did not do a successful shock - the chlorine got just so far, and then was depleted.

So - add one more step to your regimen: after you shock, test the next day before use to be certain you have complete a successful shock.

HTH

 

[Mac960]

   So what you are saying is that I should always have a measurable amount of clorine in the water? I thought the clorine was to be used once a week to do a water shock to be sure I get a good water shock and then the nature 2system (silver ion)would take care of my water during the week as long as I used the non-clorine shock after every soak. Purpose being that I would not be soaking in chlorinated water during the week. I thought the nature 2 would take care of things between weekly shocks.   Thanks for the replys......Mac

[chem geek]

When using the low chlorine recipe for Nature2 it is the MPS level that needs to be present at all times.  What Chas is talking about is making sure that your shocking is sufficient to get rid of bather waste that MPS isn't taking care of.  To do that, make sure that after shocking you have at least a small residual of chlorine (say 1-2 ppm) which would tell you that you probably used enough.  That amount of chlorine will go away within a day if you use the tub and thereafter until your next shock you would be having MPS in the water only.  That's fine with Nature2 because of the silver ions along with MPS.  So most of the time, there will only be silver ions with MPS in the tub.