Hi all,
I am the proud new owner of a Canadian Spa Toronto hot tub. I am based in the UK and have chosen to go with a bromine based sanitisation system as some of the family suffer with skin problems.
I purchased a "bromine chemical starter pack" online, which came with the following:
1kg Bromine tablets
1kg PH+
1kg PH-
A Spa Fusion Shock Sachet (single use)
A Immerse Filter Cleaner Sachet (single use)
Bromine test strips
Bromine dispenser
I also purchased some Scaleaway as I live in a very hard water area!
So, we filled the tub up two days ago, and an electrician came about 24 hours ago to turn on the power! It was hot by night time (40c is the max it goes to) and my chemicals arrived about 1pm today (2 or so hours ago).
I straight away tested the PH and found it slightly too high, so added a small amount of PH-. The test I did also suggested the AK was too high, but they didn't provide anything to adjust this - in fact, they only sell AK+! I am wondering if this is to do with the UK not needing to adjust the Alkalinity?
Either way, the PH- brought the PH level down to where I would like it, and also seems to have dropped the AK slightly too, to hopefully OK levels.
About 2 hours ago I added 4 of the Bromine tablets to the dispenser, set it to wide open and plopped it in. Since then, two hours on, the test strip is still showing white (aka no Bromine at all)! A quick search on the interest suggested these tablets are very slow to act?
My questions:
- Is it OK to go in the hot tub tonight, before the Bromine levels are at normal levels as per the strip? Should I purchase a liquid Bromine to boost the levels immediately?
- Should I be using the Shock sachet already, before anyone has even used it? Some sites say to use the shock immediately after filling, others say you don't even need to shock! As this is a brand new tub, I cannot imagine there is must dirt to dissolve away - but I wondered if using this would help my initial Bromine levels?
I have also purchased some Scale remover, as we live in an extremely hard water area. I plan to add this to the water tonight overnight.
Any advice welcomed!
RR