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Author Topic: hot tub water damaging cedar hedges??  (Read 3096 times)

aritzia

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hot tub water damaging cedar hedges??
« on: April 19, 2014, 10:26:16 am »
Just curious to know if I can cause damage to my cedar hedges by empting my tub water?...I use bromine. Any experiences from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

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hot tub water damaging cedar hedges??
« on: April 19, 2014, 10:26:16 am »

Jacuzzi Jim

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Re: hot tub water damaging cedar hedges??
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2014, 02:31:40 pm »
 My guess is if the PPM of the bromine is high enough your plants are not going to like it too much..   

aritzia

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Re: hot tub water damaging cedar hedges??
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2014, 03:56:38 pm »
I have never heard anything about the hot tub water ever damaging cedars, bushes or lawns for that matter. I researched and the chemicals are good. I was just curious if anyone out here has ever heard of such damage or experienced damaging "plant life" when changing the water in their hot tub.I have drained it on lawn and never had any bad experience at all..

rosewoodsteel

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Re: hot tub water damaging cedar hedges??
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2014, 05:20:29 pm »
I've never had any problems with my plants, but, I use a long hose and drain well away from anything that I'd like to see stay green.

chem geek

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Re: hot tub water damaging cedar hedges??
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2014, 05:50:41 pm »
You can always dechlorinate or debrominate your spa by adding a reducing agent just before you dump the water.  That will turn bromine into bromide salt or chlorine into chloride salt.  Odds are that the chlorine or bromine levels in your spa aren't enough to cause problems for your plants.  After all, most irrigation uses chlorinated (or chloraminated) water.  Nevertheless, to remove bromine or chlorine, the easiest reducing agent to use is hydrogen peroxide as it will simply result in producing oxygen gas.

You use roughly the same volume of 3% hydrogen peroxide to dechlorinate as it takes 6% bleach to produce a Free Chlorine (FC) level.  You can calculate the FC equivalent from a bromine level by dividing the bromine level by 2.25.  So using the PoolMath calculator and assuming a 350 gallon spa size, you can remove 4 ppm bromine which is 4/2.25 = 1.78 ppm FC by adding 1.3 fluid ounces of 3% hydrogen peroxide (same volume as 6% bleach needed to raise the FC by 1.78 ppm).

It's more likely your hedges or other plants will not like the salt level (salinity) of the spa though chloride may be worse than bromide.  You can minimize this damage by watering the area to dilute the water that you dump from the spa.  You can also not dump in the same place every time, though given that you are likely only dumping the spa water once every so many months, it's not a big deal.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2014, 05:53:49 pm by chem geek »

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Re: hot tub water damaging cedar hedges??
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2014, 05:50:41 pm »

 

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