Need help with water chemistry on new Sundance Aspen

[Momofboys]

Are there any Aspen or Maxxus owners who can help us with chemistry?  We started with bromine (granulated) and activator and every time we test the water (every day or two) it's close to zero.  We then make it perfect then it goes back to zero. Around and around we go.  The other numbers seem to be in the OK range generally.  We also seem prone to foam.

The water is also slightly cloudy looking to me.  We just added a sun purity mineral cartridge, it seems to have no effect that I can tell. I have not been in there yet to see if the water feels "softer".

We have all been showering before use and using suits that have been washed without detergent using extra water.

Should we move to bromine tablets? Can we do this and the sun purity mineral cartridge (which is sitting in the "brominator" at the same time?  Should we even want to?  I'm not sure if the water is truly cloudy or not- when it gets direct sun it looks a lot better.

If any owners of similar have a plan that is really working for them, I would love to hear it. My dealer gave me a list of like 10 chemicals to try to tweak it and it is feeling very complicated at the moment!

[Jacuzzi Jim]

  Doesn't really matter which spa or brand it is, well some does.  But it sounds like a high sanitizer demand, in which case you need to up the sanitizer.   I don't believe Sundance's sun purity will work with Bromine.   I know Jacuzzi's doesn't and it's pretty much the same thing.   

   If you have a lot of people in the spa at any given time in the day/night, you might move to a bromine floater.  Ask your dealer about it, and see if he can help set you up.   Add some granular bromine then set the feeder to #2 or 3 on the side and throw it in.  Shock once a week with a non chlorinated shock, watch PH/Alk and go from there. Foam can be from a number of things.  How is the calcium level? 

 

[meriflower]

I do not and never have owned a Sundance but shouldn't be any different.  Ensure your PH/alk/calcium hardness are at the proper levels because if they're not that can cause your bromine to be unstable.  If your levels are in the proper range you need to increase your bromine. Other things, how long are your filter cycles set for?  When was the last time you shocked or cleaned the filter?  For foam you can add product to get rid of that but you generally get that if there's lotion, oil, soap in the water brought in by people.

I have used bromine successfully, tablets in a floater and I shocked weekly using a non chlorine shock.

[bud16415]

I know many people have successfully used bromine for many years in both feeder systems and floating feeders. For what it is worth my experience with bromine was very much like yours. I was up and down also many times landing at zero then would shock and release the bromine back into the tub to find the levels higher than I wanted. I was adjusting the feeder all the time and add in not constant bather loads and it was a nightmare trying to hold it steady. For me bromine is more of a plan ahead strategy and Dichlor / Clorox is more of a reactive strategy based around usage. Once I switched over the plan was much simpler for me to know what I wanted to do.

At first after I switched I would test the water every day before we got in and sometimes after we got out and added sanitizer. Now I almost don’t have to test as the results are always quite constant, but I still use a test strip maybe 3 times a week to look at all the levels and adjust as needed PH and such.

We get in and the tub is 1-2 PPM we get out after maybe an hour and I add a tablespoon of Dichlor or if my stabilizer is where I want it I add a laundry soap measure of Clorox. I hit clean and it runs for 5 minutes and I close it up. if we don’t use it the next day I don’t worry but the following day if we are not going to use it I give it a half dose. If it is a weekend and we are expecting a lot of friends and family and I don’t know what to expect as far as load except it will be higher I dose it in the morning bringing it to around 5-6 PPM and then at the end of the day use a strip and see how we did. Most of the time it is still fine but I give it a little more to play it safe. Doing all this is less than 5 minutes a day thinking about the water.     

I really wanted an automatic set it and forget it system but I don’t think there is such a thing.

[Clarkp]

Mom, we just had our new Aspen installed (July 13) and we also experience very low bromine levels.  Personally, I'm OK with it being fairly low (around 1.0 to 1.5). 

Did you get the ozone generator with your Aspen?  We added the factory ozone generator and I run it at least once a day more than the 'Water Care' automated system calls for.  I read somewhere that ozone liberates bromine to an extent to help with sanitation.  Again, I'm not super worried about it.

I add one packet of Mineraluxe multi-functional oxidizer (whatever that is...) once a week because the dealer said to.  https://www.hottubwarehouse.com/mineraluxe-oxygen-multi-functional-shock-16-pouches

Given that, I DO add some brominating granules https://www.hottubwarehouse.com/mineraluxe-brominating-granules-1-pound-3-ounces each time we get out of the tub.  I generally add about 1.5 ounces of the dry granules each evening once we're done.

Mine also has a somewhat cloudy look to it but I write that off to fairly high dissolved solids.  We don't shower before we get in and it's hotter'n a firecracker here in Texas.  So, I will probably change the water out in another five weeks or so.

[Vinny]

Did you add the starter packet for bromine? Not a bromine user but from what I've read that is the usual mistake. You need to have a bromine bank in the water for shock/oxidizer/whatever to activate the bank to have it work the way it is supposed to.