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So do you guys skip the bromine and just use the spa frog mineral cartridge/Nature2 and dichlor??
Not 100% sure if I want a bromine or chlorine system yet either. I know with the Nature 2, you cannot use bromine. Not sure if anyone uses the Nature 2, and if so what you use to supplement the minerals. I've heard you should use MPS with it and dichlor.Please help!
What do you use for the stabilizer and what does that do?
Dichlor (di = 2 chlor = chlorine) dichlor is the source of the chlorine. There is also trichlor used in swimming pools and comes in the pill form you see people dropping in their skimmer baskets. Trichlor breaks down very fast (too fast) in hot water of a hot tub 100-105f. The stabilizer is added to the chlorine when you buy dichlor. You get both in the same jar. Because you are not putting it in an open to sunlight tub it builds up faster than it dissipates and having too much stabilizer effects how the chlorine works (slows it down too much). Thus some is good too much bad. Clorox has no stabilizer in it. It is dirt cheap and does virtually the same thing as dichlor. Dichlor is chlorine, Clorox is chlorine.MPS is an oxidizer and is not chlorine. There are two ways to shock a tub one is a massive dose of chlorine the other is an oxidizer. I use non chlorine shock MPS as my shock of choice. Shocking burns out the dead stuff the chlorine killed and lets the filter take it out. I am by far not and expert and the experts here can correct me as needed.
I may be a contrarian, and I am not implying that I am smarter or better informed than others, but I have never had an issue with CYA (Stabilizer) in a standard hot tub cover that is closed. Yes: There is some CYA in Di-Chlor. But generally when that becomes an issue (ie- it is too high), so is your TDS, so on so forth and it is time to drain anyways. I understand that a build in CYA can cause issues. I wonder, though, how much of this is dealers trying to get people to buy chemicals vs the tangible issue at hand? This is coming from a former dealer who now works for a manufacturer. We don't put anything in our fine print about it, and the company who manufactures our chems doesn't mention it to us. But this is just one point of view....******Di-Chlor *is* the chlorine. Stabilizer is its own thing, but Di-Clor does have trace amounts of stabilizer in it. Those that worry about it switch to bleach at some point once the CYA is at a level that they take issue with. Another reason I don't worry is that 2 people in a hot tub is like 20 people in 10k gallon pool. The only real issue with high CYA is chlorine lock. But at the aforementioned ratio, its hard to have a tangible issue with it, as you tend to plow through chlorine in hot tubs, so a "lock" isn't going to really take place. Make sense? ******The Nature 2/Spa Frog is likely the most common sanitization method out there. I don't prefer either as they are both the same, realistically. I have sold both and just prefer N2 cause its cheaper. If the Frog was cheaper, I'd do that. Chlorine is cheap and easy but more smell, rougher on the skin. N2/Frog is softer on the skin and with less odor, but it costs more. As bud16415 said: There are numerous ways to sanitize. There is no wrong answer. Just wrong ways of executing the method that you choose. I hope this helps. Good luck moving forward. ***EDIT: This was written before the post above me was posted so parts of my response was already answered by others.
Quote from: The Wizard of Spas on August 29, 2017, 03:11:53 pmI may be a contrarian, and I am not implying that I am smarter or better informed than others, but I have never had an issue with CYA (Stabilizer) in a standard hot tub cover that is closed. Yes: There is some CYA in Di-Chlor. But generally when that becomes an issue (ie- it is too high), so is your TDS, so on so forth and it is time to drain anyways. I understand that a build in CYA can cause issues. I wonder, though, how much of this is dealers trying to get people to buy chemicals vs the tangible issue at hand? This is coming from a former dealer who now works for a manufacturer. We don't put anything in our fine print about it, and the company who manufactures our chems doesn't mention it to us. But this is just one point of view....******Di-Chlor *is* the chlorine. Stabilizer is its own thing, but Di-Clor does have trace amounts of stabilizer in it. Those that worry about it switch to bleach at some point once the CYA is at a level that they take issue with. Another reason I don't worry is that 2 people in a hot tub is like 20 people in 10k gallon pool. The only real issue with high CYA is chlorine lock. But at the aforementioned ratio, its hard to have a tangible issue with it, as you tend to plow through chlorine in hot tubs, so a "lock" isn't going to really take place. Make sense? ******The Nature 2/Spa Frog is likely the most common sanitization method out there. I don't prefer either as they are both the same, realistically. I have sold both and just prefer N2 cause its cheaper. If the Frog was cheaper, I'd do that. Chlorine is cheap and easy but more smell, rougher on the skin. N2/Frog is softer on the skin and with less odor, but it costs more. As bud16415 said: There are numerous ways to sanitize. There is no wrong answer. Just wrong ways of executing the method that you choose. I hope this helps. Good luck moving forward. ***EDIT: This was written before the post above me was posted so parts of my response was already answered by others.Thank you for this very detailed explanation!! I am leaning towards using the Nature2 plus dichlor and MPS and not using a floater in my tub. What do you guys think?