Welcome to our forum.
I am the only person who use's the tub and i take a bath before i take a soak 99% of the time. I use the tub daily for about 45 min to 1 hour. (until 2 weeks ago I dont think i have neglected the tub i have a 360 gallon tub and i add 3/4 tsp of dichlor after each use and i shock weekly with 5 1/4 tsp and balance the PH and TA. My water is clear like it was new and it has no odors.Do you really think i need to hit it with a 50 ppm of chlorine?After each soak i put on lotion to keep my skin from drying out.I have been adding 8 ounches of PH down, my TA will goto 100 and my Ph will goto 7.2 then the next day i check it and my TA will be back to 120 and my PH will be 8.0 or higher i have been doing this for 4 days and every day the same thing happens.What is an acceptable level of CYA?CapMorgan
I am the only person who use's the tub and i take a bath before i take a soak 99% of the time. I use the tub daily for about 45 min to 1 hour. I dont think i have neglected the tub i have a 360 gallon tub and i add 3/4 tsp of dichlor after each use and i shock weekly with 5 1/4 tsp and balance the PH and TA. My water is clear like it was new and it has no odors.
I hate to tell you - your using too little chlorine!...
When i shock my water i use 5 1/4 tsp which is 7 times my daily dose per Vermonter method and 24 later my chlorine level is still 10 ppm or higher i cant tell because my kit only goes to 10 ppm.I will follow all of your advice, today i will dump half of my water, then i will get my PH in line at 7.5.I will adjust my daily dosing to 1.5 tsp. Do i have to now adjust my shock level to 7 times that now, or leave it at 5 1/4 tsp since i can get a 10 ppm 24 hours later ?CapMorgan
When i shock my water i use 5 1/4 tsp which is 7 times my daily dose per Vermonter method and 24 later my chlorine level is still 10 ppm or higher i cant tell because my kit only goes to 10 ppm.
To test for high chlorine, use a non-chlorinated water and use a 50/50 mix and multiply the chlorine reading by2 ... if that's too high still use 2 parts non-chlorinated water to 1 part tub water and multiply by 3.
I will follow all of your advice, today i will dump half of my water, then i will get my PH in line at 7.5.I will adjust my daily dosing to 1.5 tsp. Do i have to now adjust my shock level to 7 times that now, or leave it at 5 1/4 tsp since i can get a 10 ppm 24 hours later ?
Reese, I got your PM. Thanks for the advice. My PM hasn't been working the last couple of days, so I had to post my reply here.
After testing this morning, it appears my pH is in the 7.6 range. Alk in in the 50-70 range. I think I will give it a day to see what happens?Then what , can I leave alk at that level if pH stays fairly stable?
Great minds think alike, and small ones seldom differ! I started my post around the same time you did, but left to watch the news. When I finished and hit "post", I saw you had already covered a lot of the same ground. I could have saved some keystrokes!I went over to Poolsearch and looked at some of the advice that is being given out there. I can understand why Tony chose to address his concerns here rather than jump into CapMorgan's thread over there. It reminded me of the Bizarro Superman comics of my youth. It is the first time I've seen the Vermonter approach described as "terrible, terrible". I don't know how much validity their theories have, but the two main proponents of liquid bleach certainly talk a good chemistry game (my head hurts just from following the discussion). The method described for balancing pH and TA had me envisioning standing over the tub like it is a witch's cauldron, adding chemicals, while turning aeration on and off, until presto, your water is balanced perfectly! :-?Their positions on dichlor, CYA, and liquid bleach are certainly different than what you see in the Taylor materials, the guides on Doc's site, or any of the other info I have come across. I find it interesting that in their view, sodium hypochlorite is the gold standard and dichlor is to be used sparingly. They repeat the same chemistry primer in several posts/threads, blaming what are normally considered minimal CYA levels for reduced sanitizer efficiency. The things that concerned me based on sampling a few threads, is a seeming belief that simply switching to liquid bleach is the cure to most hot-tub problems (oversimplification on my part), although there was little concern for its affects on pH and TDS -- and that a pseudomonas infection is likely to occur if you don't follow thier approach. They do have some followers, but whenever I see testimonials to how simple something can be if you just follow a non-conventional approach, I wonder if they are "on to something, or on something". 8-)