High alkalinity & pH, ring around the spa, green tinted water--Please Help!

[Kaisermust]

Filled our first ever spa yesterday-exciting.  Now I'm disenchanted.  Can't and won't dare go in it yet.  To preface, we have well water with some iron in it so we bought the $50 Eco One pre-filter to attach to the hose (new also) before a drop of water went into the tub.  Small tub, Caldera Kauai, only 225 gals.  Got it up to temp last night and tested with those test strips.  Hardness is a little low, bromine is a little low but alkalinity is 240+ (high off the chart on the test strip bottle and pH is 8.4.  Called dealer this AM and then cannot come til mid week but did tell me to put a tbl pH down and see if TA comes down.  Did that and came back a couple of hours later and checked again.  No different so I called Caldera customer service.  Told to treat again with pH and run clean cycle so this time I took cover off completely and then I discovered this incredible, sticky/greasy brownish/orangish solid 1/2" wide ring around the entire tub.  Yuck!!!  Scrubbed that off 3 times today and treated again and again with pH down per Caldera's directions.  Was told that ring around the tub is the iron which hasn't been oxidized by the ozonator yet.  Scrubbed that off  once again and  finally shut the tub for the night after having treated it 5 times (and 5 clean cycles) and the TA & pH have started to come down a teeny, tiny bit (I think).  Used 1/4 bottle of pH down already.  Also have spa frog with bromine and minerals set at 3 (the dealer set both at this setting).  Caldera person says until the alkalinity comes down the spa frog can't adequately do its job so no need to adjust those yet.  Has anyone on well water had these problems?  I was going to originally fill the tub with our tap water which had run through our water softener but I was told not to do that.  Suggestions please for adjusting chemicals, getting rid of greet tinted water and how to get rid of that disgusting greasy ring.  Disenchanted in NY.

[TwinCitiesHotSpring]

I'll give it a shot

1. upgrade your pre-filter and possibly use a couple inline, even a sock wrapped at the very end will help pull minerals  it will take forever to fill but the more metal you remove the easier this process will be.
2. one tbl of ph down added in a tub with an alk. of 240+ does absolutely nothing, you are looking at 4+ ounces to get that alk. into the 70-90ppm range...your pH will drop below range but you can use aeration (running pump on high with diverters open) to naturally raise pH
3. just my opinion but I would ditch the frog feeder and go chlorine...or in a tub that small silver ion + MPS....always have chlorine on hand for a heavy use situation...a tub must be sanitized at all times, in 100+ degree water it doesn't take long for bacteria to grow
4. scrub the scum line off and give your filters a good cleaning...also a metal removing product should always be used, esp. when using well water
5. test strips are good for quick tests but a Taylor drop test kit is much more accurate, they are less than $100 and well worth it imo
6. good luck 

[Chris_H]

Make sure to add mineral remover prior to adding any chlorine.

[Chas]

TwinCities is right - you may simply be adding too small an amount of pH decreaser. My 500 gallons tub, on city water, takes anywhere from 4 to 6 ounces every time I refil, just to get the pH and TA into range. I then adjust by one-ounce increments from there.

If you know you have iron, the filter was a good move. But you will still have to add a metal agent of some kind. I like "Metal Gon" from Leisure Time, or the similar product from FreshWater (Watkins). Add it, then hose off the filters the next day (or two).

HTH