... from all the information out there
We just purchased and set up a Maxx 471 spa and it's our first time owning a spa. On Friday we filled it to the recommended line then took a water sample up to our local dealer (which is 75 miles away!). The water initially was 66 degrees. This is what our water is before we do anything / and where the dealer recommends it should be:
Metals: 0 ppm / 0 ppm
Total Alkalinity: 151 ppm / 80-150 ppm (from working with my pool, I thought the high end of this scale should only be at 120ppm, 150 seems high to me)
pH: 8.1 / 7.2-7.8
Calcium Hardness: 134 ppm / 200-300 ppm
Free Chlorine: 0 ppm / >0.5 ppm
Our spa has an average capacity of 420 gallons.
The dealer recommend the Brilliance chemicals and the Nature II Stick(?) and sent us home with a box of Brilliance chemicals, a second filter, and the Nature II stick.
They told us we needed to do the following steps for start-up:
Add 1 oz. Stain & Scale prevention - wait 1 hour
Add 2 oz. Calcium Hardness Increaser - wait 1 hour and test with Test Strips. If within desired range...
Add Nature II stick to filter (spa also has a First Filter) and
Add 1 tsp. Chlorinating Powder.
Their additional instructions were to add 1-2 Tb. of Spa Oxidizing Shock after each use (is it 1 or 2?), test weekly with Test Strips and add chemicals as needed and add 1-2 tsp. Chlorinating Powder as needed (how do I know when this is needed?).
So we went home that night and the water had heated to 75 degrees. We did the first 4 steps to start-up. We set it to economy mode, closed the cover and let it do it's thing and gave it time to heat to 100. We waited about 24 hours. The next night, Saturday, we got in it for the first time. Originally we had the water set to 100 degrees but that was too hot for me so we lowered it to 98. We got out after about 30 minutes and added 2 Tb's of Spa Oxidizing Shock as directed, and closed the cover.
We never thought anything about it again until last night, Wednesday night. My husband came home from a particularly rough day at work, made a drink and put on his swim trunks. I went out and was going to open the cover and turn on the jets for him. However, when I opened the cover, I was hit with a bit of a sour smell and the water was very cloudy and had a greenish tint. When we turned the jets on, it created a layer of foam on the surface of the water. I broke out the test strips and the chlorine was 0, pH was at 9.0... Also note, I/we don't wear lotions or powders, I wear my hair up in the tub, and we rinse our bathing suits after each use and washing so there should not have been too much residual oils/lotions/detergents in the spa.
We have no idea what to do now. After some reading I went online and ordered clarifier and pH reducer (both from Brilliance), but at this point we really aren't sure what to do next.
I have a huge Taylor test kit for our pool and I'm thinking I need to drain the tub, rinse it out and the filters, and start from scratch using our test kit to retest the pre-balanced water, then following Brilliance guidelines to re-start/balance the water. The test strips are a joke. However, Brilliance has no instructions of how to modify dosage for the Nature II stick if at all and I no longer trust what the dealer told me?
Any advice on what our next step should be, or how to modify the chemical dosing for use with the Nature II would be greatly appreciated.