a slue of new questions

[benalexe]

Now that I am up and running my question are switching from moving and installation to how chemical and run the tub.

Okay so here goes.

Last night I put drain line cleaner in the tub and going to leave it in until I get home from work so all of the lines are completely cleaned out.  I am have circulated the pumps on and off to mix it in.

I will empty the tub tonight, wipe it down and refill.

for now (unless it comes today) I am assuming i have no ozone and my clear 2 cartridge is not in.

when I refill I read that I need to start filling and then put stain and scale in to the tub. Wait 3 hours then the rest of my chems.  This right?

What is the difference between dichlor and Shock (activator)   why use one over the other?  I also read I should put in about 1 oz of dichlor or shock but why one over the other or do I use both?

I have the test strip and will need to adjust the pH etc.  how do i know how much chemical to put in to make a difference. I.E. if ph is low how much do I put in to increase it?

what else do i need to do at start up?

My wife wants to know what temperature is safe for the kids?

in terms of cleaning the tub regularly,  How do I clean sand etc that will sink to the bottom of the tub from peoples feed? Do most of you use a foot bath?

Many more questions to come but chew on these for a while.

[ndabunka]

Now that I am up and running my question are switching from moving and installation to how chemical and run the tub.

Okay so here goes.

Last night I put drain line cleaner in the tub and going to leave it in until I get home from work so all of the lines are completely cleaned out.  I am have circulated the pumps on and off to mix it in.

I will empty the tub tonight, wipe it down and refill.

for now (unless it comes today) I am assuming i have no ozone and my clear 2 cartridge is not in.

when I refill I read that I need to start filling and then put stain and scale in to the tub. Wait 3 hours then the rest of my chems.  This right?

What is the difference between dichlor and Shock (activator)   why use one over the other?  I also read I should put in about 1 oz of dichlor or shock but why one over the other or do I use both?

I have the test strip and will need to adjust the pH etc.  how do i know how much chemical to put in to make a difference. I.E. if ph is low how much do I put in to increase it?

what else do i need to do at start up?

My wife wants to know what temperature is safe for the kids?

in terms of cleaning the tub regularly,  How do I clean sand etc that will sink to the bottom of the tub from peoples feed? Do most of you use a foot bath?

Many more questions to come but chew on these for a while.

Kid-safe temp is either 99 or 100 degrees depending on how young your kids are (my 5 year old is good for 30 minutes @ 100 but got overheated pretty quickly (15 minutes) at that same temp when he was 4 so I only recently raised it for him to 100 about 3 months ago.

Shock "oxidizes any remaining chlorine" and is used by many only about twice a month.  Shock is not "really needed" in my opinion IF you use about a tablespoon of di-chlor after each use.

I like to not have ANY chemical smell so I like the fact that chlorine can dissipate and therefore the smell also dissipates.

I have never used any of the scale nor "stabilizer's" in my tub.  We have pretty good tap water so I've never needed them.

#1 rule in chemical treatment is to make certain that your Alkalinity (ALK) and PH BOTH remain in a GOOD range.  Do that and the chlorine and that's all you really need to maintain a tub.  If you don't tub for a week, simply check the levels and add a small oz of chlorine until the next time you float.  I've gone two weeks without putting anything in the tub chemical-wise when it wasn't in use.

As far as quantity of chems, this is like the movie "Contact" with Jody foster... Use baby steps/small amounts over time to keep from running into the "yo-Yo" effect.  There is a guy named Vermonter who posted a chems regiment one time on the Internet, search for that.

As far as cleaning the bottom of the tub.... A LONG time ago (5 years) I recommended using one of those "paint sticks" you can buy for $9.95 from any of the home improvement stores.  Take the roller off of it completely and you can simply aim the 1-inch wide opening at the stuff and pull on the handle to suck it in.  If you want the "real thing" I thinksomeone took that idea about 2 years ago and now offer something like it with a wider nozzle for something like $49.95 specifically marketed to the spa industry.

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

Now that I am up and running my question are switching from moving and installation to how chemical and run the tub.

Okay so here goes.

Last night I put drain line cleaner in the tub and going to leave it in until I get home from work so all of the lines are completely cleaned out.  I am have circulated the pumps on and off to mix it in.

I will empty the tub tonight, wipe it down and refill.

for now (unless it comes today) I am assuming i have no ozone and my clear 2 cartridge is not in.

when I refill I read that I need to start filling and then put stain and scale in to the tub. Wait 3 hours then the rest of my chems.  This right?

What is the difference between dichlor and Shock (activator)   why use one over the other?  I also read I should put in about 1 oz of dichlor or shock but why one over the other or do I use both?

I have the test strip and will need to adjust the pH etc.  how do i know how much chemical to put in to make a difference. I.E. if ph is low how much do I put in to increase it?

what else do i need to do at start up?

My wife wants to know what temperature is safe for the kids?

in terms of cleaning the tub regularly,  How do I clean sand etc that will sink to the bottom of the tub from peoples feed? Do most of you use a foot bath?

Many more questions to come but chew on these for a while.

How you do your chemicals depends on what chemical system you are using. The bottles should give directions on how much to add depending on the amount of water your tub holds. If you use dichlor, you will have to add it daily and should shock once per week. Dichlor is a sanitizer and oxidizer. Shock is just an oxidizer. Shock is super good at breaking up sweat, oils ect, allowing the dichlor to do its job sanitizing and not working so hard at oxidizing. Your ozonator is also an oxidizer. Clear 2 is a mineral sanitizer. It should come with directions or a recipe that will help you out. Stain and scale is very helpful if you are on well water, sometimes necessary. It is also helpful anyway to help prevent scale issues if you have a problem with the PH rising as some people do, specially on a tub with so many jets. Airation causes the PH to rise.

Adjust the ALK first, then the ph. Again how much is needed depends on 1. what the PH reading is and 2. how much water there is in the tub. It should say on the bottle how much/for gallons of water/ toraise "x" amount. If not, if you give the specifics, someone on here can help.

You should not get much into the tub. The more "gunk" you get into the tub, the harder your water chemistry will be. Make sure you are clean when you use the tub. Do not wash swimsuits all the time and when you do, use very little soap and rinse twice. Make sure no one has sunscreen, lotion ect on.

Safe temp for kids is 99 or so for small children. Their bodies get warm much quicker than adults. It is bringing their body temp up to what the spa is set for, so 104 is a serious "fever" temp, think how they feel when they have a fever!

Clean filters are a must for good water chemistry. Did you get new filters? Hopefully you did not run the line cleaner through them!

[Lars]

As far as cleaning the bottom of the tub.... A LONG time ago (5 years) I recommended using one of those "paint sticks" you can buy for $9.95 from any of the home improvement stores.  Take the roller off of it completely and you can simply aim the 1-inch wide opening at the stuff and pull on the handle to suck it in.  If you want the "real thing" I thinksomeone took that idea about 2 years ago and now offer something like it with a wider nozzle for something like $49.95 specifically marketed to the spa industry.

Even easier is to go buy about eight feet of 3/4" clear plastic tubing at the hardware store.  Just jump in, start a siphon and away you go.

Think it ran me about $1.20

[kokanee001]

I just use a turkey baster. It does the job easily enough.

[benalexe]

So up and running again. Popped the stain and scale in which needs to run for 3 hrs.

Popped the clear 2 cartridge in.

So tommorow AM should I put Dichlor in or Shock in? and How much.  I keep reading conflicting things.   I did read that the water needs to be super sanatized to activate the clear 2.

How  much and what?

[benalexe]

another question.  my ph was fine out the tap. My stablizer was a little low.  Can you tell me about stabilizer?

[Hillbilly Hot Tub]

As I said previous, Dichlor is the sanitizer. You use this to start the mineral stick and super chlorinate the water. The shock is probably MPS. Did your clear 2 cartrige come with directions or a "recipe" I know what Nature 2 is, but clear 2 may be different.

Stabilizer is generally for pools or hot tubs that are not covered. It helps prevent the sun from burning off the chlorine. In a hot tub what you need to watch is if the stabilizer gets to high. When it is high it makes chlorine less effective and has been know to cause some people to itch. If you do water changes every 3-4 months and do not over use the dichlor you should not have an issue.

[benalexe]

So if all my chems are in check ignore the stablizer?

[Chad]

So if all my chems are in check ignore the stablizer?

Yeah, just drain your tub every 3 months and it shouldn't be an issue.

For lots of info regarding cya(stabilizer), use the search feature. Just type in cya and change the 'check posts within' from 2 weeks to one year.