Welcome to our forum.
Hi Everyone,I need some help. I went away for a week, and when I came back I found the water was clear, but the @ease cartridge was upside down. Since it had been a week I shocked the tub, but I neglected to change the @ease cartridge (bad me!). Things were busy after I got back so I didn't use the tub, but the teens kept going in. The next time I checked the water (yesterday) it was very cloudy even when the jets were off. I replaced the @ease cartridge and set it to 2, and I added 4 capfuls of chlorine granules to the water. This did not resolve the problem so later that day I tested the water and added some alkalinity increaser. The water was still very cloudy today so I added 4 more capfuls of chlorine granules. The water is still cloudy but looking a bit clearer near the top. What do I do? Add more chlorine granules? Shock the water again? I don't know what to do. Please let me know.Thanks!Vanessa
Shock it with chlorine granules. Get the chlorine PPM up to 15-20 and let it run for a cycle or two.
Quote from: Tman122 on May 19, 2017, 09:53:32 pmShock it with chlorine granules. Get the chlorine PPM up to 15-20 and let it run for a cycle or two.Is that the same thing as shock oxidizer?
This thread goes hand in hand with your other one on water care 101. I think everyone goes thru this same learning curve. I know I did. I also wonder if your dealer is giving you good information or maybe you are missing some of what they are telling you. Your @ease cartridge should last a month and if you have an inline feeder that holds the cartridge there should be no way it is upside down. @ease is chlorine so it should be set to take care of the sanitizing and I don’t know why he has you adding more after each use. There are two ways to shock your tub one is how Tman instructed with taking the chlorine level real high and I wouldn’t suggest getting back in it until it came back down on its own. The other way is with an oxidizer called MPS or non-chlorine shock. If you are using that in a small quantity after each use and then staying out of the tub for a while that is one method. That’s not chlorine though that is MPS oxidizer shock. The other thing the dealer might have you using after use is Dichlor and that is a chlorine to use in a hot tub. That would be just doing more of what the @ease is doing and it would still be a good idea to shock with MPS once every week or two depending on usage. The key word I saw in your post was “teens” if you want to keep your tub trouble free everyone that uses it should know what is going on and if you go away for a week chances are the kids were using it more and maintaining it less. We always try and shower before using the tub and remove lotions and body products in the shower rather than in the tub. You can get away with much more in a pool as there is so much more water and the water is cool. Kid don’t pay attention to stuff like that and anything that gets in the water needs to be treated out and then removed thru the filters.Early on I problems like yours quite often and some I treated out and some I just dumped the water and started over. Last weekend our tub got cloudy similar to yours and I didn’t treat it as I was already past when I had planned to change the water. One thing I have found when you press the water life to long the water gets more finicky. You will get it just hang in there.
No, as mentioned above shock oxidizer is shock oxidizer or MPS (monopersulphate). Chlorine granules is dichlorotetra blah blah, made specifically for hot tubs.
Quote from: Tman122 on May 19, 2017, 09:53:32 pmNo, as mentioned above shock oxidizer is shock oxidizer or MPS (monopersulphate). Chlorine granules is dichlorotetra blah blah, made specifically for hot tubs.Yes, I read that after I posted. How do I know when I get to 15 ppm? My test strips only go up to 10 ppm.
If you are going to go to the trouble to add extra dichlor (chlorine) after each usage to cover what the @ease floater isn’t getting, I would just forget about the @ease and dose it once a day like I do based on usage. In my tub if the two of us go in the tub for between 30 minutes to an hour and we have showered before I will generally add one tablespoon of dichlor as soon as we get out and turn on the clean cycle leaving the tub open until the clean is done. About 10 minutes then close the tub up. The dichlor will do its job and be almost gone for the next days soak. If we have company and use the tub harder I will give it some extra. The first few months I tested quite a bit to get a feel for how much to add. The goal for me is to have it down around 1-2 PPM when I get in and maybe 5 PPM after we get out. I use dichlor for the first couple weeks with new water as dichlor has stabilizer in it and it will make the CYA build up. In a pool sunlight destroys stabilizer in a hot tub it doesn’t see much sunlight and will get the CYA level too high. Once mine hits about 50 I switch over to Clorox bleach. The same stuff you buy at the grocery store. I figured out a little cup I had for laundry detergent gave me about the same chlorine level as my tablespoon of dichlor without the ramping up of CYA and Clorox is by far the cheapest thing to buy. Doing it this way a $15 jar of dichlor lasts me a year. You have to use caution with liquid bleach just the same as you do in the laundry. I would save my @ease in the floater for when everyone goes on vacation. Set it on 4-6, turn the heat down and go away for a couple weeks without worries. If the kids are home teach them what they need to do if they want to use the tub.
What is CYA and why do I need to worry about it?
Cyunaric acid. It is a stabilizer for granular chlorine. As it builds up in your water from using granular chlorine it reduces the effectiveness of the granular chlorine.