Duh...think we messed up!

[cappykat]

Thanks, Phil.  I copied it and sent it to my husband at work.  

Our water had been so clean and clear.  So after you have several people in the spa you should shock it?  How much shock?  

We've been doing our weekly maintenance on Saturday, so if we have people over and use it on Friday, do we shock it afterwards and then again on Saturday as part of our routine?

[tony]

I concur.  Drain and fill.  With pH that low, the sooner the better.  When I adjust pH, whether up or down, I add at most a tblspn at a time and check.

BTW, adding dichlor to a bromine spa is a great way to clear cloudy water.  Also good for heavy bather load.

[cappykat]

The pH down that we got from the dealer in our start-up chems is a 3lb bottle.  It was the instructions on the bottle that got me into trouble...that and the fact that I didn't notice dosage required per 10,000 gallons

Stl-rex said to get the water emptied ASAP.  Can it wait until husband gets home tonight?

Oh, what is TDS?

[drprwnap]

Cat,
Sorry to hear about your water problems.    The only problems I've had is with alk and pH. Kinda hard to keep 'em balanced.  When I first got my Epic, I was using some MPS when we got out.  After reading many threads on this board and talking a dealer, I decided to try some di-chlor. Now, I use 1 tsp. per bather AFTER we're done. Leave the jets on and cover off until the jets turn off (15-20 min.).  I find it hard to read those test strips. I take a sample to the dealer once a week. Whenever I've had to add anything it's been in 1/2 or 1/4 cup.  You might want to program an extra filter cycle. Call your dealer and see what he/she thinks.  Along with the factory settings, I have a 2 hour cycle in the late morning and late night.  I figure I run the pool filter 12+ hrs per day (yeah, I know it's more water), so  some more fliter time for the spa can't hurt (other than my electric bill!  ). Good luck and keep us posted!

drprwnap  

[stl-rex]

Personally, if you are doing maintenance on Saturday, I wouldn't waste the chems on Friday night.  You're going to super sanitize/oxidize the tub on Saturday anyway.  We do chems on Sunday.  I don't care for how the water feels the day we do the chems so if we have folks over on a Saturday, I don't want that chemical feel in the tub.  It's feel harsher/harder/more drying, probably due to the high Bromine I guess.  Monday it feels great again, very silky, but not slimy as the bromine levels have dropped back to maintenance level.

[stl-rex]

Don't feel to bad.  I screwed up a bit too.  I was using a liquid test kit.  It was telling me I was acidic.  I kept adding pH up and it was going nowhere.  When I dipped a test strip - DOH!  Too high.  Something was interfering with the indicator solution.  Had to bring it back down.  I bought a pH meter off ebay that day.  I hate deciphering the minor color variations of both the strips and liquid.  It's too "light" dependent.  Even at these temps, the pH variation due to temperatue is limited if you are close to neutral.  I'll take a 7.6 reading on a pH meter as good enough.  I've played with turning the jets on to move the water around, swirling it, taking water out and testing it and they all yield roughly the same number so now I just dip swirl and read.  $30 with shipping.

[pruned_hands]

Cappykat,

sorry to hear that you will be tubless for a bit.  You folks got your tub just  a day before we did and I would be bummed if I had to empty the beast already and go without spatopia for a while.

Hopefully you will be back in action soon.  Don't be embarrassed by this "oops" as i think the chemicals are a learning experience.  As a newbie I am always checking and rechecking chem levels (will go through all my test strips by next week if I keep up this pace), but I am sure that once we get used to the chems, we will throw a bit in and forget about it.  Most likely, in a year from now we will be forgetting to put in chemicals.

Hopefullyy we can both take nickers advice and not micro-manage our spas...throw in litte amounts and let the filter and chems do the work.

hope it all works out!

[NE-Phil]

...We've been doing our weekly maintenance on Saturday, so if we have people over and use it on Friday, do we shock it afterwards and then again on Saturday as part of our routine?

I've been using bromine. too. I use a bromine shock, not that it matters. If I had people over Friday night, I would add a couple of ounces of shock later that evening and for Saturday, just the normal maintenance.

Phil

[ssbraun]

If it were me, I'd be adding "ph up" to get out of the severely acidic range that you must be in now (protect the tub!!) and drain as soon as the ph is close to neutral (neutral being a ph of 7)...neutralizing to protect wherever it is you are draining to (I drain into my sink).  This will likely take a number of doses.  If you know how to do this, I wouldn't wait for your husband, and once drained, I'd fill asap and balance ph.  I'm not sure, but it might even take a fill and flush (that sure wouldn't hurt if you've got the time).

BTW... TDS is "total dissolved solids"  

Good luck!

Steve