Original > Hot Tub Forum
Nitro's Guide to Water Maintenance
Vinny:
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Hmm, maybe I should post my method and name it after myself, "Spatech's simple guide to water care"! If I did I know it would be about 80% shorter in length, 5 or 6 bullet point sentences and a couple small paragraphs at most. I wonder how I'd collect royalties. Maybe I could combine it with my theories on dating and gambling?
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Spatech, I'll help!
- Buy a test kit, either a Taylor K-2005 or Taylor K-2006 (if you are going to use really high levels of chlorine) and read the booklet. Learn how to use the kit. Learn how to use the watergram.
- Test your tap water, note the PH, alkalinity, calcium and chlorine readings.
- Use baking soda to adjust alkalinity up and possibly PH up as well. Use dry acid to adjust PH and/or alkalinity down. PH is more important than alkalinity. Alkalinity is there to lock in the PH. To adjust just PH use soda ash or borax.
- Use calcium chloride if you need to adjust calcium up. Use a product to help with hardness if your water is hard.
*** PH, alkalinity and calcium are RANGES not a concrete number ***
- Use a sanitizer to sanitize the water. Read the directions on the bottle for correct usage. You can use ozone and/or Nature 2 or the Frog but you must use a sanitizer. You want at least a 3 PPM chlorine reading (if you use chlorine) 20 minutes after adding chlorine and a 6 ppm bromine reading (if you use bromine). Bromine lasts longer than chlorine in hot water, chlorine is more effective at killing bacteria.
- Use MPS to shock out the combined chlorine once a week or so. Use high levels of chlorine every 2 to 3 weeks to super-chlorinate the tub and shock the tub. Find your combined chlorine reading and multiply that by 10 - that's the amount of free chlorine you need.
- Don't micromanage the water! In the beginning you will be checking every day, after you get the "feel" for your water it will be once a week or two. It does get easier as you learn to mange the water.
- MOST IMPORTANTLY -ENJOY!!!
Hopefully it's not too long
PS: One thing I've learned is that some people's water don't follow the rules that other people's water follow. Sometimes it is a matter of taking matter into your own hands. I personally have had chlorine lock; ozone doesn't work as others say it does and things that I can't explain. And another observation that I have is my spa water does not behave like my pool water and it does come out of the same tap!
Nitro:
--- Quote ---PS: One thing I've learned is that some people's water don't follow the rules that other people's water follow. Sometimes it is a matter of taking matter into your own hands. I personally have had chlorine lock; ozone doesn't work as others say it does and things that I can't explain. And another observation that I have is my spa water does not behave like my pool water and it does come out of the same tap!
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The reason your water acts different in your pool than your hot tub is because of aeration. This simple fact is misunderstood by many people (including the experts). If you understand it, you can balance any hot tub water very easily.
The rules of chemistry/physics apply to all water, regardless of whether you understand them or not.
TubsAndCues:
--- Quote ---[size=16]Water Balance[/size]
Water can be either Acidic, Balanced or Alkaline. If your water is not balanced, it could cause all kinds of problems. If it's too Acidic it could cause corrosion. If it's too Alkaline it could cause scaling. Both of which will reducing the effectiveness of your sanitizer. If your water is not balanced your water is not safe for you, or your tub. So it's really critical to get this correct.
There are four main parameters to keeping your water balanced. Water Temperature, Calcium Hardness (CH), Total Alkalinity (TA) and Potens Hydrogen (pH).
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Not quite. The pH of the tub can be acidic, "balanced", or alkaline. You are completely right on the rest, but in trying to help as well, your wording could be misread.
And as for water balance factors, there are 6, not 4, that must be taken into account:
Temp, CH, TA, pH, metals and TDS (Total Dissolved Solids).
This is based on using the Langolier (or Saturation) Index. In almost all cases, however, metals will not be added into the formula. They should be considered since metals and calcium are both minerals that can and will be dissolved into water. This is the main reason most professionals use Total Hardness vs. Calcium Hardness when using the Saturation Index (SI) formula.
For those that are interested, the formula for it is as follows:
SI = Ft + pH +Fta + Fch - 12.1
Ft is the temp factor, Fta is the TA factor, Fch is the CH factor (Total Hardness could be substituted here). 12.1 is the value used assuming TDS is 1200 ppm or lower. That value must be raised by .1 for every 1000 ppm over 1200 ppm.
If anyone would like the SI Values for calculation, I'd be more than happy to post them. I, on the other hand, let my computer do the calculating for me.
Ideal range for SI is +.3 to -.3, with 0 being ideal. When SI is zero, the water is neither scale forming or corrosive. Above zero, and it tends to form scale; below zero and it tends to be corrosive.
While yes, this is overkill by most people's book, I'm only putting it out here because if we're going to give out this much information, it needs to be as complete as possible.
And if anyone would like to know where this info came from, it can be found in any BioGuard Dealers ChemPlus book.
Hope this helps. I didn't mean to make things more confusing, but I figured if anyone wanted to go to this much detail, they would like to have this as well.
T&C
Gomboman:
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Hmm, maybe I should post my method and name it after myself, "Spatech's simple guide to water care"! If I did I know it would be about 80% shorter in length, 5 or 6 bullet point sentences and a couple small paragraphs at most. I wonder how I'd collect royalties. Maybe I could combine it with my theories on dating and gambling?
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When you get a day off and are on lots of coffee I would like to read your method. Please post when you feel up to it......................
Nitro:
--- Quote ---Not quite. The pH of the tub can be acidic, "balanced", or alkaline.
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Isn't that what I said?
--- Quote ---And as for water balance factors, there are 6, not 4, that must be taken into account:
Temp, CH, TA, pH, metals and TDS (Total Dissolved Solids).
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Did I not say, "there are 4 MAIN parameters"?
--- Quote ---For those that are interested, the formula for it is as follows:
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For those that are interested, goto The Pool Calculator. And if you really want an education, ask Chem Geek to send you his spreadsheet.
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