If you've read my other post, you'll see that I have had issues since filling my new spa. It was cloudy after fill up, adding chemicals, etc.
We do believe it could be the calcium, but who really knows. A second reading from the pool place showed that our chemicals were all perfectly balanced, including calcium.. somehow! Upon reading, we should have diluted the flakes first.. and in cold water. Instead, we added straight to the hot tub (hot) water. Now we have a new bottle of liquid calcium we got at the pool shop.
Anyways- I've been doing more reading and there seems to be controversy about adding a metal inhibitor like Metal-Gon. We did this initially, as it was in our start up kit and said to start with that. The stuff has a blue tint. Is it possible that this has added to our cloudy, blue-tinted water? If so, I am worried about using it again.
I am not using a pre-filter or anything. We'd rather be safe than sorry and use the Metal-Gon if it saves us from ruining our hot tub (not that we may not have already sailed that ship by the mess we've created). So, is Metal-Gon or another inhibitor worth it? Does it cause more harm than good? Or is it a GOOD thing as we initially thought?
Any tips on our second "initial" fill? When should we begin adding chems? I've read to begin at 80 degrees, but maybe we should start right away?
We are going to (after debating/deciding) add Metal-Gon, let that circulate then adjust all chems EXCEPT calcium. We plan to add calcium after a few days, when everything else is balanced- and we plan to add it over the course of a few days because we do believe the powdery mess we find on our spa surfaces is from the calcium. We MUST avoid this next time so we can actually take our "maiden soak"!
