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Hot Tub Water Woes

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Certified106:
Just wanted to say I'm new to Hot Tubs and New to this forum and would appreciate any help you all can give me.

I bought my first hot tub about six weeks ago and having grew up with pools didn't think it would be to diffict to get the hang of and boy was I ever wrong. The hot tub is a Marquis E Series with the inline Frog system.

after the dealer installed it they gave me a crash course which was basically put these canisters in here shock it once a week and it will be a paradise. Well being an engineer I started reading up on it and testing the water daily and since then have done nothing but fight with it to get my total alaklinity in the good range without having the bottom end fall completely out of the PH. 

In spite of this the water has always been crystal clear and it has been great on my back. Well we left on vacation and before going I read the manual which said to set the hot tub to around 80 degrees shock it and then when you get back test the water adjust as need, shock and bring the temp back up. Anyhow when I got home the water seemed great until I kicked the pump on at which point it went completely white and I'm talking can't see you hand under the surface of the water white. Well I was went ahead and checked water and like always the pH was crazy low and the total alkalynity was fine. I have spent the day trying to get the PH up and have shocked the tub but it's a no go the water turns completely white any time the jets are on. I did get the PH up some but I guess I'm clueless as to what to do. The more I read the more confusing it seems to get as most everything says iff you adjust the PH it messes with the total alkalinity which I have witnessed. Do I just need to drain this thing and start over?

castletonia:
Are you using the bromine cartridges or @ease chlorine cartridges?  If bromine, what color, yellow or green?  When you say the water turns white, is it only when the jets run and does it return to clear after the jets are off?

Certified106:
I am using the smart chlorine system. If I can figure out how to post pics I will. The water is Crystal clear when it's sitting without the jets running. But as soon as you turn them on it almost looks like there are tons of air bubbles trapped in the water and it turns solid white. After you turn the jets off in a minute or two it clears back up. I did pull and rinse the filter and I'm going to try to pick up a new one tomorrow. It also seems like I go through the smart chlorine canisters faster than I should it takes a new one every 2-3 weeks but maybe that's normal.

I did get the total alaklinity back in the 80-120 range and aerated a lot today to try to get the PH back up some and it did get shocked twice today. After shocking I got some foaming and yellowish residue on the edges of the tub. Maybe the TDS is just high? It does get used morning and night for probably close to 1 to 1.5 hours a day between my wife and I for the last six to eight weeks. Also from some of the reading I have done it seems as if I should be sanitizing after every use? If so I was never told to do that and need to figure what I should be using.

castletonia:
I think you are correct in that you have high TDS.  In my experience, low pH will cause the SmartChlor cartridge to dispense a lot quicker.  Your usage is what I would consider high.  I would normally expect 3-4 weeks per cartridge for a tub that size, but I'm guessing you have to turn the setting up higher to accommodate the higher usage which also shortens the life expectancy. 

I recommend to my customers to shock once a week with Enhanced Shock by BioGuard.  It is a blended shock (chlorine and mps) which I find works best.  I don't think you should have to shock after each use, but with your usage it might be more frequent than once a week.  Do you have an ozone installed?

I personally would recommend a drain and refill.  Use the last 6 weeks as your learning curve and start fresh.

Certified106:
So here is what I'm going to do. Let me know if something is off with this plan.

I am was planning on:
-Draining the Hot Tub
-Wiping down the inside of it with Bleach water solution
-Rinse the tub out
-Put in a  new filter
-remove frog canisters
-Add new water
-Bring temp up to 90°
-Adjust Total Alaklinity
-Adjust PH
-Shock Tub
-Put the Frog Canisters back in

The hot tub holds about 320 gallons of water and we use it 1-2 times per day for roughly 30 minutes with two people in it. I was planning on shocking it once a week from now on. Do I need to use sanitizer or add anything after each use?

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