I just thought I would relay my experience setting up my first hot tub, a wood fired, Snorkel Cedar tub, 5x4, 465 gallons. We had it delivered Monday so are just about 6 days in, bather load is just my wife and I, for ~45min once a day. There doesn't seem to be much information out there on maintaining a cedar tub like a regular hot tub, most people with wood fired tubs seem to just change the water if it looks funky or on some regular basis. We are on a slow well, but pretty good water (7.5pH, CH 200, TA 140) and I would like to minimize water changes during the winter months. After much research and finding TFP and all the resources on here, I decided to try to maintain the pool with the help of a Controlomatic Smarter Spa unit. Unfortunately, they do not work well for the initial set-up of a cedar tub, so I have removed it for now but hope to use it once the tannins have stabilized. I have the TF-100 and Salt strips and read most of the articles in Pool School, which have been a great help.
Please comment on my plan for getting this tub stabilized. The tannins were leaching very heavily so the water looked dark, about like coffee, but smelled like wonderful cedar, I wasn't concerned about the esthetics. I was having a hard time getting any reading for FC except immediatly after adding bleach, so I have been adding 1 1/4 cup 6% bleach in the morning, then again about an hour before we plan to soak, and then a bather load again afterward. This seems to be working well, I am at least getting a reading of free chlorine, 0.5ppm the next morning(CC is 0.5ppm also), and get 2-3ppm half hour to an hour after adding bleach, before it was dropping to 0.5 or less after 30 min. Adding that much bleach I think raises the free sodium in the water, my salt level started to climb and the Smarter Spa shut itself off, which is why I removed it. I know CYA would help, so I began adding dichlor instead of bleach but my pH began to drop, my TA was high, but it has slowly come down to 100 now, not sure why. Due to the high TA I didn't want to add Borax to raise the pH, but I don't have jets to aerate, so yesterday I added a air pump for 100 gallon aquariums with 2 airstones and that seems to be working nicely to slowly raise pH. The water is also beginning to clear up nicely. As the pH raises, I will substitute dichlor for bleach until the CYA is stable. I know it can take a couple months for the tannins to calm down, so I plan on changing the water every 3-4 weeks over the summer.
So the plan is:
1) Test for pH, FC, CC, TC, TA, and CYA daily
2) 24hr aeration with aquarium pump
3) 1 1/4 cup 6% Bleach or dichlor (as pH allows) at least twice a day, plus a bather load. Test FC and pH with Taylor before adding.
4) Once CYA is at appropriate levels, I will switch to just bleach again.
5) Change water every few weeks until tannins are under control, add salt and try the SWG when it seems stable.
Does this sound like a good plan? Is there any problem with having salt in the water if you are not using a SWG? It doesn't seem to be affecting the other chemistry.
Thanks, so glad to have found this site, it was so hard to sort out the marketing from reality when researching tubs.
Please comment on my plan for getting this tub stabilized. The tannins were leaching very heavily so the water looked dark, about like coffee, but smelled like wonderful cedar, I wasn't concerned about the esthetics. I was having a hard time getting any reading for FC except immediatly after adding bleach, so I have been adding 1 1/4 cup 6% bleach in the morning, then again about an hour before we plan to soak, and then a bather load again afterward. This seems to be working well, I am at least getting a reading of free chlorine, 0.5ppm the next morning(CC is 0.5ppm also), and get 2-3ppm half hour to an hour after adding bleach, before it was dropping to 0.5 or less after 30 min. Adding that much bleach I think raises the free sodium in the water, my salt level started to climb and the Smarter Spa shut itself off, which is why I removed it. I know CYA would help, so I began adding dichlor instead of bleach but my pH began to drop, my TA was high, but it has slowly come down to 100 now, not sure why. Due to the high TA I didn't want to add Borax to raise the pH, but I don't have jets to aerate, so yesterday I added a air pump for 100 gallon aquariums with 2 airstones and that seems to be working nicely to slowly raise pH. The water is also beginning to clear up nicely. As the pH raises, I will substitute dichlor for bleach until the CYA is stable. I know it can take a couple months for the tannins to calm down, so I plan on changing the water every 3-4 weeks over the summer.
So the plan is:
1) Test for pH, FC, CC, TC, TA, and CYA daily
2) 24hr aeration with aquarium pump
3) 1 1/4 cup 6% Bleach or dichlor (as pH allows) at least twice a day, plus a bather load. Test FC and pH with Taylor before adding.
4) Once CYA is at appropriate levels, I will switch to just bleach again.
5) Change water every few weeks until tannins are under control, add salt and try the SWG when it seems stable.
Does this sound like a good plan? Is there any problem with having salt in the water if you are not using a SWG? It doesn't seem to be affecting the other chemistry.
Thanks, so glad to have found this site, it was so hard to sort out the marketing from reality when researching tubs.
