Suggestions for trouble free chlorine maintenance

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H

h20proof

Member
Mar 5, 2024
10
Idaho
I love my spa, but there's gotta be something I'm missing when it comes to maintaining chlorine levels. We typically use the spa every night, but if I miss just one day of adding chlorine, my chlorine levels plummet to 0 and water starts to get cloudy. If I miss 2 days, it's really cloudy, but I can eventually get it back to clear after about 3 or 4 days of heavy chlorine. If there are no bathers, why is chlorine going down so quick? Is it from the Ozonator? It only runs twice daily for 1.5 hrs ( or maybe it also runs when spa is heating???). What should I do if I'm going to leave town for a week? Can I just dump like 14 ounces of bleach in there and hope for the best?

I have a Bullfrog A8 (500 gal) with EOS Enhanced Ozonator. Love it!! The filter cycle runs twice a day for 1.5 hrs each. Late night / early morning i turn the heat off, but the heater kicks back on the next morning to heat the water back up to 102. That's because we only use it about 30 min per night sometime between 5 and 9. 4 bathers.

We have great water. After I purge with Ahhsome Aqua Clarity and fill the tub, the water is perfect when tested with my handy TF100 kit. All I need to add is chlorine. I use dichlor granules for a couple of weeks. Once CYA gets to 20 or 30, I no longer use granules and only use liquid bleach (10% Walmart brand). I put in 2 to 3 ounces per day. If we use the spa, I put another 2 oz in after we get out. I used to use shock weekly, but I stopped and haven't noticed any difference in the last few months. Do I really need shock if I maintain Chlorine levels, have Ozonator, and use Ahhsome Aqua Clarity weekly and purge every 4 months?

Another thing I'm finding is that PH is always a little high. Hard to tell even with TF100 test kit as the shades all kind of look similar but I would guess maybe 7.8. Is that just from my maintenance schedule above and I just need to occasionally add ph decreaser or is something else going on leading to high PH?

Thanks for the help!!
 
h20proof said:
I love my spa, but there's gotta be something I'm missing when it comes to maintaining chlorine levels. We typically use the spa every night, but if I miss just one day of adding chlorine, my chlorine levels plummet to 0 and water starts to get cloudy. If I miss 2 days, it's really cloudy, but I can eventually get it back to clear after about 3 or 4 days of heavy chlorine. If there are no bathers, why is chlorine going down so quick? Is it from the Ozonator? It only runs twice daily for 1.5 hrs ( or maybe it also runs when spa is heating???). What should I do if I'm going to leave town for a week? Can I just dump like 14 ounces of bleach in there and hope for the best?

I have a Bullfrog A8 (500 gal) with EOS Enhanced Ozonator. Love it!! The filter cycle runs twice a day for 1.5 hrs each. Late night / early morning i turn the heat off, but the heater kicks back on the next morning to heat the water back up to 102. That's because we only use it about 30 min per night sometime between 5 and 9. 4 bathers.

We have great water. After I purge with Ahhsome Aqua Clarity and fill the tub, the water is perfect when tested with my handy TF100 kit. All I need to add is chlorine. I use dichlor granules for a couple of weeks. Once CYA gets to 20 or 30, I no longer use granules and only use liquid bleach (10% Walmart brand). I put in 2 to 3 ounces per day. If we use the spa, I put another 2 oz in after we get out. I used to use shock weekly, but I stopped and haven't noticed any difference in the last few months. Do I really need shock if I maintain Chlorine levels, have Ozonator, and use Ahhsome Aqua Clarity weekly and purge every 4 months?

Another thing I'm finding is that PH is always a little high. Hard to tell even with TF100 test kit as the shades all kind of look similar but I would guess maybe 7.8. Is that just from my maintenance schedule above and I just need to occasionally add ph decreaser or is something else going on leading to high PH?

Thanks for the help!!
Click to expand...
Hot water and ozone degrades chlorine. Warm water is like summer time chlorine usage so it’s normal to lose 3-4ppm per day so you need to add it back somehow.
 
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You either need to add enough fc after use to get you through the next use/ dose or get a swcg to do so for you.
While the ozone is likely responsible for oxidizing some of the fc after its had its way with oxidizing contaminants, There will always be standby fc losses in a spa ozone or not. Its a continuously evolving ecosystem which must be kept in check via adequate sanitation.
Dose high enough that you can test & figure out your approximate daily standby fc loss. This will help guide your dosing based on your expected future plans (ie- vacation or use)
It is safe for fc to be up to slam level for your cya.
When manually dosing my spa, raising to slam level buys me about a week (6/7 days) before fc starts broaching minimum.
2 oz of 10% liquid chlorine is 3ppm worth in your 500 gallon spa.
Do you test before entering & after exiting the spa before you dose? You don’t want fc to ever fall below minimum for your cya at any time (even while you’re in it) or nasties will grow & you’ll be behind the 8 ball. They proliferate pretty quickly in a spa. Being proactive is key.
 
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Mdragger88 said:
You either need to add enough fc after use to get you through the next use/ dose or get a swcg to do so for you.
While the ozone is likely responsible for oxidizing some of the fc after its had its way with oxidizing contaminants, There will always be standby fc losses in a spa ozone or not. Its a continuously evolving ecosystem which must be kept in check via adequate sanitation.
Dose high enough that you can test & figure out your approximate daily standby fc loss. This will help guide your dosing based on your expected future plans (ie- vacation or use)
It is safe for fc to be up to slam level for your cya.
When manually dosing my spa, raising to slam level buys me about a week (6/7 days) before fc starts broaching minimum.
2 oz of 10% liquid chlorine is 3ppm worth in your 500 gallon spa.
Do you test before entering & after exiting the spa before you dose? You don’t want fc to ever fall below minimum for your cya at any time (even while you’re in it) or nasties will grow & you’ll be behind the 8 ball. They proliferate pretty quickly in a spa. Being proactive is key.
Click to expand...
Yes, I test before and after use and always maintain around 3ppm. It's just the occasional times that we don't use it and I forget to add chlorine that day that gets me into trouble.
I guess a SWCG would buy me some more time?

Could the high PH also affect chlorine levels? Or chlorine levels cause high PH?

Not sure if I understand what you meant here about cya. I thought cya had more to do with pools/uv and was just something you don't want to go above 30 in a spa :

"You don’t want fc to ever fall below minimum for your cya at any time"
 
h20proof said:
Yes, I test before and after use and always maintain around 3ppm. It's just the occasional times that we don't use it and I forget to add chlorine that day that gets me into trouble.
I guess a SWCG would buy me some more time?

Could the high PH also affect chlorine levels? Or chlorine levels cause high PH?

Not sure if I understand what you meant here about cya. I thought cya had more to do with pools/uv and was just something you don't want to go above 30 in a spa :

"You don’t want fc to ever fall below minimum for your cya at any time"
Click to expand...
I don’t know how correct this is but for the first 9 months, I tried to keep my Cl at the minimum for my CYA of 30 which is 3. I had added some products (which I won’t mention here) that claim you can lower your Cl to 1-2. Very bad mistake. I would often wake up and test 0 Cl. During the last 6 months of my first year of this frustration, I pondered the Frog. I pondered Br. I pondered SWG. All of a sudden, I overcame my fear of 6 ppm of Cl. I merely decided to keep my Cl at 6 which is the Upper limit of CYA 30. I don’t find anymore gunk under my head rests. Water stays clear and always smells fresh. Unlike when I played at the minimum Cl. All I did was maintain my Cl on the high side of my CYA.

Raising my Cl fixed my issues. YMMV
 
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h20proof said:
Yes, I test before and after use and always maintain around 3ppm. It's just the occasional times that we don't use it and I forget to add chlorine that day that gets me into trouble.
I guess a SWCG would buy me some more time?

Could the high PH also affect chlorine levels? Or chlorine levels cause high PH?

Not sure if I understand what you meant here about cya. I thought cya had more to do with pools/uv and was just something you don't want to go above 30 in a spa :

"You don’t want fc to ever fall below minimum for your cya at any time"
Click to expand...
You will need to occasionally add PH decreaser, either as muriatic acid or dry acid to bring PH down as it will rise with aeration. That said, 7.8 isn't high. Anything in the 7's is totally fine. Mine mostly sits around 7.7-7.8. That's just where it likes to be. Do you use borates? That also helps keep the PH from moving too much.

CYA acts as a stabilizer in hot tubs just keeps the chlorine from being too harsh, but the more there is, the more chlorine you need to sanitize. That's why people who only use dichlor constantly run into issues around the 2-3 month mark and need to dump, and why you only use enough dichlor to get your CYA up to 30-40 and then switch to bleach, and use the pool math calculator to determine how much bleach you need based on the amount of CYA you have in your tub (the more you have, the more bleach you need to keep it sanitary).
 
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elbow said:
You will need to occasionally add PH decreaser, either as muriatic acid or dry acid to bring PH down as it will rise with aeration. That said, 7.8 isn't high. Anything in the 7's is totally fine. Mine mostly sits around 7.7-7.8. That's just where it likes to be. Do you use borates? That also helps keep the PH from moving too much.

CYA acts as a stabilizer in hot tubs just keeps the chlorine from being too harsh, but the more there is, the more chlorine you need to sanitize. That's why people who only use dichlor constantly run into issues around the 2-3 month mark and need to dump, and why you only use enough dichlor to get your CYA up to 30-40 and then switch to bleach, and use the pool math calculator to determine how much bleach you need based on the amount of CYA you have in your tub (the more you have, the more bleach you need to keep it sanitary).
Click to expand...
Makes sense, thanks for the help!
 
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a swcg would take care of your standby fc needs when adjusted properly. It allows for vacations and such with no issues.
I still manually dose with either liquid chlorine or dichlor (depending upon need) after use to deal with bather waste as the cell takes time to produce enough fc.
Otherwise it seems that you just need to dose higher so if you miss a day you aren’t getting yourself into trouble.
 
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h20proof said:
If I don't go the swcg route and need to take a week vacation, is dumping a weeks worth of chlorine in the tub a suitable solution or....????
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Lot's of thread here, just search for "going on vacation" LOL

Google search results

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

Raise your FC to SLAM level for your CYA and put some pucks in a floater...is generally recommended. Or have a neighbor test and add chlorine.
 
PoolStored said:
Lot's of thread here, just search for "going on vacation" LOL

Google search results

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

Raise your FC to SLAM level for your CYA and put some pucks in a floater...is generally recommended. Or have a neighbor test and add chlorine.
Click to expand...
And...don't forget that the colder the water, and the less sunlight it gets, the lower the CL demand. Others can note if there are any precautions about fully covering the spa with a floater in it, but stop heating, and at least partially cover, before going on that vacation.
 
Trichlor pucks have a tendency to dissolve too rapidly in the hot water of a closed space which can cause problems with creating an acidic condition and fc climbing too high so not really recommended.

Manually dosing (your daily losses x the amount of days you will be away) up to slam level for your cya is generally sufficient along with turning the tub temp down.
I had to go away for a week (6days) while manually dosing (my cell died)
and my fc was still in target range upon my return after raising fc to slam level. I turned the tub temp down but it was mid summer so it never actually went below 98 degrees.
 
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