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The Ingredients:
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Here is a shot of some of the chemicals needed for proper spa water maintenance. |
The chemicals and their uses from left to right in the back row. |
|
| Chemical | Description |
| Stain and Scale control | Keeps the hard water from depositing grit and scale on the inside of the spa. |
| Muriatic Acid (HCl) | When your water is too alkaline (High pH) add this to bring the pH down. |
| pH UP | When the water is too acid (Low pH) , add this to bring the pH up. We have not needed to do this yet. |
| pH DOWN | Same function as muriatic acid but in a weaker, powdered form. It is a sulphur based
compound, and I will probably throw this away. When it breaks down, it really stinks. |
| Water Clarifier | This is a flocculent. It makes little particles cling together into bigger particles
that the filter can catch. It is very concentrated. Three ounces is enough for ten thousand gallons of water. We use a couple of eye-droppers for the 440 gallon spa. |
| Anti-Foam | When the spa gets too sudsy, a half-ounce of this makes the foam go away. |
| SHOCK II | This is Lithium Hypochorite. Once a week we put in about two ounces to kill any slime,
scum, bacteria and other organic yucca. |
| Brominating Floater | This is a little doodad that floats around in the spa all the time. It continuously
dissolves bromine into water. Bromine has the same effects as chlorine except that it smells different. |
How much of what?
The front row of the photo contains all the reagents, indicators, references and buffers to titrate the chemical levels in the water. The process is as follows. A few drops of this or that and see what color it turns. Based on the color, add chemicals to spa water. Repeat until colors are correct. It is very important to keep the spa water in the correct range. If you don't keep on it, you will be rewarded with a tank full of stanky water. This usually happens on a day when you really were looking forward to a good hot soak. Instead, you must drain, clean, refill and reheat the spa. Oh well, the BEST spa experience really is the one right after a refill, the water is almost effervescent. On the other end of the spectrum, is the over-zealous approach. I overdid the chemicals the first week we had the spa and ended up changing the water really early... less than two weeks. It was caused by the powdered acid mixing with a "peroxide" type shock treatment. It made sulphur dioxide (Essence of Fart) and it was immediately time to change the water. Now, we seem to change it every other month.
Bad Spa Conditions caused by poor water upkeep or just heavy usage:
(But I'm learning fast how to stop them from occurring)
 | Scuz Bubbles |
| Green Tank |
| Cloudies |
| Slippery Skin |
| Sulphur Stank |
| Chemical Itch (Never add anti foam while in the spa !!!!) |
| Hot-Tub Fungilitis |
| Slimy Cover |
| Filter Raunch |
Wednesday, July 11, 2007 07:00:17 PM